138 COLUMBIAN HISTORICAL EXPOSITION AT MADRID. 



might have been tanks for holding a supply of water. No means other than is 

 apparent from the situation have been suggested as to how the water was obtained. 

 The walls are of masonry. The stones of which they were made are lying about 

 as when the walls were destroyed. The village might have contained a thou 

 sand inhabitants. The cave and cliff dwellings of this country are at all heights 

 in the cliffs, from 30 to 800 feet from the bottom, and the same variation in height 

 from the top of the cliff. These towers and some other monuments are quite 

 prehistoric, and were in the present ruined condition when first visited by the 

 Spaniards, and have never been occupied in historic times nor by any known 

 peoples. Scale, 1 inch equals 5 feet. 



BRONZE AGE. 



EUROPE. 



The Bronze Age is so named because the principal cutting implements were made of 

 bronze. It succeeded the Neolithic or Polished Stone Age in Europe, and pre 

 ceded the Iron Age ; and had a duration of one thousand or two thousand years, 

 and in some places possibly three thousand years. No written history of the 

 Bronze Age has descended to us. Bronze is a composition of copper and tin in 

 the proportion of about 10 to 1, and is harder than either of its components. 

 The supply in Europe during the Bronze Age seems to have come from the 

 Orient. Bronze implements were made by hammering and casting, and the 

 bronze was used many times over by recasting. No less than fifty-seven bronze 

 foundries have been discovered in France, and a proportionate number in Italy, 

 the one at Bologna having 14,000 pieces ready for melting. Bronze casting was 

 extended to include all manner of prehistoric implements, utensils, and orna 

 ments, and continued into protohistoric times, Etruscan, Grecian, Roman, etc., 

 until its use became as at present. Seventy-five specimens of bronze and 1 

 mold for casting knives and pins. 



Bronze hatchets. The people of the Bronze Age in Europe were descendants of 

 those of the Neolithic Age, and their bronze hatchets were at first in the same 

 general form as the polished stone hatchets of their ancestors. Copper hatchets 

 of this form have been found, which has given rise to a belief in a Copper Age 

 preceding Bronze. Bronze hatchets passed through several stages of evolution, 

 though the steps are not always certain. The first bronze or copper hatchets 

 were hammered straight and flat, though sometimes with projecting wings and 

 stops on the edges; second, hatchets cast in molds and with wings and stops; 

 third, the wings were increased in size and hammered over to clamp the handle ; 

 fourth, the socket. Stops and rings appeared in some of the styles. Five 

 specimens. 



Bronze hatchet, first style. Plain, straight, the edges thickened by hammering to 

 give strength after the fashion of a T-beamof the present day (fig. 63). Two speci 

 mens in this tray are of copper. These are rare. Many of the bronze hatchets of 

 this epoch, and all the copper ones, were made by hammering, but casting was 

 soon introduced and became universal. They were inserted in a long handle of 

 wood, and doubtless served both as implements and weapons. These are called 

 in France hatchets a bords droits. Reproductions of molds for casting are in 

 adjacent trays. 



Bronze hatchets, second style. These are always cast and always handled. They 

 appear to have been an evolution from the first style. The handle, still of 

 wood, was either naturally or artificially bent at the poll ; was split and inserted. 

 The stop at the bottom prevented further splitting, while the ring on the inner 

 side afforded means of lashing to the handle (fig. 64). They are called in France a 

 talons. Reproductions of molds for casting them are in adjacent trays. 



