308 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi 



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 penin- 

 sula, culture gradually advanced until a relatively 

 high degree of civilisation was attained. The in- 

 itial 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 pre-historic archaeology, Nils- 

 son 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 generalisation of the oc- 

 currence of a regular succession of stages of cul- 

 ture, which were somewhat unfortunately denomi- 

 nated the " ages " of stone, bronze, and iron. For 

 a long time after this order of succession in the 

 same locality (which, it was sometimes forgotten, 

 has nothing to do with chronological contempo- 

 raneity in different localities) was made out, the 

 change from stone to bronze was ascribed to for- 

 eign, 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 * 



* " Proved " is perhaps too strong a word. But the 

 evidence set forth by Dr. Much {Die Kupferzeit in Eu- 

 ropa, 1886) in favour of a copper stage of culture among 

 the inhabitants of the pile-dwellings is very weighty. 



