CHAPTER III. 



THE BRONZE AGE. 



npHERE are four principal theories as to the Bronze Age. 

 According to some archaeologists, the discovery, or 

 introduction, of bronze was unattended by any other great 

 or sudden change in the condition of the people ; but was 

 the result, and is the evidence, of a gradual and peaceable 

 development. Some attribute the bronze arms and imple- 

 ments, found in Northern Europe, to the Roman armies, some 

 to Phcenician, some to Etruscan merchants ; while others, 

 again, consider that the men of the Stone Age were replaced 

 by a new and more civilized people of Indo-European race, 

 coming from the East, who, bringing with them a knowledge 

 of bronze, overran Europe, and dispossessed in some places 

 entirely destroying the original or rather the earlier inha- 

 bitants. 



M. Wibel* is of opinion that the ancient bronze was ob- 

 tained, not by the fusion of copper and of tin, but directly 

 from ore containing the two metals. This, I confess, seems 

 to me extremely improbable ;( indeed, I am assured by Sir 

 H. H. Vivian, than whom we have no higher authority in this 

 country, that in his judgment it is almost impossible that 

 bronze can ever have been so obtained. I cannot, therefore, 

 but agree with those who maintain that the knowledge of 

 bronze must necessarily have been preceded by the separate 

 use of copper and of tin. Yet no single implement of the 

 latter metal has been hitherto found in Europe, while those 



* Die Cultur der Bronze-zeit Nord-und Mittel-Europas. Dr. F. Wibel, 

 Kiel. 



t See Appendix. 



