506 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



During this period, there is evidence that men existed in all 

 those regions of Europe which have yet been properly examined ; 

 and such of their bony remains as have been discovered exhibit 

 no less diversity of stature and cranial conformation than at pres- 

 ent. There are tall and short men ; long-skulled and broad-skulled 

 men ; and it is probably safe to conclude that the present Con- 

 trast of blonds and brunets existed among them when they were 

 in the flesh. Moreover, it has become clear that, everywhere, the 

 oldest of these people were in the so-called neolithic stage of civil- 

 ization. That is to say, they not merely used stone implements 

 which were chipped into shape, but they also employed tools and 

 weapons brought to an edge by grinding. At first they know little 

 or nothing of the use of metals; they possess domestic animals and 

 cultivated plants, and live in houses of simple construction. 



In some parts of Europe little advance seems to have been 

 made, even down to historical times. But in Britain, France, 

 Scandinavia, Germany, western Russia, Switzerland, Austria, the 

 plain of the Po, very probably also in the Balkan Peninsula, cult- 

 ure gradually advanced until a relatively high degree of civiliza- 

 tion was attained. The initial impulse in this course of progress 

 appears to have been given by the discovery that metal is a better 

 material for tools and weapons than stone. In the early days of 

 prehistoric archaeology, Mlsson showed that, in the interments of 

 the middle age, bronze largely took the place of stone, and that 

 only in the latest was iron substituted for bronze. Thus arose the 

 generalization of the occurrence of a regular succession of stages 

 of culture, which were somewhat unfortunately denominated the 

 " ages " of stone, bronze, and iron. For a long time after this order 

 of succession in the same locality (which, it was sometimes forgot- 

 ten, has nothing to do with chronological contemporaneity in dif- 

 ferent localities) was made out, the change from stone to bronze 

 was ascribed to foreign, and, of course, Eastern, influences. There 

 were the ubiquitous Phoenician traders and the immigrant Aryans 

 from the Hindoo Koosh, ready to hand. But further investigation 

 has proved * for various parts of Europe and made it probable for 

 others, that though the old order of succession is correct it is in- 

 complete, and that a copper stage must be interpolated between 

 the neolithic and the bronze stages. Bronze is an artificial prod- 

 uct, the formation of which implies a knowledge of copper ; and it 

 is certain that copper was, at a very early period, smelted out of 

 the native ores, by the people of central Europe who used it. 

 When they learned that the hardness and toughness of their metal 

 were immensely improved by alloying it with a small quantity of 



* " Proved " is perhaps too strong a word. But the evidence set forth by Dr. Much (Die 

 Kupferzeit in Europa, 188G) in favor of a copper stage of culture among the inhabitants of 

 the pile-dwellings is very weighty. 



