TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 725 
ot this copper. The relative abundance of such hoards of bronze axes suggests that 
they were used as a means of exchange, especially in Crete, where many axes have 
been found which have a haft-hole too small to admit a serviceable handle. It is 
remarkable that in historic times in Crete the word zeéAexvs (axe) is said to have 
denoted a fraction of the talent. 
8. The Geometric Period in Greece. By Professor Oscar Monre tus. 
The Geometric period succeeds the Mycenzan period in Greece and in the isles 
of the Aigzan Sea. In the western part of Asia Minor, where the author thinks 
that the Mycenzan culture continues long after its disappearance in Greece, the 
Greek Geometric style is not represented. 
The Mycenwan period is a part of the Bronze Age; iron began to be used 
only just at the end of the period. All the Geometric period belongs to the Iron 
Age. Consequently, in the Mycenzan period, swords and other weapons were of 
bronze; in the Geometric period, swords and many other weapons were of iron. 
At the end of the Mycenzan period the fibula (safety-pin) became known in 
Greece. It is most interesting to follow the evolution of the fibula through the 
Geometric period. 
Most of the remains from this period are ceramic. The technique is about the 
same as in the Mycenzean time; the vases are made of very pure clay, and wheel- 
made ; the ornaments are painted with glaze colours. Some of the forms are also 
derived from those of the preceding period. But the predominant ornaments 
are different. The Mycensean flowers as well as the sea-animals have dis- 
appeared, and the animals of the Geometric period—generally horses and birds— 
are not so well drawn as in the preceding time. Most of the ornaments are 
geometric, some are rectilinear (meander, zigzag, &c.,): the swastika, extremely 
rare in the Mycenean period, is very common. Others are curvilinear: spirals, 
concentric rings joined by tangents (‘false spirals’), concentric circles without 
such tangents, &c. In Attica, men, women, horses, chariots—forming scenes of 
funeral solemnities and races—are sometimes painted on the vases, but the figures 
are drawn in a most infantile way. 
The Geometric style is not derived from the countries to the north of Greece. 
All the ornaments characteristic of this style are earlier in Greece than in other 
parts of Europe. 
The Geometric style is a continuation of the Mycenean one, but it is much 
inferior to this, which cannot be accounted for only through the migrations of 
the Dorians, because the difference between the Geometric and the Mycenzan 
style is as great in Attica—where the Dorian invaders did not come—as in other 
parts of Greece. The explanation may be that the foreigners (Tyrrhenians or 
Pelasgians), to whom, in the author’s opinion, the Mycenzan culture was due, 
had been expelled, and the Hellenic people had not yet reached the same high 
degree of civilisation as these foreigners. 
The Geometric period began in the twelfth century B.c., and lasted a very long 
time. It can be divided into the following parts :—The first Geometric period (in 
Attica, the older ‘ Dipylon vases’); the second Geometric period (‘ Phaleron 
vases’ and skyphoi); the third Geometric period (‘ pre-Corinthian’ vases). This 
list period ends about 700 B.c. 
9. The Latest Discoveries in Prehistoric Science in Denmark. 
By Professor VALDEMAR SCHMIDT. 
(1) Investigations have been made in recent years in the National Museum of 
Copenhagen on the musical properties of the famous trumpets of the Bronze Age, 
called in Danish generally Zur. These instruments are so well preserved that 
they are now payee annually in public on St, John’s Day. 
(2) The oldest period of the Danish Stone Age, only recently discovered, is 
earlier in time than the ‘kitchen-middens’ and much anterior to the dolmens, 
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