288 REV. J. MAGENS MELLO, M.A., F.G.S., ETC. 
This is of importance when we discuss the origin of the 
bronze industry in this part of the world. The use of bronze 
in Germany, Switzerland, France, and Spain without any 
intentional lead alloy, seems to show that the importation 
was, in the first instance, independent of the Southern 
influence, and may have travelled directly from the Hast ; 
any way the Htruscans and Phoenicians could not have been 
the first introducers, although at a later date the Htruscans, 
who came into Italy ten or twelve centuries before Christ, 
and were acquainted, not only with bronze, but with iron 
also, had undoubtedly a great influence upon the bronze as 
well as upon other industries of neighbouring countries. 
There was, we know, a magnificent bronze metallurgy 
flourishing in Italy during prehistoric times. <A race closely 
connected with, if not identical with, the Etruscans, made use 
of bronze for weapons and implements as well as for orna- 
ments; they also worked the bronze into urns, some of 
which have been found enriched with bas reliefs representing 
both animals and men. ‘That this primitive Italian race 
should have been able to bring their metal work to so great 
perfection, may, in part, be attributed to the fact that they 
had, within their own territory, both copper and tin in 
abundance. M. Blanchard discovered that the tin mines of 
Cento Camerelle in Monte Valerio, in Tuscany, were worked 
by the Htruscans, whilst the copper mines of Montieri (Mons 
Aris) are not far away. The somewhat later Etruscan art was 
similar to theirs, and their influence extended far beyond the 
confines of Italy, whilst they themselves were evidently much 
affected by early Greek as well as by Egyptian civilisation. 
The earliest records of the Mediterranean peoples bring before 
us a highly civilised Egypt, an Heypt possessed not only of 
bronze, but also of iron, whilst the Hgyptians at the same time 
made use of flint for various purposes, such as engraving 
their granite monuments. It has been noted that in Southern 
Italy bronze daggers identical with the Hgyptian have been 
found, and remains of a similar type to the Egyptian have been 
discovered at Hissarlik. The.Phcenician work was probably 
only a copy of the Etruscan. The same Palseo-Etruscan art 
appears also at Mycenz, and it seems on the whole evident 
that the bronze metallurgy which displaced the Neolithic 
civilisation cannot be traced beyond Egypt, and we can only 
assume that it came originally from the Hast. 
The Htruscans were acquainted, as were the Hgyptians, 
with iron; and the admixture of iron with bronze objects which 
was found in the great transition cemetery of Hallstadt has 
