342 Be Mortuis. [July, 



article by Lient. S. P. Oliver, Eoyal Artillery, F.K.S., appeared in 

 the ' Quarterly Journal of Science ' for April last, to which it is only 

 needful here to refer our readers.* 



Fortunately for the archaeologist the uninviting exterior of these 

 northern and western tombs has been, until of late years, a means 

 of protecting them to a great extent from pillage ; for within these 

 rounded dome-like hills of earth (Tumuli) are often discovered relics 

 of a period so remote that, save for these sacred depositories, we 

 never could have hoped to obtain any reliable information of the 

 builders, or to have learnt aught of their advance in civilization, or 

 of the arts they practised. 



The rich and varied discoveries of the Swiss Lake habitations 

 indeed, have thrown much new light upon the early history of 

 Europe, yet many writers have nevertheless concluded that these 

 remains are, after all, not much more than two thousand years old, 

 seeing that similar lacustrine habitations were known to Hippocrates 

 (b.c. 460), and Herodotus (b.c. 404). But the careful researches 

 of Prof. Keller, and many other investigators, prove beyond ques- 

 tion that these settlements go back to the early Neolithic period, if 

 not to the palaeolithic. 



In speaking of the ages of Stone, Bronze, and Iron, however, we 

 should always guard against the notion that, at any one time, save 

 in the very earliest palaeolithic stage, one material for the manufac- 

 ture of implements was used exclusively over the whole of the 

 Continent. Not only does the " Iron age " stretch from our own 

 time back to an antiquity more remote than Nineveh, but the 

 " Bone age " is still extant and has overlapped all the other divisions, 

 for horn and bone are still used by civilized man, and our most re- 

 mote ancestors we know discovered the economic value of the bones 

 and horns of the first animals they slew in the chase. 



Therefore in the examination of all early remains many collateral 

 circumstances must betaken into account before we can justly assign 

 an approximate date to any discovery. For instance, if we grant 

 that the civilization of man actually ran its course through these 

 periods, just as they are mentioned above, yet it is certain that the 

 Bronze period of Northern Europe by no means agrees in time with 

 that of the middle and southern parts of this Continent. 



Again, the Bronze age of Greece and Italy may be separated by 

 centuries from that of Egypt, which we may consider as the cradle 

 of western civilization. 



We may safely conclude, as the Danish antiquaries themselves 

 allow, that in the Scandinavian countries stone implements were for 

 a length of time used while the Bronze period was in full activity in 

 the more southern lands, and that Egypt, whose oldest monuments 

 indicate very clearly the use of iron, and also Greece, had both ad- 

 * Vol. vii., p. 149. 



