280 Sir John Lubbock’s Address. 
Few branches of science have made more rapid progress in 
the last half-century than that which deals with the ancient 
condition of man. When our Association was founded it was 
read in the British Museum, the actual contemporary records, 
on burnt clay cylinders, of the events recorded in the historical 
“Bronze Age,” which at the dawn of history was just giving 
way to that of “Iron.” 
The contents of ancient graves, buried in many cases so that 
their owner might carry some at least of his wealth with him 
to the world of spirits, have proved very instructive. More 
especially the results obtained by Nilsson in Scandinavia, by 
oare and Borlase, Bateman and Greenwell, in our own coun: 
try, and the contents of the rich cemetery at Hallstadt, left no 
room for doubt as to the existence of a Bronze Age; ut 
get a completer idea of the condition of Man at this Sec 
from the Swiss lake-villages, first made known to us by 
and subsequently studied by Morlot, Troyon, Desor, Riitimeyer, 
Heer, and other Swiss archzeologists. Along the shallow edges 
of the Swiss lakes there flourished, once upon a time, many 
populous villages or towns, built on platforms supported by 
piles, exactly as many Malayan villages are now. Under these 
circumstances innumerable objects were one by one dropped 
