ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 211 



and were to the people of northern and western 

 Europe what the latter in modern times have been to 

 America. It is evident, however, that in the dawn of 

 history, in Egypt, Syria, and Greece, the quantity of 

 iron and bronze was scarcely sufficient for purposes 

 of extensive foreign supply ; and tin, an essential in- 

 gredient of bronze, was especially expensive. If we 

 ask for an explanation of the spread of bronze into 

 northern Europe, the most probable is that it dates 

 from the time when the Phoenicians discovered the 

 rich tin mines of Cornwall, yielding for the first time 

 a large and cheap supply of the metal. We have no 

 certain date for this, but cannot be far wrong in fixing 

 it between 800 and 500 years before Christ. From 

 this time the Phoenicians and Carthaginians were able 

 to supply their customers in all parts of Europe with 

 this beautiful and useful alloy of copper and tin at 

 low prices ; and as this alloy could easily be recast, 

 even by rude peoples, and was not liable, like iron, to 

 decay by rust, the implements and weapons obtained 

 by the natives were retained, and when worn out re- 

 cast into new forms ; and the metal thus accumulated 

 in sufficient quantity to replace to a great extent the 

 old stone implements. At a later date, when the 

 Carthaginian power was broken down, iron, supplied 

 by the Roman traders, took the place of bronze. Any 

 other view than this is negatived by the fact that tin 

 could be obtained abundantly only in Cornwall, that 

 this source of supply was in the hands of the Phoeni- 

 cians, that the antique bronze of all parts of Europe is 



