102 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



behind them houses, tombs, fortifications, temples, implements for use, 

 and ornaments for decoration. 



From the careful study of these remains, it would appear that pre- 

 historic archaeology may be divided into four great epochs : 



1. That of the Drift ; where man shared the possession of Europe 

 with the Mammoth, the Cave bear, the woolly-haired rhinoceros, and 

 other extinct animals. This we may call the " Palaeolithic " period. 



2. The later or polished Stone Age; a period characterized by 

 beautiful weapons and instruments made of flint and other kinds of 

 stone ; in which, however, we find no trace of the knowledge of any 

 metal, excepting gold, which seems to have been sometimes used for 

 ornaments. This we may call the " Neolithic " period. 



3. The Bronze Age, in which bronze was used for armr and cutting 

 instruments of all kinds. 



4. The Iron Age, in which that metal had superseded bronze for 

 arms, axes, knives, etc. ; bronze, however, still being in common use 

 for ornaments, and frequently also for the handles oi swords and other 

 arms, though never for the blades. 



The three different types of Celts, and the manner in which they are supposed to hare been handled. 



Without attempting a laborious classification of the records of 

 these epochs, we will speak first of some of the records of the " Bronze 

 Age. 1 ' The commonest and, perhaps, the most characteristic objects 

 belonging to this age are the so-called "celts," which were probably 

 used for chisels, hoes, war-axes, and a variety of other purposes. 



Bronze celts are generally plain, but sometimes ornamented with 

 ridges, dots, or lines, as in the accompanying figures. More than two 

 thousand specimens of them are known to exist in the different Irish 

 collections, of which the great Museum belonging to the Royal Irish 

 Academy at Dublin contained in the year 1860 no less than six hun- 

 dred and eighty-eight, no two of which were cast in the same mould. 

 They vary in size from an inch to a foot in length. That they were 

 made in the countries where they are found, is proved by the presence 

 of moulds. It is difficult to understand why the celt-makers never cast 

 their axes as we do ours, with a transverse hole, through which the 



