20 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



forms and neat decorations of his pottery and by his ornaments. 

 Of these last the most interesting certainly are those of amber. 

 This brilliant yellow fossil resin early attracted his attention. 

 At first he strung the rough pieces, just as he found them, on to 

 strings or thongs, or rounded the bits into rude beads ; later on 

 amber was worked carefully into various pretty or curious forms. 

 A favorite pendant was a miniature axe (of the same shape as the 

 stone ones in actual use) in amber (Fig. 14). Curious questions 

 are suggested by these. Neolithic man in Europe seems to have 

 had superstitious ideas or even reverence toward the stone axe. 

 It is possible' that these miniatures in amber were amulets or 

 charms. 



This rich development of the stone age which we have been 

 considering is generally referred to the period from 2000 to 1000 

 B. c. It is considered as an outgrowth from the ruder conditions 





Fig. 16. Razor of Bronze. 



of the kitchen middens. It is but fair to state that a bitter con- 

 troversy has been carried on over the matter. Some among 

 them Steenstrup have argued that this high culture and the 

 savagery of the shell heaps were contemporaneous ; that the men 

 of the kjoeklcenmoeddinger and of the megalithic monuments were 

 neighbors ; that poor, primitive, backward fisher folk lived side 

 by side with rich, advanced, more civilized agriculturists of the 

 interior. We have not space to present the argument ; we follow 

 Worsaae. 



The bronze age in Scandinavia was a marvelous development. 

 Probably the knowledge of bronze was brought to Denmark from 

 the Orient ; perhaps the amber of the northwestern country was 

 bartered to the cultured people of the East. However that may 

 be, bronze reached Denmark. Nor were the skillful chippers and 

 polishers of stone slow in learning how to use the new and pre- 

 cious material. Those who had been the best lapidaries of Europe 

 became the best metallurgists. Nowhere are there so many pecul- 

 iar, beautiful, and artistic types in bronze as in Denmark and 

 Sweden. Bronze was made into implements and weapons ; it 



