io PREHISTORIC EUROPE. 



a later age. 1 Our conclusion would be still further strengthened 

 if, after examining a large number of similar interments, we 

 should find that they all possessed many features in common. 

 Again, should our explorations discover not a trace of either 

 iron or bronze, and should the implements and ornaments we 

 come upon consist exclusively of stone, horn, and bone, the 

 presumption will be in favour of the true Stone Age of the 

 "find." And this presumption will gather strength according 

 to the number of those discoveries we make. It would be an 

 additional argument in favour of such " finds " pertaining to the 

 Stone Age if amongst the implements cutting-instruments were 

 well represented. Of course there are other and additional 

 methods of ascertaining the relative antiquity of these and pre- 

 historic remains generally, but the methods referred to will 

 necessarily come before our attention when we are considering 

 the mode of occurrence of these remains from a geological point 

 of view. 



With the Bronze and Iron Ages the geologist has compara- 

 tively little to do; for we shall find in the sequel that the 

 Europe of the later Bronze Period was very much the same as 

 it is to-day. No great geological revolutions have come about 

 in our continent since then, and hence these pages will be 

 occupied chiefly with an account of the climatic and geographical 

 changes which supervened during the true Stone Age. 



It has been found necessary within recent years to subdivide 

 the Stone Age into two periods, called respectively the Old 

 Stone and New Stone Ages ; or, to employ the terms suggested 

 by Sir John Lubbock, and now generally adopted, the Palaeo- 

 lithic and Neolithic Periods. The stone implements belonging 

 to the older of these periods show but little variety of form, 



1 It must be borne in mind, however, that now and again a commingling of 

 implements pertaining to two or more ages may have been brought about in cases 

 where the same spot was utilised for interments at different times. Thus it is 

 known that not unfrequently interments of the Stone Age have been disturbed by- 

 subsequent burials in the Bronze and Iron Ages. Hence sometimes we may 

 have implements belonging to distant and distinct periods confusedly commingled 

 in one and the same place, just as if they had all been contemporaneous. 



