COMPARATIVE ARCH-EOLOGY. 165 
relics are also relegated to well-defined land areas, although 
sometimes characteristic specimens are found as stray objects 
outside the ascertained limits of their original home. — For 
instance, a few fragments of Samian ware have been found in 
some of the brochs and souteraines of Scotland. The super- 
ficial extent of the areas to which certain relics are restricted 
depends on their utilitarian attractiveness and the length of 
time that intervened before they were superseded by a superior 
invention. Hence we have to consider the life history of 
relics in point of time as well as of geographical distribution. 
Improvements due to structural alterations in objects are 
well illustrated by the variety of types of axes, and their 
manner of hafting. Also, by the successive modifications 
which the fibula has undergone from time to time in the hands 
of different races. Starting from the simple bone pin, this 
useful article of the toilet has passed through the safety-pin 
stage to that of the well-known Roman fibula, from which it 
diverged by different routes into distant lands, where it be- 
came transformed into the handsome brooches known as 
Celtic, Saxon, and Scandinavian. 
T]].—CoMPARATIVE METHODS ILLUSTRATED. 
1 now proceed to give a few practical illustrations by way 
of showing the value of comparative archeology in elucidating 
the legacies which our pre-historic forefathers have bequeathed | 
to us in the form of ruined habitations, the abodes of the 
dead, military works, and that large assortment of their 
handicraft productions which several generations of ardent 
antiquaries have stored in many splendid museums all over 
the world. 
Before dealing with the smaller relics, I wish to make a 
few remarks on those outdoor monuments, merely to prove 
that in some localities they have acquired more or less dif- 
ferent characteristics, retaining, however, a sufficient amount 
of their common features to show that they are works emanat- 
ing from the same original sources. 
MecarirHic Monuments.—tThe raising of commemora- 
tive memorials of such endurable material as stone is not a 
monopoly of any age or people. While the isolated standing 
