OBJECTIONS TO THE PHOENICIAN THEOEY. 77 



Hindoos share this peculiarity with Egyptians ; this character 

 is therefore not less reconcilable with an Indo-European than 

 with a Phoenician origin of the Bronze Age civilization. 



There are three strong objections to the theory so ably 

 advocated by Professor Nilsson. The first is the character of 

 the ornamentation on the bronze weapons and implements. 

 This almost always consists of geometrical figures, and we 

 rarely, if ever, find upon them representations of animals or 

 plants ; while on the ornamented shields, etc., described by 

 Homer, as well as in the decoration of Solomon's temple, 

 animals and plants were abundantly represented. Secondly, 

 the burial customs of the Phoenicians differed altogether from 

 those of the Bronze Age, and although it may be said that 

 those who attribute the presence of bronze in Northern and 

 Western Europe to Phoenician commerce, do not necessarily, 

 on that account, assume that the population of those countries 

 became Phoenician, still in this case the hypothesis explains 

 the presence of bronze, but not the Bronze Age, of which 

 the use of bronze, though the most striking, is by no means 

 the only characteristic. Thirdly, the Phoenicians, so far as 

 we know them, were well acquainted with the use of iron ; 

 in Homer we find the warriors already armed with iron 

 weapons, and the tools used in preparing the materials for 

 Solomon's temple were of this metal. It is very remarkable 

 that scarcely any traces of ancient commerce have been found 

 in Cornwall, and it is much to be regretted that our museums 

 possess so few specimens of Phoenician art. When these wants 

 shall have been supplied, as we may hope that ere long they 

 will be, there is no doubt that much light will be thrown on 

 the subject. 



Owing to the habit of burning the dead which prevailed at 

 that period, we have, as yet, very few skulls which can safely 

 be referred to the Bronze Age. This is to be regretted, as the 

 form of the skull would have been very instructive. 



