EE, AGE, OF BRONZE 
Thus we know that the ancient Egyptians, for example, 
pretty early brought cedar logs for building purposes from 
Lebanon across the southeast corner of the Mediterranean 
Sea to their own treeless land. And rafts floated blocks of 
stone for statues or columns down the Nile and the 
Euphrates from the quarries to the places where they 
were to be used. 
Man of the Bronze Age made remarkable progress also 
in art and architecture. He did not, apparently, accom- 
plish much with sculpture in stone except in a few favored 
regions, notably that along the lower Nile; but at casting 
in bronze and decorating bronze weapons he displayed 
great gifts both in Europe and in Asia. Certain regions 
favored “‘geometric’’ designs—the spiral, frets, triangles, 
and rows of dots and circles. Others represented various 
animal and vegetable forms in certain characteristic 
ways. Sometimes the bronze was plated with gold or 
the objects themselves made of solid gold. The art of 
studding metal with precious stones was practiced and 
led in time to the development of enameling on metal 
and finally to the wonderful c/oisonné work brought 
to an especially high degree of excellence in medieval 
China. 
Of the so-called minor arts of the Bronze Age, the 
jewelry merits particular attention. This consisted largely 
of rings of various sorts—for the neck, arms, wrists, fingers, 
ankles, and ears—made not only of bronze, but of gold, 
silver, and even iron, at first very rare and regarded as a 
precious metal. People wore, too, necklaces of various 
materials, such as amber, ivory, and gold, as well as belt 
clasps, sometimes highly ornamented and studded with 
turquoise. For their hair they used combs of bronze, 
horn, ivory, bone, and wood. Also they lavished deco- 
rations on horse trappings. 
The more advanced groups of mankind had by now 
progressed very far indeed beyond the cave, the windbreak, 
or even the thatched hut of earlier days. Man had learned, 
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