THE DAWN OF METALLURGY. 279 
before the destruction of the island by earthquakes. It is 
true that comparatively few objects made of pure copper have 
been found; they do not appear to have been carried far, as 
was the case with those of bronze, from the place of manu- 
facture, but there is abundant evidence now that unalloyed 
copper was widely used.. M. Ferencz Pulsky has stated that 
the most ancient interments in Hungary, as well as those in 
the North of Europe, contained only objects made of copper. 
But some of the most important evidence of the existence of 
what may almost be termed a Copper age, has been recently 
derived from the remarkable discoveries made by MM. H. and 
L. Siret in South-east Spain, between Carthagena and Almeria. 
A number of pre-historic stations have been explored in this 
locality, in which were found not only numerous remains of 
the Neolithic age, but also those of a transition period, 
between the ages of Stone and Metal; which was followed by 
a third stage, in which both copper and bronze were simulta- 
neously used, amongst a people who had evidently made very 
considerable advances in culture. 
A brief sketch of some of the chief features of these 
discoveries will show the important bearing which they have 
in relation to the history of metallurgy in Europe and the 
condition of its primitive inhabitants. 
The transition period,—characterised by an indigenous 
copper metallurgy,—was one in which the rude huts of the 
Neolithic men had been improved upon; and when regularly- 
built houses were constructed, houses built with stone walls, 
cemented with clay. In building them the rough boulders, 
from the neighbouring water-courses and hill-sides were used, 
It appears, from the ground-plans of some of these 
dwellings, that they had turrets, perhaps of a defensive 
character, and the roofs were made of beams resting on 
wooden supports and covered with thatch. Thanks to the 
destruction of some of these houses by fire, several of those 
details have been made known to us; thus, the burnt clay, 
still bears traces of the thatch, together with the impress of 
the binding cords of plaited esparto grass. Some of the 
houses seem to have had an upper story. It has been 
observed that, even now, many of the peasants’ huts in 
Almeria are constructed in a very similar way to that of these 
pre-historic dwellings. 
It was amongst the ruins of these houses that a great 
number of metallic objects were found, and it is from them 
that we conclude that there then existed an indigenous 
metallurgy, implements of copper having been manufactured 
