18 BRONZE WEAPONS NOT OF ROMAN ORIGIN. 



This class of evidence is by no means confined to the 

 Swiss lake discoveries. In various parts of Europe more or 

 less extensive deposits of bronze implements have been 

 found. They may be divided into two principal classes- 

 treasures, which were hidden away by their owners and never 

 recovered, and founders' stocks. The former consist of im- 

 plements, weapons, and ornaments, entire, and often almost 

 new ; the latter principally of worn and broken objects, 

 often with lumps of rude metal. In the table given on the 

 preceding page I have given two of these finds, one (Eeallon) 

 a treasure, the other (Larnaud) a founder's stock. These finds 

 are particularly instructive, because the objects found in 

 them are evidently contemporaneous. It will be seen from 

 the tables on pp. 15 and 46 that the numbers of bronze ob- 

 jects are very considerable, indeed for France and Switzerland 

 alone they amount to between 30,000 and 40,000, and the 

 number is continually increasing.* 



The value of this evidence will be better appreciated after 

 reading the following extract from Mr. Wright's Essays on 

 Archaeology :( 



"All the sites of ruined Eoman towns with which I am 

 acquainted present to the excavator a numerous collection of 

 objects, ranging through a period which ends abruptly with 

 what we call the close of the Eoman period, and attended 

 with circumstances which cannot leave any doubt that this 

 was the period of destruction. Otherwise, surely we should 

 find some objects which would remind us of the subsequent 

 periods. I will only mention one class of articles which are 

 generally found in considerable numbers, the coins. We in- 

 variably find these presenting a more or less complete series 

 of Eoman coins, ending at latest with the emperors who 

 reigned in the first half of the fifth century. This is not 



* Chantre, Age du Bronze, vol. ii. t Essays on Archaeology, p. 105. 

 p. 275. 



