528 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol.. II., No. i?7. 



way the present condition of anthropological re- 

 search, paying especial attention to the first appear- 

 ance of bronze in Europe. The question, when did 

 the metal first come into use in our part of the world, 

 is certainly one of the most important which an- 

 thropological science has to consider, and in order 

 to provide the necessary material for its solution, 

 wherever individual investigators or scientific so- 

 cieties are active, the territorial relations should be 

 first examined, and, without drawing general con- 

 clusions, the localities or the strata in which the 

 discoveries are made should be determined; for, how- 

 ever many investigations have already been under- 

 taken in this branch of anthropology, tlie boundary 

 where the stone age ceases and the metal age begins 

 has not yet been definitely decided for any locality. 

 A difficulty which arises in answering the question, 

 does this or that settlement, this or that discovery, 

 belong to the stone or bronze age, must not be passed 

 in silence, since neglect of it has frequently led to 

 mistakes. Tlie difficulty is, that at one time, when 

 metal was already common, stone implements were 

 used both by poorer people, who were not able to 

 obtain the expensive tools, and for ritualistic pur- 

 poses. A circumstance which next comes into con- 

 sideration, and which renders difficult in no little 

 degree the determination of the epoch to which 

 certain discoveries belong, is that the river-sand, silt, 

 etc., in which the objects were found, often change 

 their positions. 



Passing to a general consideration of the bronze 

 age, the speaker said that the answer to the question, 

 where did the invention of this alloy originate, is 

 one of the most important problems for anthropo- 

 logical research. There are two widely differing 

 views on this subject: 1°, that of investigators who 

 assume that bronze was invented at different times 

 and in different places, independently of each other; 

 and, 2°, that of those who assert that the invention 

 was made at one place, and thence the use of the 

 metal spread. In opposition to the first-mentioned as- 

 sumption, is the fact that the bronze objects scattered 

 over many regions show in their composition a con- 

 siderable agreement, and, almost without exception, 

 are composed of a mixture of nine parts copper and 

 one part tin, as are by far the majority of those 

 which are found in the countries lying between the 

 Caucasus and Portugal. Even if the moisture of the 

 earth and atmospheric influences affect the various 

 components of the alloy in various ways, and apart of 

 the copper is destroyed or altered, the bronze objects, 

 as a whole, are affected in the same way; and the ap- 

 pearance of a very similar composition, in regions far 

 removed from each other, points with convincing 

 force to the conclusion that the invention of this 

 mixture was made in one place, and its use was 

 thence spread. Further, as to how bronze was in- 

 troduced into Europe, we find also various opinions 

 not very harmonious wuth each other. Some inves- 

 tigators naturally claim that it was through the 

 Phoenicians, of whom we know that in ancient time 

 they carried on a trade extending over the whole 

 Mediterranean, and that while Cj'prus, one of the 



cliief centres for co))per ore. — from this island cop- 

 per (Latin, cuprum) received its name, — lay in 

 their immediate neighborhood, tliey passed in their 

 voyages the Pillars of Hercules, and visited the ' tin- 

 island' (Great Britain). From tlie Phoenician trade- 

 stations on the coast of the Mediterranean, among 

 which the Massilian colony (Marseilles) played an 

 Important part, trade-roads into the Interior were 

 probably built. Many investigators suppose the 

 spread of bronze was through commercial activity. 

 Whether this view is true, is not easy to detennine; 

 since trade-settlements, which, as a rule, exert no, or 

 at most only a transient, influence over the majority 

 of the colonies and customs witli which they come 

 in contact, as soon as they cease to exist, can seldom 

 be traced. The speaker, in his researches in Sicily, 

 where, as is well known, the Carthaginians, also a 

 people of Phoenician origin, were for a long time 

 settled, could find no traces which indicated 'this 

 settlement. Further, it is also well known that the 

 trade supremacy which Pisa on the Mediterranean, 

 and Genoa on the Black Sea, once exercised, has left 

 on the coasts bordering these seas no traces worth 

 mentioning. But, supposing that bronze was scattered 

 by the commerce of the Phoenicians, it by no means 

 proves that they were the inventors of this alloy. 

 The speaker, on the whole, was much niore inclined, 

 with reservation of his decision, to place this inven- 

 tion farther to the east, in central Asia. 



Besides the view just mentioned, which considers 

 the commercial activity of the Phoenicians as the 

 agent by whicli that advance in culture signalized 

 by the use of metal implements was brought about, 

 there is a theory lately advanced by Hochstetter, 

 which deserves mention because it completely aban- 

 dons the views formerly lield. Hochstetter bases 

 his assumptions on the discoveries in the graves at 

 Hallstadt (first described by Sacken), and on certain 

 discoveries atWatsch (Carniola), which show an in- 

 teresting similarity to the former.^ From these data, 

 Hochstetter traces the identity of bronze manufac- 

 ture in Hallstadt and upper Italy, and comes to the 

 conclusion that this manufacture originated with the 

 Aryans, and that the use of bronze for weapons and 

 vessels had been common among this people a long 

 time before the Aryan races wandered from their 

 Asiatic home to Europe ; while, at the same time, he 

 denies the Etruscan origin of the findings at Hall- 

 stadt, Watsch, and Este, and assumes that the 

 bronzes found in Italy, so far as they were not 

 brought there by the Aryans inhabiting Italy, were 

 imported from Greece. 



Against these conclusions, surprising by their nov- 

 elty, Virchow asserts, that in case the Aryans, in 

 their wanderings to the west, had taken bronze with 

 them, we must expect to find traces of its use on the 

 highways, which tliey presumably followed in their 



1 A situla dug up at Watsch cxbibits tbe same decoration as 

 those found at Hallstadt, and contains, among other tilings, a rep- 

 resentation of warriors, who are equipped with four different 

 kinds of helmets, sucli as may be reconstructed from the discov- 

 eries at Hallstadt. Objects corresponding to the Watsch bronzes 

 were found also in Este (North Italy). 



