664 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 747 



censean civilization whieli reached its zenith 

 ahout 1500 B.C. It is pointed out that the 

 dwellings of the period were not of a perma- 

 nent character, while the houses of the dead 

 were built for eternity. " The tombs with 

 cupola of Greece and the giant dolmens of 

 Denmark are derived from the same concep- 

 tions of life and death and are fundamentally 

 one and the same thing. Nothing better 

 than these monuments could reveal to us the 

 unity of European civilization, and at the 

 same time nothing shows more clearly the 

 differences between the south and the north 

 during the second millennium B.C." 



Iron was known in Greece toward the close 

 of the Mycenaean epoch, but was employed 

 only for small objects. Bronze was the metal 

 in general use. One could therefore speak of 

 this epoch as the bronze age. But Miiller pre- 

 fers Mycenaean for Greece and bronze age for 

 the rest of Europe, where the civilization was 

 much less rich, though derived from the same 

 source, i. e., from the Orient through Greece. 

 The typical weapon of the bronze age was the 

 poniard. The sword came later, not before 

 the close of the period. The fibula made its 

 appearance here and was the point of de- 

 parture for the development of feminine orna- 

 ment during the epochs to follow, and after 

 having fallen into disuse for ages has only 

 recently appeared in its original form, but 

 with another name — safety pin. 



One remarkable prehistoric phenomenon is 

 the plentitude and decorative richness of the 

 bronze age in Scandinavia and the mediocrity 

 of the same civilization in western Europe. 

 The latter was received indirectly by way of 

 Italy, while the former came directly by way of 

 Orient. In all western Europe from Spain 

 to Great Britain there is not found a single 

 fibula of the bronze-age tj^pe. This absence 

 joined with that of the spiral ornamentation is 

 proof that the Occident was farther removed 

 from Greek influences than were the Baltic 

 countries. The Mycenaean culture is sup- 

 posed to have reached the north by way of the 

 Adriatic, western Hungary and Bavaria. 



The lake dwellings form an interesting 

 phase of the prehistoric in Europe. They are 

 grouped about the Alps. Switzerland, southern 



Germany, Savoy, northern Italy and Austria 

 (including Croatia and Hungary). The 

 structures were quadrilateral, a fact suggest- 

 ing Mycenaean influence. At least 200 village 

 sites have been discovered in Switzerland 

 alone since the winter of 1853-4. These be- 

 long to different epochs, the later neolithic, 

 bronze and iron ages, respectively. Some in 

 fact were inhabited during successive ages. 

 The purely bronze-age stations are found 

 farther in the water than are the purely 

 neolithic. 



Just as curious in their way as the lake 

 dwellings are the terramaras of northern Italy. 

 This is a corruption of " terramarna," a name 

 which was given to the low flat hillocks in the 

 valley of the Po from which a fertilizing earth 

 has been extracted since early in the eight- 

 eenth century, long before the real signif- 

 icance of the deposits was known. They 

 owed their existence to pile dwellings built on 

 land but protected by water artificially regu- 

 lated. Over a hundred have been explored 

 thus far. The finest one is at Castione, north- 

 west of Parma. Its present height above the 

 plain is only three meters but the thickness of 

 the deposit is five and a half meters. Three 

 successive villages had stood on the spot, the 

 first two having been destroyed by fire. The 

 terramaras represent preeminently a bronze 

 age culture that came from Greece by the way 

 of southern Italy. 



The Dipylon epoch in Greece witnessed the 

 appearance of a special geometric style of 

 decorative art, consisting of straight lines and 

 meanders. This art, developed about 1000 

 B.C., was not original and spontaneous. 

 Although it consisted of old elements, these 

 were brought together to form a new and har- 

 monious ensemble. The same motives were in 

 use a thousand years later in Scandinavia. 

 Figurines of the horse characterize this epoch. 

 Gold and silver were scarce. The use of iron 

 became general. 



The Dipylon epoch gave Italy its first 

 iron age, which in its turn became the point 

 of departure for a new period of civilization 

 in the other countries of Europe. This period 

 in Etruria was characterized by cinerary urns 

 of coarse paste, made without the use of the 



