[8 MAN: PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



J. H. Gladstone, who finds that copper was worked by the 

 Egyptians in the Sinaitic Peninsula, that is, in the famous mines 

 of the Wadi Maghara, from the 4th to the i8th dynasty, perhaps 

 from 5000 to 3000 B.C. During that epoch tools were made of 

 pure copper in Egypt and Syria, and by the Amorites in Palestine, 

 often on the model of their stone prototypes 1 . 



Probably from the same source was obtained the copper 

 which had already come into general use in Babylonia some 6000 

 years ago. After a careful analysis of the metal objects from 

 Tell-Loh 2 , M. Berthelot concludes that the employment of copper 

 in Chaldaea, about 4000 years before the new era, for the manu- 

 facture of arms and utensils, and for other purposes, is placed 

 beyond doubt 3 . 



Amongst the not over-numerous authentic documents attesting 

 a Copper Age in Western Europe must now be included the nest 

 or cache of pure copper ingots found at Tourc'h, west of the Aven 

 Valley, Finisterre, described by M. de Villiers du Terrage, and 

 comprising 23 pieces, with a total weight of nearly 50 Ibs. 4 These 

 objects, which belong to " the transitional period when copper 

 was used at first concurrently with polished stone, and then 

 disappeared as bronze came into more general use 5 ," came 

 probably from Hungary, at that time apparently the chief source 

 of this metal for most parts of Europe. Of over 200 copper 

 objects described by Dr Mathaeus Much 6 nearly all were of 

 Hungarian or South German provenance, five only being accredited 

 to Britain and eight to France. 



The study of this subject has been greatly advanced by Herr 

 J. Hampel, who holds on solid grounds that in some regions, 

 especially Hungary, copper played a dominant part for many 

 centuries, and is undoubtedly the characteristic metal of a distinct 



1 Paper on " The Transition from Pure Copper to Bronze, &c.," read at 

 the Meeting of the Brit. Assoc. Liverpool, 1896. 



M. de Sarzec's finds, Eth., p. 301. 



3 VAgedu Cuivre en Chaldce, in La Nature, April 3, 1897. 



4 L' Anthropologie^ 1896, p. 526 sq. This antiquary aptly remarks that 

 " 1'expression age de cuivre a une signification bien precise comme s'appliquant 

 a la partie de la periode de la pierre polie ou les me'taux font leur apparition." 



5 L? Anthropologie^ 1896, p. 526sq. 



(i In Die Kupferzeit in Europa, 1882. 



