16 



CHAPTER IT. 



THE METAL AGES HISTORIC TIMES AND PEOPLES. 



Progress of Archaeological Studies Sequence of the Metal Ages The Copper 

 Age The Bronze Age The Iron Age Hallstatt Culture Man and his 

 Works in the Metal Ages The Prehistoric Age in the West And in 

 China Historic Times Evolution of Writing Systems Hieroglyphs and 

 Cuneiforms The Alphabet The Persian and other Cuneiform Scripts 

 The Mas-d'Azil Markings Alphabetiform Signs on Neolithic Monuments 

 Character and Consequences of the later historic Migrations The 

 Race merges in the People The distinguishing Characters of Peoples- 

 Elements of Classification. 



IF, as above seen, the study of human origins is largely 

 a geological problem, the investigation of the later develop- 

 ments, during the Metal Ages and prehistoric 



Progress of 



Archaeological times, belongs mainly to the field of Archaeology. 



Hence it is that for the light which has in recent 

 years been thrown upon the obscure interval between the Stone 

 Ages and the strictly historic epoch, that is to say, the period 

 when in his continuous upward development man gradually 

 exchanged stone for the more serviceable metals, we are indebted 

 chiefly to the patient labours of such men as Worsaae, Steenstrup, 

 Forchhammer, Schliemann, Sayce, Layard, Lepsius, Mariette, 

 Maspero, Montelius, Brugsch, Petrie, Peters, Haynes, Sir J. 

 Evans, A. J. Evans and others, all archaeologists first, and 

 anthropologists only in the second instance. 



From the researches of these investigators it is now clear that 

 copper, bronze, and iron were indeed successively introduced in 



the order named, so that the current expressions, 

 th? e M U e tai C Age. "Copper," "Bronze," and "Iron" Ages remain 



still justified. But it also appears that overlap- 



