MORLOT — SOME GENERAL VIEWS ON ARCHEOLOGY. 



51 



It is finally worthy of remark tliat tlie " momid-b"uilders," as tlie 

 Americans call tlie race of tlie copper-age, seem to have preceded 

 and prepared the Mexican civilization, destroyed by the Spaniards ; 

 for in progressing southwards, a gradual transition is noticed from 

 the ancient earth- works of the Mississippi valley to the more modern 

 constructions of Mexico, as found by Cortez. 



In Europe the remains of a copper-age are wanting. Here and 

 there a soHtary hatchet of pure copper is found ; but this can easily 

 be accounted for by the greater frequency of copper, while tin had 

 usually to be brought from a greater distance, so that its supply was 

 more precarious. 



Europe did not witness the regular development of a copper-age. 

 It seems, according to M. Troy on' s very just remark, that the art of 

 manufacturing bronze was brought from another quarter of the 

 world, where it had been previously invented. It was most probable 

 some region in Asia, producing both copper and tin, where these two 

 metals were first brought into artificial combination, and where also 

 traces of a still earher copper- age are hkely to be found. 



An apparently serious objection might be started here, by raising 

 the question how mines could be worked without the aid of steel. 

 This, however, is sufl&ciently explained by the fact that the hardest 

 rocks can be easily managed by the agency of fire. By lighting a 

 large fire against a rock, the latter is rent and fissured, so as to facih- 

 tate considerably its quarrying. This method was frequently 

 employed when wood was cheaper, and is even practised in the pre- 

 sent day in the mines of the Rammelsberg, in Germany, where it 

 facilitates the working of a rock of extreme hardness. 



That metal of dingy and sorry appearance, but more precious than 

 gold or the diamond — iron — at length appears, giving a wonderful 

 impulse to the progressive march of mankind, and characterizing the 

 third great phase in the development of European civilization, very 

 properly called the Iron-age. 



Our planet never produces iron in its metallic or virgin state, for 

 the simple reason that it is too liable to oxydation. But among the 

 aeroHtes there are some composed of pure iron, with a little nickel, 

 which alters neither the appearance, nor the quahties of the metal. 

 Thus the celebrated meteoric stone met with by Pallas in Siberia was 



