6 EAELY HISTORY OF METALS. 



Lucretius distinctly mentions the three ages. He says, 



Arma antiqua, manus, ungues, dentesque fuerunt 

 Et lapides, et item sylvarum fragmina rami, 

 Posterius ferri vis est, serisque reperta, 

 Sed prior seris erat, quam ferri cognitus usus.* 



Coming down to more modern times, Eccard-f- in 1750, 

 and Goguet in 1758, J mention the three latter ages in plain 

 terms ; the same idea runs through Borlase's History of 

 Cornwall, and Sir Richard Colt Hoare also alludes to " instru- 

 ments of stone before the use of metals was known," and 

 expresses the opinion that instruments of iron " denote a 

 much later period" than those of bronze. 



To the Northern archaeologists, however, especially to 

 Mr. Thomsen, the founder of the Museum at Copenhagen, 

 and to Professor Nilsson, must be ascribed the merit of 

 having raised these suggestions to the rank of a scientific 

 classification. 



Copper is said to have been used in China as far back as 

 the reign of Ki, 2000 B.C. ; and iron in that of Kung Kiu, 

 about 1900 B.C., but this can scarcely perhaps be regarded as 

 proved. Copper axes of very simple type have also been dis- 

 covered in India, but we have no means of determining their 

 date. It is probable, indeed, that iron was known in Egypt 

 and Assyria before its introduction into Europe. The earliest 

 evidence of iron in Assyria is an inscription of Tiglath-Pileser 

 (1120 B.C.), who says : " In the desert of Mitani near Araziki, 

 which is in front of the land of Hatti, I slew four mighty 

 buffaloes with my great bow and iron arrows, and with my 

 lance." As regards Egypt, there is a prayer in the Harris 

 papyrus, written during the reign of Eameses III. (1300 B.C.), 

 that the words of the King may be " firm as iron." In the 



* V. 1282. des Arts et des Sciences. See Ch. iv. 



f Eccard. De Origins etMoribus and the preface. 

 Germanomm. See Khind in Arch. Ins. Jour. V. 



I Goguet. De 1'Origine des Lois, xiii. 



