Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain, 9 



Islander, wandering along the shore, seeking, according to the 

 varying season, the oyster-banks, or the feeding ground of the great 

 Fusiis, and other Gasteropods, leaving sharp-edged stones by 

 hundreds commingled with the bivalve shells of the oyster and 

 round hammer-stones with the refuse-heaps of the crushed uni- 

 valves ; to that of the more advanced Esquimaux fashioning imple- 

 ments from meteoric iron, quartz crj'stals, flint flakes, walrus tusks, 

 fossil ivory, reindeer horns, and every other available substance 

 which comes within his reach, — upwards, through all the shades 

 of more or less savage life to that of civilized countries like our own. 



"Not the least misunderstood of these subjects is the classification 

 of the antiquities of Western Europe, first practically adopted by 

 the Danish antiquaries, under periods known as the Iron, Bronze, 

 and Stone Ages; the Iron Age, so far as Denmark is concerned, 

 being supposed to go back to about the Christian era, the Bronze 

 Age to embrace a period of one or two thousand years previous to 

 that date, and the Stone Age all previous time of man's occupa- 

 tion of that part of the world. These difi'erent periods have been, 

 and in some cases may be safely subdivided ; but into this question 

 I need not now enter, as it does not affect the general sequence. 

 The idea of the succession is this : 



" 1. — That there was a period in each given part of Western Europe, 

 say, for example, Denmark, when the use of metals for cutting in- 

 struments of any kind was unknown, and man had to depend on 

 stone, bone, wood, and other readily accessible natural products, for 

 his implements and weapons of the chase or war. 



" 2. — That this period was succeeded by one in which the use of 

 copper, or of copper alloyed with tin — bronze — ^became known, and 

 gradually superseded the use of stone for certain purposes, though 

 it remained in use for others ; and 



" 3. — That a time arrived when bronze, in its turn, gave way to 

 iron or steel, as being a superior metal for all cutting purposes, and 

 which, as such, has remained in use up to the present day. 



" Such a classification into different ages in no way implies any 

 exact chronology, far less one that would be applicable to all the 

 countries of Western Europe alike, but is rather to be regarded as 

 significant only of a succession of different stages of civilization ; 

 for it is evident that at the time when, for instance, in a country 

 such as Italy, the Iron Age may have commenced, some of the more 

 northern countries of Europe may possibly have been in their 

 Bronze Age, and others again still in their Stone Age. 



" Neither does this classification imply that in the Bronze Age of 

 any country stone implements had entirely ceased to be in use, nor 

 even that in the Iron Age both bronze and stone had been com- 

 pletely superseded for all cutting purposes. Like the three principal 

 colours of the rainbow, these three stages of civilization overlap, 

 intermingle, and shade off the one into the other; and yet their 

 succession, so far as Western Europe is concerned, appears to be 

 equally well defined with that of the prismatic colours, though the 

 proportions of the spectrum may vary in different countries." (p. 2.) 



