22 SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT. 



museums only contain about 50. Indeed, the rich museums 

 at Florence, Eome, and Naples do not appear to possess a 

 single specimen of those typical, leaf-shaped bronze swords, 

 which are, comparatively speaking, so common in the North. 

 That the bronze swords should have been introduced into 

 Denmark by a people who never occupied that country, and 

 from a part of Europe in which they are very rare, is, I think, 

 a most untenable hypothesis. I may add that no swords or 

 celts of bronze have been found in the excavations at Pompeii.* 



Moreover, the use of the word "ferrum" (iron) as synony- 

 mous with a sword, clearly proves that the Roman swords 

 were made of that metal. 



I have already mentioned that silver and lead do not occur 

 in Bronze Age finds, that coins and letters are equally absent, 

 and that the ornamentation of the Bronze Age, though some- 

 times very beautiful, is not of a Roman character. 



Lastly, the bronze which was so largely used by the Romans 

 for ornaments, etc., was composed partly of lead, whereas that 

 of the Bronze Age consists of copper and tin only. Other 

 metals, indeed, such as iron, silver, nickel, and lead itself, are 

 present ; but in small quantities, never having been purposely 

 introduced, but only occurring as impurities. 



The reasons, then, which satisfy me that our bronze weapons 

 cannot be referred to Roman times, may be summed up as 

 follows : 



Firstly. They have never been found in company with 

 Roman pottery, or other remains of the Roman period. 



Secondly. They are very abundant in some countries, as 

 for instance in Denmark and Ireland, which were never 

 invaded by Roman armies. 



* This statement has been ques- from Pompeii. During a visit to 



tioned by Mr. Wright, who pointed Naples, I looked out these celt?, 



out that two bronze celts in the and found that they did not come 



museum at Naples have been from Pompeii, but from an ancient 



figured and described as coming tomb in Magna Grtecia. 



