12 The Twenty-third General Meeting. 
transition, from the age of iron to that of bronze. Inthe Pentateuch, 
excluding Deuteronomy (which probably belongs to a much later 
date) brass, that is to say bronze, is frequently mentioned, while 
iron is only alluded to four times. Coins were first struck about 
900 B.C., as it is generally said, by the Giginetans under Pheidon, 
King of Argos, though Herodotus ascribes them to the Lydians. 
It is true that the use of iron may have been known in Southern 
Europe long before it was introduced in the north. On the whole, 
however, I am disposed to think that when iron was once discovered, 
its use would spread somewhat rapidly ; and the similarity of form, 
of pattern, and of ornaments existing between the bronze arms and 
implements throughout Europe, seems to negative the idea that 
bronze was in use for such purposes in the north for any great length 
of time after it had been replaced by iron in the south. It is how- 
ever more than probable that many of our smaller Wiltshire tumuli 
belong to a still earlier period, namely, to the Neolithic, or later 
Stone Age, though it is not easy to say which of them doso. This 
is probably also the case with the large chambered tumuli in which 
as yet no metal has been discovered. As regards the Stone Age, 
the same word of caution is necessary as in that of bronze. There 
are still some who deny the very existence of such a period, alleging 
generally as their reason against this proposed classification that 
implements and weapons of stone were used in conjunction with 
those of metal. This, however, no one denies. The characteristic 
of the Stone Age is not the presence of stone, but the absence of 
metal ; and if the name were to be a definition, the period would be 
more correctly designated as non-metallic. That there was indeed 
a time when stone axes, knives and javelin-heads were used in Europe, 
and when metal was unknown, cannot I think be for a moment 
doubted or denied by anyone who has carefully looked into the 
evidence. These objects of stone, so well described by Mr. Evans 
in his excellent work on the ancient stone implements of Great 
Britain, are of the most varied character; mere flakes used as knives, 
scrapers for preparing skins, axes, adzes, hammers, gouges, chisels, 
arrow-heads, javelin-heads, swords, picks, awls, slingstones, and 
many other forms; these too, found not singly or in small numbers, 
