166 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF [lect. 



It would now be natural that I should pass on to the 

 Iron Age, but the transition period between the two is 

 illustrated by a discovery so remarkable that I cannot 

 pass it over altogether in silence. M. Ramsauer, for 

 many years head of the salt-mines at Hallstadt, near 

 Salzburg, in Austria, has opened not less than 980 

 graves in a country apparently belonging to an ancient 

 colony of miners. The results comprise about 4,000 

 objects of bronze, and 600 of iron. The following 

 table (p. 173) gives M. Ramsauer 's figures, but the 

 numbers have since been considerably increased. 



That the period to which these graves belonged was 

 that of the transition between the Bronze and Iron 

 Ages, is evident, both because we find cutting instru- 

 ments of iron as well as of bronze, and also because 

 both are of somewhat unusual, and we may almost say 

 of intermediate, types. The same remark applies to the 

 ornamentation. Animals are frequently represented, 

 but very poorly executed, while geometrical patterns 

 are well drawn. Coins are entirely absent. That 

 the transition was from bronze to iron, and not from 

 iron to bronze, is clear ; because here, as elsewhere, 

 while iron instruments with bronze handles are common, 

 there is not a single case of a bronze blade with an iron 

 handle. This shows that when both metals were in 

 use, iron was preferred for blades. Another interesting 

 point in the Hallstadt Bronze is the absence of silver, 

 lead, and zinc (excepting, of course, as a mere impurity 

 in the bronze). This is the more remarkable, inasmuch 

 as the presence, not only of tin itself, but also of 

 glass, amber, and ivory, indicates the existence of an 

 extensive commerce. 



