ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERIODS. 9 



time, however long it may have been, is much too trifling to be 

 taken into consideration when periods of such duration as those 

 of archaeology are being dealt with. Moreover, the passage 

 from the true Stone Age into the Bronze Age may have been 

 actually somewhat sudden, if, as is not altogether improbable, 

 metallurgical knowledge came in with one of those great folk- 

 waves which have successively swept over Europe. But in 

 whatever manner that knowledge was acquired it is certain 

 that, long after cutting -instruments of bronze had come into 

 use in every region of our continent, stone implements con- 

 tinued to be employed for many purposes, and are found com- 

 mingled with relics of bronze in the "finds" that belong to 

 that period. Thus the presence of a single bronze weapon, if 

 it occur along with relics of stone in such a way as to leave 

 no doubt that it was buried along with them, is sufficient 

 proof that the relics in question cannot pertain to the true 

 Stone Age. And for the same reason we must not assign any 

 assemblage of bronze implements to the Bronze Age, however 

 numerous they may be, if a single iron implement has been 

 found in like manner along with them. For just as stone 

 implements were largely made use of long after the knowledge 

 of casting bronze had been acquired, so bronze continued to 

 be employed, especially for trinkets and ornaments, far on into 

 the true Iron Age. 



With the aid of these ancient stone and metallic implements 

 it has now become possible to ascertain the relative age of 

 many other interesting objects of antiquity, such as stone circles, 

 and other megalithic monuments, barrows, forts, camps, dwelling- 

 places, and so forth. For example, if upon examining some 

 sepulchral chamber, such as usually occurs in the so-called 

 barrows, we should find only bronze implements, or a mixture 

 of these with relics of stone, and if there was no appearance of 

 the place ever having been disturbed since the stones and earth 

 were heaped above it, we should conclude that the interment 

 belonged to the Bronze Period. But if one or more instruments 

 of iron occurred amongst the others we should refer the burial to 



