HALLSTADT. L'~ 



It is, moreover, I think, clearly established that the use 

 of iron was general throughout Northern Europe for a con- 

 siderable time before the invasion of Csesar. 



Evidently, however, the transition from the use of bronze 

 weapons to those of iron must have been gradual, and there 

 must have been a time when the two were in use together. 

 M. Eamsauer, for many years director of the salt-mines at 

 Hallstadt, near Salzburg, in Austria, has discovered an exten- 

 sive cemetery belonging to this transitional period. He has 

 opened no less than 980 graves, evidently of those who even 

 at that early period worked the salt-mines which are still so 

 celebrated. The objects discovered are described and figured 

 in an album, which has unfortunately never been published, 

 but of which Mr. Evans and I secured a copy. The following 

 table will sufficiently prove the importance of the discovery. 



That the period to which these graves belonged was that 

 of the transition between the Bronze and Iron Ages, is 

 evident; both because we find cutting instruments of iron 

 as well as of bronze, and also because both are of somewhat 

 unusual, and we may almost say of intermediate types. The 

 same remark applies to the ornamentation. Animals are 

 frequently represented, but are very poorly executed, while 

 the geometrical patterns are well drawn. Coins are entirely 

 absent. That the transition was from bronze to iron, and 

 not from iron to bronze, is clear ; because here, as elsewhere, 

 while iron instruments with bronze handles are common, 

 there is not a single case of a bronze blade with an iron 

 handle. This shows that, when both metals were in use, the 

 iron was preferred for blades. Another interesting point in 

 the Hallstadt bronze, as in that of the true Bronze Age, is 

 the absence of silver, lead, and zinc (excepting, of course, as 

 mere impurities in the bronze). This is the more significant, 

 inasmuch as the presence, not only of the tin itself, but also 



