The Ascent of Man 173 



geological clock. It consisted, in this case, of agricultural 

 pioneers, men with large heads and big brains, about two inches 

 shorter in stature than the modern British average (5 ft. 8 in.), 

 with better teeth and broader palates than men have in these days 

 of soft food, with beliefs concerning life and death similar to those 

 that swayed their contemporaries in Western and Southern Eu- 

 rope. Very interesting is the manipulative skill they showed on 

 a large scale in erecting standing stones (probably connected with 

 calendar-keeping and with worship) , and on a small scale in mak- 

 ing daring operations on the skull. Four thousand years ago is 

 given as a probable date for that early community in Kent, but 

 evidences of Neolithic man occur in situations which demand a 

 much greater antiquity perhaps 30,000 years. And man -was 

 not young then! 



We must open one more chapter in the thrilling story of the 

 Ascent of Man the Metal Ages, which are in a sense still con- 

 tinuing. Metals began to be used in the late Polished Stone 

 (Neolithic) times, for there were always overlappings. Copper 

 came first, Bronze second, and Iron last. The working of copper 

 in the East has been traced back to the fourth millennium B.C., 

 and there was also a very ancient Copper Age in the New World. 

 It need hardly be said that where copper is scarce, as in Britain, 

 we cannot expect to find much trace of a Copper Age. 



The ores of different metals seem to have been smelted to- 

 gether in an experimental way by many prehistoric metallurgists, 

 and bronze was the alloy that rewarded the combination of tin 

 with copper. There is evidence of a more or less definite Bronze 

 Age in Egypt and Babylonia, Greece and Europe. 



It is not clear why iron should not have been the earliest 

 metal to be used by man, but the Iron Age dates from about the 

 middle of the second millennium B.C. From Egypt the usage 

 spread through the Mediterranean region to North Europe, or 

 it may have been that discoveries made in Central Europe, so rich 

 in iron-mines, saturated southwards, following for instance, the 



