26 ANCESTRAL MAN. 



Thus we see that the so-called stone age overlapped in its full 

 strength the age of copper and of bronze. It overlapped, but to 

 a less extent, the age of iron ; and it even overlaps in some degree 

 our own age of gunpowder and steam, for " the modern flint lance 

 " of the Red Indian can hardly be distinguished from that found 

 " in the most ancient British graves." 



The introduction of iron heralded the approach of the Historic 

 Age. Those nations that lived on the shores of the Mediterranean 

 early availed themselves of the new metal, but not till long 

 centuries had elapsed did the outer world throw aside their 

 weapons of stone and bronze. 



Herodotus says of the Ethiopians in the army of Xerxes, " they 

 " had sharp arrows made of reeds and pointed instead of iron, 

 " with a kind of stone used to engrave seals." If a Greek officer 

 in command of this contingent had been slain, we may feel sure 

 that his Ethiopian servants would have placed in his tomb flint 

 flakes and arrow-heads. 



A supposition of this kind may serve to explain difficult cases 

 like the following. In the tumulus of Kouloba, near Kertch, a 

 heap of sharp flints was found in association with an iron sword, 

 gold ornaments, figures of animals and of a tiger above whose tail 

 was written a Greek inscription. Prof. Dawkins discovered inside 

 a Roman coffin, at Hardham, in Sussex, in a cemetery that 

 belongs to the later portion of the Roman dominion in Britain, 

 several flint flakes. 



The propositions that we have already laid down accord with 

 M. Keller's remark that stone weapons are an unsafe guide in 

 determining age, though they strictly represent the stone period, 

 because they occur in all stages of the bronze age, and are not 

 infrequently found associated with iron weapons and instruments. 



There is no doubt, says Sir. John Lubbock, that in early ages 

 stone and metal were used at the same time ; the first by the poor, 

 the second by the rich. Bronze and iron implements must always 

 have been expensive and difficult to procure. 



Csesar testifies that all the bronze used by the Britons was 

 obtained from abroad ; and there is reason to believe that iron 

 was also imported in the form of pigs or ingots. The Britons 

 used rings of bronze atid iron as money. It is probable that the 

 Romans introduced into this country the practice of smelting 

 iron, for in the time of Strabo this metal had become an article of 

 export. 



Thus, while British furnaces were instituted and controlled by 

 the Romans; at the same time, entirely under their command 

 were the sea and the high-roads ; so that, after the Occupation, 

 no iron would be allowed to pass into the hands of the people. 



