Sept. 21, 1882 | 



NATURE 



5i5 



through the whole of Greece and her colonies along the shores 

 of the Mediterranean. Whether as the re.-ult of raids upon 

 Greek towns, or from more peaceful contact with Greek colonics 

 in what is now- the south of France, the Gauls became acquainted 

 with them, recognised their usefulness, and proceeded to strike 

 coins in imitation of them. As was to be expected, the art of 

 these imitations was far inferior to that of the original coins. 

 Each copy in its turn served as a model from which other copies 

 were made, and as is often the case, the copies were in many 

 instances larger than the originals ; so that by the time the art 

 of coining had reached the northern part of Gaul the size of the 

 coin had much increased, and the devices upon it bad degener- 

 ated into a widespread bust with a laurel-wreath, and with the 

 hair arranged in rows of locks of even size behind, a;id in 

 creScent-shaped curls in front, while additions had been made to 

 the original head in the hape of a kind of band around it and 

 an ornamental covering for the neck. Such coins have been 

 found in considerable numbers in England, principally in our 

 southern counties, and especially in Kent. Of their origin from 

 the Macedonian Pkilippus there can be no doubt ; but how are 

 we to judge of their date, and of the length of time that coins 

 were known in Britain before Caesar's landing? It is in this 

 manner: — There are some British princes whose names are 

 recorded by Roman historians and by Roman tnscri] 

 to whom therefore we can assign a fairly certain date ; and of 

 some of these princes coins a r e known. They have on them 

 devices such as at first sight appear almost unintelligible, but 

 which by a ;ucces-i.m of intermediate forms occurring on coins 

 without inscriptions upon them, c n be traced back to the head 

 with the laurel-wreath, while on the reverse side there is always 

 a horse of more or less barbarous form. We have, therefore, 

 evidence of an uninterrupted succession of coins copied the one 

 from the other, bf ginning with the coins with the widespread 

 head and ending w ith the inscribed coins. Now each of these 

 successive copies must have been intended to pass current with 

 the coins from which they were copied, and if they had all been 

 of one weight and of one quality of gold it might have been 

 possible for the whole series to have been struck within no very 

 lengthened terms of years. But, as it happens, there is a great 

 diversity in the weight and fineness of the coins, those with the 

 widespread head being of fine gold, and often weighing nearly 120 

 grains, and the last of the series being of much baser metal and 

 only weighing about S4 grains. In the process of 

 copying only the most striking parts of the device, and those 

 mot easy to imitate, Mich as the wreath and locls of hair, 

 survived, and the face, being mire difficult to copy, was the first 

 to disappear. Coins with merely a mis-shapen lump upon them 

 in lieu of the face usually weigh about 96 grains, and the farther 

 they get from the original the lighter the c 'ins become. Now 

 the original weight of the Pkilippus was 133 grains ; and assum- 

 ing that it was first imitated in B.C. 300, and that the weight had 

 become reduced to S4 grains in B.C. 20, and also that the diminu- 

 tion in weight always went on at the same rate, we find by 

 calculation that the date at which the weight would have become 

 reduced to 120 grains — that of the earliest British coins — is B.C. 

 226. Probably, however, there was a less tendency to reduce 

 the weight a'id quality at the beginning than towards the end of 

 the series, but the coins justify us in saying that the inhabitants 

 of southern Britain were sufficiently civilised to make use of a 

 coinage about 150 years before Chri t, or 100 years before the 

 time of our first Roman visitor, Julius Cse ar, if not indeed at 

 an earlier period. 



Besides these gold, silver, rnd brass or copper coins, with 

 devices upon them derived from Gaulish copies of a Macedonian 

 original, there are other coins cast in tin, with devices in imitation 

 of some coins of Marseilles, in the South of Fr nee, which also 

 tell us the same story of a close intercourse with Gaul. Many 

 of these were cast in wooden moulds, as is proved by the grain 

 of the wood being visible in relief upon them. Such coins have 

 been found with iron tosls and weapons in the ancient encamp- 

 ment of Mount Caburn, near Lew es ; but iron or steel must have 

 been in use for some four or five centuries in this country before 

 the time of Cresar's invasion. 



In graves which mu-.t belong to the first few centuries 

 before Christ, we find swords of iron with ornamental bronze 

 -heaths ; and there are highly decorated shields with artistic 

 scroll patterns upon them, and sometimes with ornaments of red 

 enamel, which belong to the tame periol. The warriors of 

 those times had horses and chariots, the latter with iron tires 

 a-,d linch-pins to the wheels, and the harness of the former 



provided with bronze and enamelled buckles. Of this Early 

 Iron Age, however, we learn more from the remains of ancient 

 dwellings and cemeteries on the Continent. In one of these 

 cemeteries at Ilallstatt, in the Austrian Tyrol, upwards of a 

 thousand graves have been examined ; and as it was the custom 

 to bury with the dead a number of objects of an ornamental or 

 useful kind — possibly with the view that they might be of service 

 in a future state of existence — we are able to reconstitute the 

 surrounding conditions of their life. Great care was bestowed 

 .upon their weapon--, some of the swords having hilts of ivory 

 inlaid with amber, both probably derived from foreign commerce ; 

 some daggers had golden sheaths ; their helmets were of bronze, 

 as were also their girdles, bracelets, and brooches, which present 

 an infinity of different forms, Their pottery was of graceful 

 shape, and some of it highly ornamented. Many of their vessels 

 were made of bronze, sometimes artistically ornamented, with 

 figures of animals— as, for instance, a milk-cup, the handle of 

 which is in the form of a cow with a calf behind her. 



But mixed with these graves containing iron weapons are 

 others in which swords, spear-heads, and hatchets of bronze have 

 been found ; and it is a remarkable circumstance that the iron 

 weapons appear to have been imitated from those of bronze, 

 cannot go into the details of the matter, but I may observe that 

 the forms, though readily cast in bronze, are exceedingly difficult 

 to forge in iron ; and the only inference that can be drawn from 

 this fact is this, that the bronze weapons and tools must have 

 been in u e at the lime when iron was introduced as a substitu'e 

 for the softer metal. 



But if iron or steel thus superseded bronze, there must have 

 been a time when bronze was the oidy metal in use fir weapons 

 and toob, ^ n ,\ to this period antiquaries have given the name of 

 the Br. nze Age. Such terms as Iron Age, Bronze Age, or Stone 

 Age mean, however, only certain stages of civilisation, and not 

 laical periods applicable to the whole of the world ; 

 for while the inhabitants of one country had acquired a know- 

 ledge of iron and had given up bronze for Mich weapons as 

 swords, in othtr countries bronze may still have been in use, and 

 in others again it may have been entirely unknown. Here 

 in the South of Britain iron, as already remarked, is thought to 

 have been in use some four or five centuries B.C., and before 

 that time we have evidence of the prevalence of a Bronze Ag e 

 in Britain probably for a period of not less than ten centuries. 

 We can read this chapter in our history partly by the contents of 

 ancient grave-mounds or barrows, and partly by means of the 

 bronze objects found dispersed in the soil. Bronze, or, as v e 

 now generally call i% gun-metal, is a mixture of copper and tin, 

 and the proportions which produce the toughest and most useful 

 alloy are about nine of copper to one of tin. No doubt in some 

 rart of the world, probably Asia, native copper, such as is fou- d 

 in so many countries, was first in use ; but at present the traces 

 of this copper-using age are on this side of the Atlantic but 

 faint. On the other side, in some parts of the United States, 

 numerous instruments of pure copper have been found. These 

 have been hammered out cold from native copper, and not ca t. 

 Where and when it was discovered that the admixture of a small 

 proportion of the softer metal, tin, made copper harder'and more 

 fusible, is at present a mystery ; but it is remarkable that the same 

 discovery seems to have been made in the New World as in the 

 Old, for some of the weapons and tools of Peru, made before 

 there was any contact with Europeans, are manufactured fire m 

 bronze of the ordinary compo: ition. Here in Britain, our Brorze 

 Period is well illustrated by relics, representations of some of 

 which are shown upon the wall. The swords, spear-heads, 

 daggers, and shields speak for themselves, snd exhibit marvellous 

 skill in the art of casting and hammering out. The various tools 

 may also be recognised, and many, such as the chisels and 

 gouges, do not differ materially from those of the present day. 

 The hatchets or axes are either flat blades, sometimes [with wings 

 or flanges at the sides, or are cast with a socket to receive a 

 crooked haft. In this country they are never provided with an 

 eye for the helve like our modern axes. The way in which the 

 socketed form was developed from the flat blade is susceptible 

 of being traced, and we can learn from the hatchets themselves 

 that the art of producing them with a socket was a foreign 

 invention, and not originally discovered in this country. Let 

 me dwell on this for a minute, The flat blade, which was cast 

 in a single open mould and hammered into shape, was no doubt 

 the earliest torm. It, moreover, closely re ernbles some of the 

 earlier hatchets made of another material, to which I shall pre- 

 sently have to call your attention. But these flat blades, it was 



