v.] PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY. 163 



10. Coins have never been found with bronze arms. 

 To this rule I only know of three apparent exceptions. 

 Not a single coin has been met with in any of the Swiss 

 lake-villages of this period. 



11. The dress of this period no doubt still consisted 

 in great part of skins. Tissues of flax have been found, 

 however, in some of the lake-villages, and fragments of 

 woollen material have been found in tumuli, nay, in 

 one case, a whole suit (consisting of a cloak, a shirt, two 

 shawls, a pair of leggings, and two caps) was found in 

 a Danish tumulus which evidently belonged to the Bronze 

 Age ; as it contained a sword, a brooch, a knife, an awl, 

 a pair of tweezers, and a large stud, all of bronze, besides 

 a small button of tin, a javelin-head of flint, a bone 

 comb, and a bark box. 



We have independent evidence of the same fact in the 

 presence of spindle-whorls. 



12. The ornamentation on the arms, implements, and 

 pottery is peculiar. It consists of geometrical patterns 

 — straight lines, circles, triangles, zigzags, &c. Animals 

 and vegetables are very rarely attempted, and never with 

 success. 



1 3. Another peculiarity of the bronze arms lies in the 

 small size of the handles. The same observation applies 

 to the bracelets, &c. They could not be used by the 

 present inhabitants of Northern Europe. 



14. No traces of writing have been met with in any 

 finds of the Bronze Age. There is not an inscription on 

 any of the arms or pottery found in the Swiss lake- 

 villages, and I only know one instance of a bronze 

 cutting instrument with letters on it. 



15. The very existence of bronze appears to indicate 



M 2 



