28 Prehistoric Races. 



which witnessed a great local development of this 

 kind of metallurgy, as the rich stations of bronze- 

 remains in those places seem to indicate. Or, at 

 times, it would appear that bronze w r as specially 

 imported into a certain country, as Egypt; or, gen- 

 erally, becoming an article of commercial import- 

 ance, it overspread Europe with Tuscan work. 



24. But if this is all that the " age of bronze " 

 comes to, or the " age of iron," then the analysis of 

 history is making these prehistoric periods less dis- 

 tinct, the more we know. It looks as if this ro- 

 mance of a scientific generation were coming down 

 to the homely synthesis of Moses, Homer and Livy, 

 and as if the imposing term " prehistoric, " which 

 has been so vaguely magnificent in science, because 

 so magnificently vague, were but a, new phrase for 

 the old idea, "Once upon a time! ,, equally obscure, 

 but less pretentious. 



25. Older than the age of the metals is that of 



stone, and, first, of polished or ground 



Neolithic Age. _, . . . . „ , . 



stone. This is otherwise called the 

 neolithic, or newer stone age; the one to be men- 

 tioned next being called palaeolithic, or older stone 

 period. The specimens of work which are referred 

 to it are axes, chisels, etc., made of such materials 

 as diorite, serpentine, basalt, quartzite. There are 

 clay vessels, too, hand-made but elegant. In the 

 artificial shell-deposits which are seen in Denmark, 

 and are referred to this epoch, there are found 

 tools of flint, horn and bone, fragments of a rude 



