574 SCANDINAVIAN ARCHEOLOGY. 



method in the museum of Copenhageu, when Mr. B. E. Hildebrand 

 studied there under him. As we have already said, Mr. Thomsen has 

 left only a very few printed works. In his memoirs of 1831 and of 1832, 

 he already puts forth the theory of the three periods; but it was only 

 in his book of 1836, Ledetraad til nordisic Oldkyndighed {Manual for the 

 learning of northern antiquity, — a German edition in 1837, afterwards 

 an English one also) that he developed it more at length, and presented 

 it as valid not only for all the North but for all Europe. He expresses 

 himself in the following terms upon the age of bronze, of which he as 

 yet knew scarcely any remains in countries not Scandinavian, but which 

 he thought had prevailed in the rest of Europe (p. 59) : " It seems that 

 a very ancient civilization, anterior to the introduction of iron, had 

 spread over a large part of Europe, and that its products have had a 

 very great resemblance in countries very distant from one another. In 

 studying the arms and cutting tools of bronze and the inferences from 

 the discoveries as a whole, one will doubtless be more and more con- 

 vinced that they have a very high antiquity, and that (especially in the 

 countries of the South) they are exceedingly ancient. If it is admitted 

 that the objects of this sort which are found upon Scandinavian soil 

 are imitations of those which have been imported thither, it is clear 

 that they have been used once in the countries from which they come. 

 If on the contrary the relations ceased there, where they only existed 

 by the migrations of the peoples, one can understand that the inhabit- 

 ants of the North, having once received from southern countries the 

 knowledge of the most ancient inventions, should — because of the great 

 distance and the interruption of communications, have remained ignor- 

 ant of the progress and subsequent discoveries made by the most civil- 

 ized peoples. What exists in the North will thus be able doubtless to 

 instruct us about the similar objects which must have existed in coun- 

 tries where the development entered into the full light of history long 

 before it did in the North." 



The Eoyal Society of Antiquaries of the North, founded by Mr. Eafn 

 in 1825, and directed by him for forty years, had also at this time com- 

 menced to enter into more intimate relations with the museum. In the 

 beginning the society expended its activity in editing the literary 

 remains existing in the ancient Norwegian-Icelandic tongue; afterward 

 it devoted itself also to the occupation of collecting and describing the 

 antiquities and of examining the archiBological remains of the country. 

 The archaeological commission had in 1812-27, published Antikvarislce 

 Annaler (Archaeological Annals), four volumes ; from 1832, it united 

 with the royal society for the publication of NordisJc Tidslcriftfor Old- 

 Jcyndighed, (Periodical of the North for the investigation of antiquity), 

 three volumes of which appeared by 1836. From that year the society 

 began to publish the Annaler for nordisic Oldkyndkihed, twenty-three 

 volumes of which appeared by 1863; in the same time appeared seven 

 other volumes; Antikvarisk Tidskrift (xVntiquarian Periodical), 1843-'63, 



