ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERIODS. 



CHAPTER II. 



ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERIODS. 



Classification of Human Relics — Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age — Phases of 

 Civilisation — Gradual transition from Stone Age into Bronze Age, and 

 Bronze Age into Iron Age — Palaeolithic and Neolithic Periods — Palaeolithic 

 Implements — Classification of Palaeolithic Cave-relics — Conditions of life in 

 Palaeolithic Period — Human Remains — Break in Succession between Palaeo- 

 lithic and Neolithic Periods. 



Every one is aware that human relics of great antiquity occur, 

 more or less abundantly, in many parts of Europe. Some of 

 these can be referred to the early dawn of historical times ; 

 others have been hesitatingly assigned to still more remote 

 periods, of which the only records that survive are supposed to 

 be certain semi-mythic legends and poetical traditions ; and how 

 much of these we should believe it is hard to say. There are 

 many antiquities, again, that belong to a time so far removed 

 from our own, that history and tradition alike fail to tell us 

 anything about them. "We find only the relics themselves, and 

 from these, and their position and mode of occurrence in or upon 

 our soils and subsoils, we are left to discover what we can of the 

 life-history of the people to whose former presence they testify, 

 and to gather what information we may in regard to the physical 

 conditions under which these people lived, and the geological 

 mutations that have taken place since they passed away. 



The antiquities referred to are of many kinds — dwelling- 

 places, sepulchral and other monuments, forts and camps, and a 

 great harvest of implements and ornaments of stone and metal. 

 In seeking to classify these relics and remains according to their 



