ANTHROPOLOGY AT THE PARIS EXPOSITION IN 1889. C63 



The polished- stone age in Denmark is most instructive and interest- 

 ing. The number of implements of this period have filled the public 

 and private collections and are a source of pride to all. The variety 

 and elegance of form, the perfection and surprising management of the 

 fashioning, provoke the greatest admiration. The principal reason for 

 the excellence in Denmark lies in the superior quality of the flint of that 

 country, and the ease with which it could be worked. If we consider 

 the geographic formation of the country and the little islands which 

 are surrounded by the numerous fiords that have favored such things, 

 we may understand the circumstances which gave birth to and favored 

 the development of a civilization which was comparatively well ad- 

 vanced. This age is supposed to have endured for about 2,500 years 

 and to have come to an end from 1,500 to 2,000 years B. C, when it was 

 supplanted by the age of bronze. This age was correspondingly well 

 represented. It is but small wonder that Denmark should have fur- 

 nished those profound students who have made such wonderful prog- 

 ress in the science of prehistoric anthropology. Its richness in antiq- 

 uities is surprising and can not be understood without being seen, and 

 the more it is seen and studied the more surprising and bewildering it 

 becomes in number, extent, and beauty. Not to mention more than the 

 word amber, would be to give a theme which, to be exhaustive, would 

 require an entire book. The museum at Copenhagen possesses now 

 over 200 discoveries of amber wrought by the prehistoric man as his 

 ornameuts for personal decoration. Four fifths of these came from the 

 Island of Jutland, but the rest were fairly well distributed around the 

 various coasts. To follow out the commercial relations between the 

 Scandinavian and other prehistoric countries by means of its trade in 

 amber would require more space than could be devoted in this paper. 

 Wherever in Europe prehistoric man of this epoch has been found, am- 

 ber has been found with him, and it is believed that nearly all of it came 

 from the North Sea and was exchanged for the objects, implements, 

 and weapons of a foreign country. It is believed that the commerce in 

 amber can be traced back to a period commencing 1,000 years before 

 Christ. Numerous cases of amber were displayed in this Exposition. 



Of the bronze age there were many specimens. The bars or ingots of 

 bronze, rough and rude, the molds for casting hatchets and saws, hatch- 

 ets of all kinds, knives, saws, sickles, razors, pinchers, arrowheads, 

 swords, poignards, trumpets, spearheads, rings, fibula, etc., were there 

 shown in all perfection; in all their beauty and wealth of form and com- 

 pass. One case was devoted to vases, of gold, of bronze, of wood ; some 

 of them are ornamented with tin inlaid, having the appearance of the 

 ware of the Japanese. The metal work was some of it hammered, some 

 repousse, some cast. The ornamentation was of the style of the bronze 

 age, geometric design, made by points and lines. 



Two exceedingly interesting specimens in the Danish display, that 

 impressed themselves with greater ease upon the understanding and 



