PREHISTORIC ART, 499 



entirely acceptable. The most general one is that bronze came from 

 the far East, i^robably from the countries around the Straits of Malacca, 

 and that it belonged to a period relating to the early Aryan dispersions. 

 Bronze is one of the great epoch-making discoveries, greater than that 

 of iron, and as a practical agent of prehistoric civilization, equaled only 

 by the bow and arrow. 



The discovery of the fusion of copper and tin, both comparatively 

 soft metals, in the proportions of 90 and 10 per cent, making a new 

 metal, harder than any other then known, capable of being cast, and 

 when cast capable of being made sharp and holding a cutting edge, was 

 a great step in human culture, and calculated to revolutionize the des- 

 tiny of the human race. 



STYLES OF DECORATION. 



Plates 57 and 58 represent the art work done on various weapons and 

 implements of bronze. Plate 57 represents sword handles, while phite 

 58 represents principally knives and scabbards. Articles of dress and 

 for personal adornment, like bracelets, fibuhie torques or ceintures, 

 and similar objects, were made of bronze. These need not be displayed, 

 for they all bear the same general style or type of art decoration. These 

 will show that the decoration consisted principally of geometric designs, 

 and will demonstrate the similarity of the decoration and art work in 

 the Bronze age to that of the Neolithic period. 



The Bronze age had no existence in the Western Hemisphere during 

 prehistoric times. All objects of bronze found among the aborigines 

 are believed to have come from Europe. 



COPPER IN AMERICA. 



Many objects of wrought copper have been found in America. The 

 Lake Superior copper mines in the States of Wisconsin and Michigan 

 appear to have been the center of manufacture, from which the distribu- 

 tion took place, and thence the manufactured implements spread, in 

 gradually decreasing numbers, in every direction throughout the present 

 territory of the eastern United States. The modes of treating copper, 

 whether by smelting, melting, casting, or hammering, and if any or all 

 of these, what amount of heating or melting was done, has never been 

 fully investigated nor have they been satisfactorily determined. Some 

 of the objects were certainly of virgin copper hammered cold, and they 

 were thus made into bracelets, rings, and similar objects of personal 

 adornment, and also into axes, knives, and spearheads. These copper 

 weapons and ornaments continued to be used contemporaneously with 

 cutting implements of stone and of ornaments of shell and bone. 



The author is well aware of the contention that there was in Europe 

 a Copper age intermediate between the Neolithic and Bronze ages, and 

 he has visited and examined the national collection in the city of 

 Berne, Switzerland, which contains the greatest proportion of copper 



