CHAP. XL] BRONZE INTRODUCED INTO EUROPE. 411 



formerly inhabited by the bronze -using peoples, have 

 probably been introduced from that region by Mongolian 

 tribes, along with some of the symbols in the Mongolian 

 Calendar, and other proofs of their Asiatic origin. 1 

 The variations from the normal alloy, which led Prof. 

 Wilson to conclude that bronze was invented in many 

 isolated centres, are easily accounted for either by 

 imperfection in the smelting, or by the stock of tin 

 of the bronze-founder having been exhausted. They 

 would inevitably result from the establishment of bronze- 

 smiths' shops in various countries, in which broken im- 

 plements, weapons, and ornaments, were made into new 

 articles. The nickel in the bronzes from western Swit- 

 zerland is considered by Yon Fellenberg 2 to have been 

 derived from the nickeliferous copper ores of the Yalais, 

 which were mixed with tin imported from abroad. 

 There is, as we have seen, no evidence that bronze was 

 originally invented in Europe, and the only clue to its 

 origin is offered by the forms of the simple implements 

 and weapons which were the first to arrive in Europe in 

 the early Bronze age. 



The numerous discoveries of the last thirty years 

 show that while certain articles, such as the plain wedge- 

 axe, the dagger, and the sword with a flat metal tang for 

 the reception of plates of horn or of wood, are found in 

 Italy, France, Britain, Scandinavia, and Germany, as well 

 as Egypt, and while there is a general likeness between 

 the series of implements and weapons in various European 

 countries, there are other articles, such as brooches and 

 swords with metal hilts, peculiar to certain districts. 



1 On this question see Edinburgh Review, October 1876, p. 283 ; Ban- 

 croft, Native Races of the Pacific States, vols. i. and iv. Prescott, Conquest 

 of Mexico, p. 466. 2 Keller, Lake-Dwellings, 2d edit., p. 557. 



