THE AGE OF BRONZE 
tomb as a matter of course, like his chariot and horses, his 
weapons, and his other treasures. 
Mankind as a whole has never passed through an Age of 
Bronze. Over by far the greater part of the globe men 
have either remained in the Stone Age, which, unlike the 
Bronze Age, extended over the whole world, or else they 
have gone directly from the Stone to the Iron Age. This 
statement applies to nearly all the peoples of Africa, of 
northern Europe and Asia, of the New World, and of the 
islands of the Pacific. The true Bronze Age, in fact, was 
practically confined to the North Temperate zone of the 
Eastern Hemisphere, where it occurred over a continuous 
area extending from Spain to China and from Egypt and 
northern India to Scandinavia and central Siberia. It 
began, apparently, in southwestern Asia, some six or 
seven thousand years ago; and in some regions, as for ex- 
ample in China, it lasted almost to the opening of the 
Christian Era. 
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