IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 63 



lurgical knowledge in different countries, is the fact which 

 has been broadly stated by Mr. Wright, that whenever we 

 find the bronze swords or celts, " whether in Ireland, in the 

 far west, in Scotland, in distant Scandinavia, in Germany, 

 or still farther east in the Sclavonic countries, they are the 

 same, not similar in character, but identical." The great 

 resemblance to each other of stone implements found in 

 different parts of the world may be satisfactorily accounted 

 for by the similarity of the material, and the simplicity of 

 the forms. But this argument cannot be applied to the 

 bronze arms and implements. Not only are several varieties 

 of celts found throughout Europe, but some of the swords, 

 knives, daggers, etc., are so similar that they seem as if 

 they must have been cast by the same maker. Compare, for 

 instance, figs. 4, 6, and 13, which represent Irish celts, with 

 14, 15, and 16, which are copied from Danish specimens ; 

 the three swords, figs. 22, 23, and 24, which come respec- 

 tively from Ireland, Sweden, and Switzerland, and the two, 

 figs. 25 and 26, of which the first is Swiss, the second 

 Scandinavian. It would have been easy to multiply ex- 

 amples of this similarity, and it is not going too far to say 

 that these resemblances cannot be the result of accident. 

 On the other hand, it must be admitted that each country 

 has certain minor peculiarities. Neither the forms nor the 

 ornaments are exactly similar. In Denmark and Mecklen- 

 burgh, spiral ornaments are most common ; farther south, 

 these are replaced by ring ornaments and lines. The Danish 

 swords generally have solid and richly -decorated handles, 

 as in figs. 25 31, while those found in Great Britain (fig. 22) 

 terminate in a plate which was riveted to pieces of wood or 

 bone. Again, the British lance-heads frequently have loops 

 at the side of the shaft-hole, as in fig. 35, which is never the 

 case with Danish specimens. 



The impurities in the bronze indicate, as was shown in the 



