FINDS OF THE IRON AGE. 7 



Cornwall. Sir Richard Colt Hoare also expresses the opinion 

 that instruments of iron " denote a much later period " than 

 those of bronze ; but M. Thomsen, the founder of the great 

 museum at Copenhagen, was the first to apply these observa- 

 tions as the basis of a scientific chronology. 



The date of the introduction of iron into the North of 

 Europe cannot at present be satisfactorily ascertained ; never- 

 theless it is most likely that the use of this metal spread 

 rapidly through Europe. Not only does it seem a priori 

 probable that such an important discovery would do so, but 

 it is evident that the same commercial organisation which 

 had already carried the tin of Cornwall all over our con- 

 tinent, would equally facilitate the transmission of iron, as 

 soon as that even more useful metal was discovered and 

 rendered available. However this may be, when the armies 

 of Rome brought the civilisation of the South into contact 

 with that of the North, they found the value of iron already 

 well known to their new enemies ; the excellence of whose 

 weapons indicated very considerable progress in the art of 

 metallurgy. Nor is there any reason to suppose that arms 

 of bronze were at that time still in use in the North, for, 

 had this been so, it would certainly have been mentioned by 

 the Roman writers; while the description given by Tacitus 

 of the Caledonian weapons shows that bronze swords were 

 no longer used in Scotland, at the time he wrote. Moreover, 

 there are several cases in which large quantities of arms be- 

 longing to the Roman period have been found together, and 

 in which the arms and implements are all of iron. This argu- 

 ment is in its very nature cumulative, and cannot therefore be 

 fully developed here, but, out of many, I will mention a few 

 cases in illustration. 



Some years ago, an old battle-field was discovered at 

 Tiefenau, near Berne, and described by M. Jahn. On it 

 were found a great number of objects made of iron ; such as 



