MORLOT — SOME GENERAL VIEWS ON ARCHEOLOGY. 



49 



as it allows civilized nations to work metals. Tlie importance is so 

 great, that deprived of it man would perhaps scarcely have risen 

 above the condition of the brute. The ancients already were sensible 

 of this. Witness the fable of " Prometheus." As to their sacred 

 perpetual fire, its origin seems to lie in the difficulty of procuring it, 

 thereby rendering its preservation essential. 



In Europe the Stone-age came to an end by the introduction of 

 bronze. This metal is an alloy of about nine parts of copper and one 

 part of tin.* It melts and moulds well ; the molten mass, in cool- 

 ing, slowly acquires a tolerable degree of hardness — inferior to that 

 of steel it is true, but superior to that of very pure iron. We there- 

 fore understand how bronze would long be used for manufacturing 

 cutting-instruments, weapons, and numerous personal ornaments. 

 The northern antiquarians have very properly called this second 

 great phase in the development of European civilization the 

 Bronze-age. 



The bronze articles of this period, with a few trifling exceptions, 

 have not been produced by hammering, but have been cast, often 

 with a considerable degree of skill. Even the sword-blades were 

 cast, and the hammer (of stone) was only used to impart a greater 

 degree of hardness to the edge of the weapon. 



The Bronze-age has, therefore, witnessed a mining industry which 

 was completely wanting during the Stone-age. Now the art of 

 mining is so essential to civilization, that v^thout it the world would 

 perhaps yet be exclusively inhabited by savages. It is, therefore, 

 worth our while to inquire more closely into the origin of bronze. 



Copper was not very difficult to obtain. In the first place, virgin 

 copper is not exceedingly scarce. Then the different kinds of ore 

 v^^hich contain copper, combined with other elements, are either 

 highly coloured, or present a marked metallic appearance, and are 

 consequently easily known ; they are besides not hard to smelt, so 

 as to separate the metal. Einally, copper-ore is not at all scarce, it 

 is met with in the older geological series of most countries. 



Virgin tin is unknown, but tin-ore is heavy, of dark colour, and 



* Bronze is still used for casting bells, cannon, and certain parts of machinery. 

 It must not be confounded with common brass, which is a compound of copper 

 and zinc, much less hard, and appearing only in the Iron-age. 



VOL. III. a 



