ARROWPOTNTS, SPEARHEADS, AND KNIVES. 



837 



f 



unknown country lying- between and to the south of tlie P>lack and Cas- 

 pian Seas, has been lately subjected to critical archa'ologic researches.' 



Metals were there early discovered and put to use. But few locali- 

 ties found by the explorers show occupation in the Neo- 

 lithic period pure and simple. Knowledge of brou/e and iron 

 dates to altnost the earliest times. It is strongly claimed by 

 de Morgan that Armenia was the seat of a very early, if not 

 the original, discovery of iron. When he approximates the 

 appearance and use of iron in connection with bronze in that 

 country to a period twenty to thirty centuries before Christ, 

 and shows that iron was in common use there long before 

 it was in the adjoining countries, it will be seen what good 

 ground he has for his assertion. The author knows well 

 that M. de Mortillet has assigned to Africa the place of 

 discovery of iron, and this may be correct. He does not 

 argue the proposition ; it is aside from his 

 present purpose. He is endeavoring to 

 show the probability that the Ethiopian 

 flint arrowheads in the army of Xerxes 

 came rather from Africa than Asia, and 

 that in the latter country stone as a mate- 

 rial for arrow and spear heads had been 

 superseded by metal — bronze and iron. 



De Morgan^ describes swords, pon- 

 iards, lances, hatchets, bows, and arrows. 

 He says that there were found in the 

 cemetery of Redkine lance heads of both 

 bronze and iron, in the cemetery of Lelwar 

 those of iron only. They were practically 

 the same type, the blade long and narrow 

 in the form of a willow leaf. They all had 

 a projecting rib running longitudinally 

 through the center to strengthen it. They 

 were furnished with a socket in which the 

 shaft was inserted and one or two holes for 

 nails to fasten it. Of course the handle 

 was decayed and lost, but in a few cases re- 

 mains were found stuck in the socket which 

 enabled them to suppose it had been of ash. 



These iron lance heads varied greatly 

 in size, form, and fashion. Figs. 29 and 



30 are from the cemetery of Mou^i-yeri; fig. 20 is 4 inches long 

 and 2| inches wide; fig, 30 is 25 inches long. The former blade is 



>E. Cliantre, Recherches Anthropologiqnes dans le Caucase; J. tie Morii;an, Pre- 

 miers ages des Metaux dans I'Ann^nie Rnsse, Paris, 1889; J. Mourier, L'AichaM)logie 

 an Cancase, Paris, 1887. 



^Les premiers ages des Metaux dans rArmcnie Rnsse, pp. 89-101. 



Figs. 29, 30. 

 prehistoric iron spearheads. 



Cemetery of Mou9i-y6ri, Russian Ar- 

 menia. 



de Morgan, figs. 46, 48. 



