Archeology: Ages of Metal. 2J 



being easier to grind or to chip, might antece- 

 dently be regarded as the material for savage days. 

 But we shall see that even stone has its uses at all 

 times, within historic limits too; and, upon occa- 

 sions, seems to be preferred. What ground can 

 there be for dividing off a prehistoric age of metal? 



22. If the ground is this — a preconceived theory 

 that metallurgy, or the working of metals, must be 

 found somewhere in an incipient and transitional 

 state, following on a supposed earlier age of igno- 

 rance and ape-like incapacity, we have only to re- 

 mark that such a latent theory is, in the first place, 

 a gratuitous postulate, assuming the very thing to 

 be proved, if evolution is to be made to stand. In 

 the second place, it is invalidated or contradicted 

 by scientific and documentary evidence. For sci- 

 entific explorations in Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, 

 show the use of metals there so far back in the past 

 that there is no warrant as yet for affirming the exist- 

 ence of a previous age, either of stone or of any- 

 thing else. And positive documentary history in- 

 forms us that, in Asia, tools of bronze and iron were 

 a product of industry as far back as Tubal-Cain, very 

 long, indeed, before historic annals began to be 

 dated over Europe. 



23. As to bronze, in particular, authors consider 

 themselves qualified to deny entirely 



that such an age existed anywhere. 



Perhaps, however, in a modified sense, that may be 



called an age of bronze in Switzerland and Savoy 



BUREAU OF tlnNuLuur, J 



1894 



LIBRARY. 



