i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The native origin of those of Switzerland is settled by the analyses 

 of Prof, von Fallenberg ; for, whereas the metal of Phoenicia, Egypt, 

 and the East generally, contains lead in considerable quantities, that 

 of Switzerland is of tin and copper only. So much artistic taste and 

 mechanical skill are shown in these various articles needles, rings, 

 armlets, etc. that many of them might be used by modern ladies with- 

 out discredit to their work-boxes or toilets. But, in singular contrast 

 to the Stone age, there is no relic of any portrayal of man or beast 

 or plant. We meet, for the first time, with pottery turned on the 

 lathe and well burned. Instead of dolmens we now have mounds, in 

 which the dead are laid at full length, with weapon* and ornaments 

 by their side. Some localities oiFer indications that the burning of 

 the dead was practised. Here belong the so-called Celtic mounds, and 

 the Terremare or Emilian mounds near Parma abound in relics of this 

 age. Rutimeyer and others show that, although the characteristic ani- 

 mals of this and the preceding age are identical as to their species, in 

 this age the domesticated animals predominate, another evidence of 

 advancing culture. 



We may ascribe the introduction of bronze manufacture into Eu- 

 rope to a great race immigrant from Asia some 6,000 years ago, called 

 Aryas or Aryans. And this Bronze age reaches to and overlaps the 

 beginning of the historic period in some countries, and so includes the 

 great epochs of the Assyrian and Egyptian Empires (b. c. circOj 1500), 

 and the earlier eras of the next succeeding Age of Iron. 



The Age or Irojj. The nearer we approach the present, with its 

 rapid growths and changes, the shorter become the several ages into 

 which we divide the history of man as to his physical surroundings 

 and peculiarities, and the successive grades of spiritual and social 

 development through which he has passed. 



Last of the prehistoric eras is the Age of Iron, represented in some 

 of the pile-dwellings and their contents, but best, and with least ad- 

 mixture from earlier and later times, in the station of La Tene on 

 Lake Neuchatel. This age considerably overlaps the historic period 

 of several countries. We can but mention some peculiarities of its 

 earlier portions. 



In the determination of its initial and terminal points we must re- 

 member that the civilization of the East preceded that of the West by 

 several centuries. There are many proofs that a considerable degree 

 of culture existed at its very beginning. Mounds were still used for 

 burial. Bronze, also, was yet in use, but iron as well. Pottery was now 

 not only shaped on the lathe, but burned a good red. Manufactures in 

 glass, gold, and silver, are found for the first time. In lonely moun- 

 tain-places are yet found dross and the remains of iron-furnaces of tlie 

 time. To be sure, this dross is sometimes ascribed to volcanic action, 

 but it is met with where volcanoes never could have existed. 



