# Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period/Chapter 10

CHAPTER X.
THE FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OP CULTURE.—THE BRONZE AGE.
Celtic Invasion of the British Isles.
The Iberic peoples lived in Britain, secure from invasion during the whole of the Neolithic age, while Gaul and Spain were being conquered by the ancestors of the Celts of history. In the course of time the knowledge of bronze was spread through the continent, and the great superiority of the civilisation, of which it is the emblem, led to the invasion of Britain. Bronze weapons ensured victory over enemies armed with the old weapons of stone, and consequently the introduction of the new material must necessarily have led to frequent wars. The knowledge of bronze must have affected the warfare ​of the time in the same way as the introduction of gunpowder affected the warfare of the Middle Ages.
The tall, round- or broad-headed Celts described in the last chapter, composing the van of the great Aryan army, ultimately destined to rule the west, brought with them the knowledge of bronze into Britain, and are proved to have conquered nearly every part of the British Isles, by their tombs scattered over the face of the country, alike in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. The conquered peoples survived probably in a state of slavery, and were only preserved from absorption in the west,—where farther retreat was forbidden by the waters of the ocean. They are proved, however, by the human skulls discovered in the Heathery Burn cave near Durham, in association with bronze articles, to have been living in north-eastern Yorkshire during the late Bronze age; during the time that the swords and spears, and other articles mentioned in the following list, were in use. Thus the Celtic conquest of Gaul was repeated in Britain, with precisely the same ethnical results (see Figs. 112, 113), the only difference being that the conquest of the one took place in the Neolithic age, while the conquest of the other spread the civilisation of the Bronze age over regions where it had hitherto been unknown.
The introduction of bronze into the other countries of Europe is not marked by an invasion like that of Britain. In Scandinavia the Neolithic inhabitants acquired the bronze civilisation without any evidence of the appearance of a new people, and in Switzerland and France the Neolithic stage of culture passed away without any break in the ethnical continuity. Nevertheless, for the reasons given above, the new weapons would necessarily ​lead to warfare, and as the Celtic peoples to the east and south of Gaul would be likely to benefit first by the discovery, they would be the first to use the new weapons in their wars against their hereditary enemies the Iberic tribes of the west.
The use of bronze did not immediately drive out the use of polished stone in this country. In the tumulus, for example, at Upton Lovel, Wilts, four flint celts, a perforated hammer-axe, numerous bone implements, and a bronze pin, were found along with the unburnt bones of the dead. In three barrows in Yorkshire also, the Rev. W. Greenwell has discovered polished stone axes, in two cases along with the ashes of the dead, and with vases; and in a third under conditions which did not necessarily imply that it was connected with an interment. That these stone implements really belong to the Bronze age is proved by the practice of cremation and the presence of the characteristic pottery, un- known in this country before. While the chiefs and the rich possessed bronze implements and weapons, the poorer classes would naturally continue to use those of stone, and bronze could only have come into universal use when it became cheap.
The Classification of the Bronze Age in Britain.
The Bronze age in Britain is divided by Mr. Evans into an early and a late stage, the first of which was a period of transition, when the use of bronze was superseding that of stone, and is characterised by the presence of bronze daggers (Figs. 114, 115) and plain ​wedge-shaped axes (see Fig. 116), originally modelled from a prototype in stone.
Fig. 114.—Bronze Dagger-blade, Round Barrow, East Kennet, Wilts, 2/3.
Fig. 115.—Bronze Dagger-blade, Barrow, Camerton, Somerset, 2/3.
In one case in Italy a polished stone celt has been cast in bronze. To it belong nearly all the burial-places referable to the Bronze age in this country. In the following table the contents of those explored by the Rev. W. Greenwell in the North of England, by Mr. Bateman in Derbyshire, and Dr. Thurnam in Wiltshire, are tabulated so as to show the manner in which the articles are associated together. It will be observed that the higher forms of bronze implements and weapons are entirely absent.
Articles of Early Bronze Age in Britain and France.
| | Greenwell. North of England. | Bateman. Derbyshire. | Thurnam. Wiltshire. | Thurnam. Wiltshire. | Chantre. Chambered Tombs, Cevennes. | Chantre. Chambered Tombs, Cevennes. |
| Material.Name. | | | | | | |
| Stone.Arrows................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 11 | 24 | | 6 | | 1145 |
| Lances................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 1 | 31 | | ... | $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ | 63 |
| Poignards................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | 3 | | 3 | $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ | 63 |
| Knives................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 50 | 4 | | ... | $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ | 180 |
| Scrapers................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 30 | 5 | | ... | $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ | 180 |
| Chisels................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | 2 | | | | |
| Saw................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 1 | | | | | |
| Axes................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 2 | 2 | | 4 | | 17 |
| Axe-hammers................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 4 | 1 | | 7 | | |
| Beads................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 1 | ... | | ... | | 5761 |
| Whorls................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | | ... | | 531 |
| Pendants................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | | ... | | 69 |
| Button................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 1 | | | | | |
| Shell.Pendants................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | | ... | | 258 |
| Necklace................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 1 | | | | | |
| Bone and Teeth.Pendants................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | | ... | | 185 |
| Pins................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 23 | 7 | | 18 | | 43 |
| Combs................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | 2 | | ... | | |
| Beads................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 4 | 1 | | 4 | | 267 |
| Tweezers................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | | 7 | | |
| Amber.Beads................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | | 21 | | 21 |
| Buttons................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | | 3 | | |
| Rings................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | | 2 | | |
| Jet.Buttons................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 16 | 1 | | 4 | | |
| Rings................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 7 | .. | | 7 | | |
| Beads and Pendants................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 12 | 2 | | 17 | | |
| Glass.Beads................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | | 13 | | 41 |
| Gold.Ornaments................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | | 19 | | |
| Bronze.Plain Axe................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 1 | 1 | | 5 | | 1 |
| Knives................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 2 | ... | $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ | ... | | 1 |
| Daggers and Knife Daggers................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 4 | 12 | $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ | 60 ... | | 22 |
| Lances................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | | ... | | 3 |
| Arrow-heads................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | | ... | | 29 |
| Drill................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 1 | ... | $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ | 38 | | 13 |
| Pins and Awls................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 15 | 9 | $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ | 38 | | 13 |
| Bracelets................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | | 1 | | 37 |
| Finger-rings................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | | ... | | 29 |
| Rings................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | | ... | | 67 |
| Ear-rings................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 2 | | | | | |
| Buttons................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | | ... | | 19 |
| Beads................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | | 1 | | 278 |
| Pottery.Pottery................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 199 | 23 | | | | |
| Bead................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 1 | | | | | |
| Number of Burial-places................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 210 | 90 | | 350 | | |
Articles of late Bronze Age in Britain.
| | Nottingham. Proceed. Soc. Antiq. ss. i. p. 332. | Guildsfield. Proceed. Soc. Antiq. ss. ii. | Ty-Mawr. Holyhead Mountain. Archæol. Journ. xxiv. | Granta Fen, Ely. Proceed. Soc. Antiq. ss. ii. 103. | Quantock Hills. Archæologia, xlv. p. 93. ss. I. p.332. | Heathery Burn Cave. Greenwell. |
| Bronze. | | | | | | |
| Implements— | | | | | | |
| Palstaves................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 1 | 1 | ... | ... | x | |
| Socketed Celts................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 16 | ... | x | ... | ... | x |
| Mould for Celts................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | x |
| Knife................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 1 | ... | ... | ... | ... | x |
| Chisels................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | x | ... | ... | x |
| Gouges................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | x |
| Tongs................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | x |
| Razors................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | x |
| Weapons— | | | | | | |
| Socketed Spear-heads................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 4 | 1 | | | | |
| Socketed Daggers................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | x | x | ... | x |
| Swords................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 6 | 1 | x | | | |
| Scabbards................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | 1 | ... | ... | ... | x |
| Ornaments— | | | | | | |
| Circular Ornament................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 1 | | | | | |
| Quadrangular tube................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | 1 | | | | | |
| Rings................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | x | ... | ... | x |
| Armlets................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | x | | | x |
| Bracelets................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | x |
| Pins................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | x |
| Gold. | | | | | | |
| Torques................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | ... | x | x | |
| Armlets................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | ... | x | | |
| Ornaments of Split-ring type................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | x |
| Amber. | | | | | | |
| Beads................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | x |
The early and late divisions of the Bronze age shade off into one another, and may have been the result of the gradual development of commerce. The absence of the higher forms from the burial-grounds may have been caused by the practice of burying the simpler forms with the dead, although both may have been in use at the same time. On the one hand it may be argued that the lower must have preceded the higher in point of time, and, on the other, that this only applies to the evolution of form in general, and that it does not afford ground for the view, that in any given country the two may not have been introduced from some other region at approximately the same time. The knowledge of bronze was undoubtedly introduced into Britain from without, and in the natural course of events the simpler forms would be the first to arrive. On taking into consideration the light thrown on this point by the discoveries on the Continent, it is very probable that the wedge-shaped axe and the dagger, and personal ornaments, were the first articles of bronze known among the Neolithic peoples of the north, and it is very likely that the habit of burying them continued down to the later age of Bronze. The people in those days must have buried their dead, and if the above hypothesis be not held, it is impossible to explain the exceeding rarity of the higher forms in their tumuli. Two socketed spear-heads, one ​palstave, and one socketed celt, have been recorded from burial-places of the Bronze age in Britain.
We must also remark that bronze has been used in all ages since the Neolithic, and that many of the more beautiful bronze ornaments, and the shields and armour, found in this country, probably belong to the age of Iron. In cases of the discovery of isolated articles, the age can only be ascertained by the forms and the style of ornamentation, and these are by no means certain guides, since frequently, under exceptional conditions, an ancient type may survive into an age very far remote from that in which it was normal.
In dealing with the Bronze age in Britain and Ireland, I shall not attempt to distinguish between the early and the late stages, which cannot be treated in the limits of this work.
The Axe in Culture.
It is difficult to over-estimate the work done by the axe in advancing civilisation. The stone axes, easily blunted and broken, could have made but little impression on the vast forests of pine, oak, and beech, covering the greater part of Britain and the Continent in the Neolithic age. Clearings necessary for pasture and agriculture must unquestionably, then, have been produced principally by the aid of fire. Under the edge of the bronze axe, clearings would be rapidly produced, pasture and arable land would begin to spread over the surface of the country. With the disappearance of the forest the wild animals would become scarce, hunting ​would cease to be so important, agriculture would improve, and a higher civilisation inevitably follow. Figs. 116. 118. 120. Bronze Axes in Handles (Lane Fox). When first the sound of the woodman's axe was heard in the forests of the north, the victory of man over his natural environment was secured, and forest and morass became his for ever. The invention of the metal axe is, therefore, of the highest importance in the history of civilisation, and its use marks a new phase in the history of Europe.
Fig. 117.—Palstave, Nettleham, Lincolnshire, 1/2.
The axes of the Bronze age consist of three distinct types. The first and the oldest is that represented by the simple wedge secured by being fastened into the wooden handle in the manner shown in Fig. 116. An axe hafted in this manner must obviously in the course of time have split its handle, and to prevent this the form of Fig. 117 was invented, in which the handle was applied to the head as represented in Fig. 118. The edges of the simple wedge gradually developed ​flanges (Fig. 119), and passed into the palstave (Figs. 117, 118).
| Fig. 119.—Flanged Axe, Arreton, Isle of Wight, 1/2. | Fig. 121.—Socketed Celt, Thames, Kew. 1/2. |
This again proved inconvenient, and a third form was invented, in which the handle was let into a socket in the head of the axe, as in Figs. 120, 121. The second and the third of these have never been found in association with the first in this country. It is strange that the bronze-smiths should not have hit upon the mode by which we insert handles in our axes, which seems so natural and obvious, and it is still more so when we reflect that the hammer- and battle-axes of stone, perforated for the reception of the straight handle, were used in the early Bronze age. These, however, were not copied from bronze ​originals. The few which have been discovered in north Germany and Italy are obviously metallic reproductions of forms originally done in stone. The perforated bronze axes (Figs. 148, 149) found in Scandinavia are referred by Worsaae to the Iron age of the south of Europe.
Habitations in Britain in the Bronze Age.
The houses of the Bronze folk in Britain were probably of the same sort as those of their predecessors, but may be assumed to have been larger and better built, because the tools were better. At the present time the round houses of the ancient Celtic inhabitants are represented by the round stone dwellings of the peasants still used in the north of Scotland and in the Orkneys. Sometimes, for the sake of protection, houses were built upon piles driven into a morass or bottom of a lake, as for example in Barton Mere, near Bury-St.- Edmunds, where bronze spear-heads have been discovered, one eighteen inches long, in and around piles and large blocks of stone, as in some of the lakes of Switzerland. Along with them were vast quantities of the broken bones of the stag, roe, wild boar, and hare, to which must also be added the urus, an animal proved to be wild by its large bones, with strongly-marked ridges for the attachment of muscles. The inhabitants also fed upon domestic animals, the horse, short-horned ox, ​and domestic hog, and in all probability the dog, the bones of the last-named animal being in the same fractured state as those of the rest. Fragments of pottery were also found. The accumulation may be inferred to belong to the late rather than the early Bronze age, from the discovery of a socketed spear-head.
This discovery is of considerable zoological value, since it proves that the urus was living in Britain in a wild state as late as the Bronze age. It must, however, have been very rare, since this is the only case of its occurrence at this period in Britain with which I am acquainted.
Lake Dwellings in Ireland.
The crannoges, or platforms of clay and stone, interlaced with or supported by timber, and based on small shallows or islets in the Irish lakes, have been inhabited from the Bronze age to as late as A.D. 1641. In that year the crannoge in Roughan lake, near Dungannon, afforded shelter to Sir Phelim O'Neill, and it is proved to belong to the former age by the discovery of bronze spear-heads in the old refuse-heaps. In Mr. Kinahan's opinion some of these platforms supported a circular stockade within which the huts of the inhabitants were arranged under one roof common to all, which sloped from the stockade to a courtyard in the centre.
The wooden cabins or huts, constructed of wattles or tempered clay, and the small stone houses, called cloghauns, in which the Irish peasantry have lived within the Historic period, are probably survivals from ​the Bronze age, just as the habit of using crannoges is also a survival. The same remark applies also to the round beehive huts of the Orkneys and the North of Scotland. The relation of "cloghauns" to the raths or forts, which abound in Ireland as well as in Britain, is shown by an appeal to the habits of the Irish in the sixteenth century. "So late as that time," writes Sir William Wilde, "the native Irish retained their wandering habits, tilling a piece of fertile land in the spring, then retiring with their herds to the booleys, or dairy habitations (generally in mountain districts) in the summer, and moving about where the herbage afforded sustenance to their cattle. They lived, as Spencer describes them in the reign of Elizabeth, 'on their milk and white meats' (curds, cheese, with meal, and probably calves' flesh, etc.), and returning in autumn to secure their crops, they remained in community in their forts or entrenched villages during the winter. The remains of thousands of these forts or raths still stud the lowlands of every county in Ireland, notwithstanding the thousands which have been obliterated. They are earthen enclosures, generally circular, and varying in extent from a few perches to an acre or more, and afforded protection to the inhabitants and their flocks against the ravages of beasts of prey with which the country then abounded, or against the predatory incursions of hostile tribes either in war or during a cattle raid. A breastwork of earth from four to eight feet high surrounded the enclosure, being the material ready at hand, and the most easily worked, and was probably surmounted by a stake fence. In some a ditch surrounded the earthwork. Upon some of the plains, as well as the hill-sides, stone fortresses ​were occasionally erected, where such material abounded loose on the surface, or could be procured in the neighbourhood without quarrying. These duns or stone forts were always put together without cement, but they are more of a military than a domestic nature. In the circle of these forts, both stone and earthen, there existed chambers and galleries which probably served as granaries or places of security for the preservation of valuables, and to which the young and weak might resort in cases of invasion, or any sudden attack."
Caves were rarely used in the Bronze age as habitations. That at Heathery Burn contained a large assortment of bronze articles, enumerated above (p. 347), with the remains of the Celtic short-horn and other animals. Two human skulls, discovered at the same time, are referred by Prof. Huxley to the long-headed Iberic type, described in the last chapter. Bronze implements of the late Bronze age have been discovered in three other caves in this country,—in the Cat Hole in Cower, in Thor's Cave in Staffordshire, and in Cave Dale, Castleton.
Clothing and Ornaments of the Bronze Folk in Britain.
In attempting to picture to ourselves the men of the Bronze age in Britain, it is necessary to make use of articles sometimes isolated, sometimes accumulated together in hoards, and at others buried with the dead. We will first of all deal with their personal appearance, and then pass on to a consideration of their mode of life.
The rich and the chiefs were clothed in linen, or in woollen homespun, fragments of which have been discovered by the Rev. W. Greenwell in the Scale-house ​barrow, Rylstone, Yorkshire.
Fig. 122.—Bronze Hair-pin, Wandle. In Scandinavia they wore woollen cloaks, and a round woollen cap on the head, and their legs and feet were protected by leather leggings and sandals. A dagger (Figs. 114, 115), attached to the girdle in a sheath of wood or leather, and an axe, of one of the three types above, were their constant companions—sometimes ornamented, as in Fig. 121, with various geometric patterns, either cast or hammered. The face was shaven, and the beard, moustaches, or whiskers were sometimes plucked out. The hair was worn long, and arranged into a pyramid sufficiently large, in some cases, to allow of the use of a hair-pin (Fig. 122) twenty inches long. So careful were they of their coiffure, that they are proved, in the lake-dwellings of Switzerland, to have used head-rests made of pottery, like those of the ancient Egyptians in wood, to prevent its being disarranged in sleep. Similar articles are used by the Abyssinian dandies of the present day, and by other African peoples, ​whose wonderful head-dresses are described by Cameron and Stanley. They are also used in Japan and New Zealand, Earrings and necklaces were also worn, and pendants and amulets made of stone and bone, as well as bronze and glass.
Fig. 123.—Amber Necklace, Lake, Wilts, 3/4
Fig. 124.—Gold Beads. a Upton Lovel; b Bircham; c Normanton, 1/1
In Fig. 123 a necklace of amber is represented from a ​tumulus at Lake, in Wiltshire. The gold beads in Fig. 124 show that sometimes their ornaments were made of precious metals. On their arms they wore bracelets, round, flat, or hollow, ornamented with various designs, generally in chevrons or right lines, either continuous or dotted, and sometimes with circles. The golden coronets or minns and collars worn in Ireland in the legendary times preceding history perpetuate a form of ornament in use in the Bronze age, as is proved by the identity of the patterns in chevrons and right lines (Fig. 146) with those on some of the bronze weapons. Similar ornaments in gold have been discovered in Brittany and Germany, and in Scandinavia in bronze, as in Fig. 147.
Lighting Fires and Woodcutting.
Fire was obtained in the Bronze age by striking a flint flake against a piece of iron pyrites, and these are sometimes found together in the tumuli, as in Fig. 125.
Fig. 125.—Strike-a-Light, Seven Barrows, Lambourne, Berks, 2/3. The name of pyrites (πῦρ) is itself, as Mr. Evans remarks, sufficient evidence of the purpose to which the mineral was applied in ancient times; and the statement of Pliny that fire was first struck out ​of flint by Pyrodes, the son of Cilix, is a myth which points to the use of silex and pyrites rather than of steel.
The important position of the axe in the Bronze civilisation is proved by its numbers; and the introduction of edged tools of metal must have caused a great improvement in the carpentery. Chisels, gouges, and adzes, and little bronze saws, from three to five inches long, apparently, from their small size, imitated from the serrated flint flakes of the Neolithic age, were their most usual tools for cutting wood.
Spinning and Weaving.
Spinning and weaving were carried to a higher pitch of perfection in the Bronze age than before. In the Neolithic age the material employed for fabrics was composed of linen; in that of Bronze the art of spinning wool into thread, and of weaving it into cloth, first makes its appearance. In the Scale-house barrow, Rylstone, to which we have already referred, the body had been covered from head to foot in cloth before being buried in the coffin, composed of a hollow oak trunk. The body had been turned into adipocere. It must be observed that woollen fabrics can be preserved only under very rare circumstances. They are completely destroyed by fire, and they rapidly decay in water; and it is only under those imperfectly known and exceptional conditions in which the body is turned into adipocere, and the bones into phosphate of iron, from the percolation of water charged with salts of iron, that they withstand decay. It does not therefore follow that the ​manufacture of woollens was not commonly carried on in Europe in the Bronze age, because the cloth has been so rarely discovered.
Agriculture and Farming.
Fig. 126.—Bronze Reaping-hook, Tay. The domestic animals in the Bronze age in Britain were of the breeds introduced in the Neolithic age. The corn was probably the same, but possibly the oats and beans, which appear for the first time in the lake-dwellings of the Bronze age in Switzerland, may have also found their way to Britain. The harvest was gathered in with reaping-hooks (Fig. 126) of the small kind used for cutting off the ears, after the manner universal among the Greeks and Romans. In the sketches of various scenes in the life of the Bronze folk in Scandinavia, the horse was employed both for riding and driving, and oxen were used for ploughing. This is likely to have been the case in Britain.
Pottery.—Cups of Gold and Amber.
Fig. 127.—Drinking Cup, East Kennet, 1/2.
Cornwall, was made in this country; and it is equally doubtful whether that of amber, found at Hove, in a rude
Fig. 128.—Incense Cup, Bulford, Wilts, 1/2.
Bronze-Working.
Fig. 129.—Bronze Celt Mould, Heathery Burn, 1/2. The fashioning of bronze in this country into various articles is proved by the discoveries of stocks in trade of bronze-smiths, in which hammers, anvils, cold chisels, pointed awls, and stamps have been met with for working the bronze. Moulds also in stone and in bronze were used for casting, and are sometimes found along with broken implements and ornaments ready for the smelting-pot. The bronze mould (Fig. 129) found in Heathery Burn cave (see p. 347) was discovered along with celts which had been cast in it. It is evident, therefore, that implements were made in this country, as they were in France, Germany, and Scandinavia. The bronze-smiths were acquainted with the art of casting, of hardening the bronze by hammering, of beating it out into thin plates, and ​working it in repoussé. The two last processes were probably introduced after the first was known, although, when the first art had once been learnt, the others would quickly follow.
Dr. Robinson laid before the Royal Irish Academy, in 1848, an interesting discovery of bronze articles in Dowris bog, near Parsonstown, King's County, Ireland. They consisted of thirteen bronze trumpets, some cast, and others with riveted seams, thirty-one celts, twenty-nine spear-heads, three gouges, thirty-one bells, several bronze vessels of large size, of which one in the possession of Lord Rosse is composed of two pieces of bronze neatly riveted together. Some of the objects were imperfectly cast, others had been injured and broken up. There were also small jets of metal which had overflowed from the moulds, and pieces of sandstone used for polishing, all of which showed that the accumulation of implements and weapons formed the stock in trade of a bronze-founder, similar to those met with in England, and still more abundantly in France. The bells are small, hollow, and pear-shaped, with rings at the top for suspension, and a loose piece of metal inside. In general form they resemble the bells attached to horses, and were probably intended for that purpose. This collection of articles belongs to the late Bronze age, and it proves that bronze-smiths carried on their craft in Ireland as well as England. Stone moulds found in Ireland have been described by Sir W. Wilde.
Weapons and Warfare.
Fig. 130—Bronze sword, Thurston, Whittingham, Northumberland, 1/4.
Fig. 131—Bronze sword, River Witham, Lincoln, 1/6.
The principal weapons for close combat, introduced by the Bronze folk into Britain, were the bronze axe and the dagger (Figs. 114 to 121), to which must be added in the later Bronze age, short, pointed, double-edged swords (Figs. 130, 131), sometimes leaf-shaped, and with small handles made of wood; more rarely the last had handles of bronze, adorned with spirals or chevrons. For fighting at a distance flint arrows were used, and in the early Bronze age javelins of various sizes tipped with flint. A set of four of these was found in the stone chamber at Winterbourne Stoke (Figs. 132, 133). These were afterwards replaced by bronze-headed spears and javelins (Figs. 134, 135, 136). Axe-hammers (Fig. 140) or stone maces, sometimes beautifully polished and ornamented with various patterns, were employed in the early Bronze age, and have been imitated in ​bronze in Germany and Italy. It is an open question whether bronze shields and armour, or helmets, were used in Britain in the Bronze age, since those which have been discovered are referable to the age of Iron. They are found, however, in Scandinavia, where the Bronze age lasted as late as the Christian era. Those in Britain were probably made of hide or wood.
Figs. 132, 133.—Two out of a set of four Javelin-heads, Winterbourne Stoke, 1/1.
Many of the camps made by the Neolithic inhabitants of Britain were occupied by the invading Celtic tribes, and some of those with the walls built of stones rudely fitted together,—such as that crowning Holyhead Mountain in Holyhead Island,—are proved by the implements ​found in and around them to date as far back as the Bronze age. Camps of this kind are very numerous, and imply that the tribes were frequently at war with each other, as in the preceding Neolithic age.
Burial Customs.
| Fig. 134.—Bronze Spear-head, Heathery Burn, 1/2. | Figs. 135, 136.—Bronze Spear and Javelin Heads, Thurston, Whittingham, Northumberland, 1/4. |
The invasion of Britain by the bronze-using Celtic tribes is marked by a striking change in the customs of burial, which probably is the sign of the introduction of a new faith. In the Neolithic age ​the dead were interred surrounded by the implements, weapons, and ornaments for use in the future life. In the Bronze age the dead were burned,—were purified by being passed through the fire, along with their possessions. Cremation, however, did not altogether abolish the older practice of inhumation. It is evident that both were carried on simultaneously, from the researches of Thurnam in the south of England, Bateman in Derbyshire, and Greenwell in the northern counties. The one may have been connected, as Dr. Fred. Wiberg suggests, with the worship of fire, and the other may have been employed by the descendants of the Neolithic Britons from the force of habit, and from its cheapness by the poorer classes.
Fig. 137.—Disc-shaped Barrow.
The barrows and cairns of the Bronze age are generally round, and without large sepulchral chambers with passages leading into them, such as we have seen in the more important Neolithic burial-places. In Scotland, however, and in Ireland and in France, large sepulchral chambers of this age are not uncommon. Sometimes the barrows are disc-shaped, and consist of a circular area about a hundred feet in diameter, surrounded by a ring of earth and a ditch with a low mound, or mounds, to mark the interment in the centre (Fig. 137). Sometimes they are bell-shaped, and at others bowl-shaped (Figs. 138, 139) or oval. These varieties have been ​chiefly met with in the south of England.
Fig. 138.—Bell-shaped Barrow.
Fig. 139.—Section of Bowl-shaped Barrow, East Kennet, Avebury, Wilts.
In cases of inhumation the dead were usually buried in the contracted posture, as in the oval tumulus at Winterbourne Stoke, along with flint javelin-heads (Figs. 132, 133), and a drinking cup, and in the bowl-shaped barrow at East Kennet, along with a drinking cup figured above (Fig. 127), and a hammer-axe (Fig. 140). Sometimes the body, covered with linen or woollen clothing, rested at full length in a coffin made of the hollow trunk of an oak which had been split in two. Where cremation was practised the ashes of the dead ​were collected into a funeral urn, usually from twelve to eighteen inches high, and placed in a chamber,
Fig. 140.—Stone Axe-hammer, East Kennet, 2/3.
either standing upright with its mouth covered by a slab of stone or by flint, or with its mouth downwards as in the secondary interment in the Winterslow ​barrow (Fig. 141). Various articles and implements of daily use were thrown into the fire, and the burnt remains were sometimes placed in the urn with the ashes of the dead. The implements, weapons, and ornaments, enumerated in the list, p. 346, were also interred for use in the world of spirits, together with drinking cups of the type of Fig. 127, and more rarely with curious perforated earthenware vessels (Fig. 128), which probably were used either to carry the sacred fire with which to light the pile, or as censers in the funeral ceremonies; food also was placed for the dead, as well as flakes and splinters of flint. The tumulus or cairn was carefully raised over the urn, and the memory of the dead maintained by periodic feasts, after which either earth or stone was added to the height of the mound or cairn, each feast being represented by a layer of broken and burnt bones of the short-horned ox, horse, sheep or goat, and hog, together with charcoal.
Fig. 141.—Bell-shaped Barrow at Winterslow.
It not unfrequently happens that a barrow or cairn ​is found to contain examples of both modes of disposing of the dead. Generally the primary interment is that by inhumation; and the secondary, as in the accompanying Fig. 141, by cremation. In some cases, however, this arrangement is reversed.
If the articles found in the barrows in the above table (p. 346) be examined, it will be seen that the in- habitants of the southern counties, in the Bronze age, were richer and more civilised than those of the midland and of the north. This would inevitably follow from the introduction of the Bronze civilisation from the Continent: the nearest portions of Britain to France must then, as later in the days of Cæsar, have been greatly influenced by contact with the inhabitants of northern Gaul.
Temples of Bronze Age—Avebury—Stonehenge.
The numerous circles of stone or of earth in Britain and Ireland, varying in diameter from 30 or 40 feet up to 1200, are to be viewed as temples standing in the closest possible relation to the burial-places of the dead. The most imposing group of remains of this kind in this country is that of Avebury (Fig. 142), near Devizes, in Wiltshire, referred by Sir John Lubbock to a late stage in the Neolithic or to the beginning of the Bronze period. It consists of a large circle of unworked upright stones 1200 feet in diameter, surrounded by a fosse, which in turn is also surrounded by a rampart of earth. Inside are the remains of two concentric circles of stone, and from the two entrances in the rampart proceeded long avenues flanked by stones, one leading to Beckhampton, and the other to West Kennet, where ​it formerly ended in another double circle. Between them rises Silbury Hill, the largest artificial mound in Great Britain, no less than 130 feet in height. This group of remains was at one time second to none, "but unfortunately for us the pretty little village of Avebury, like some beautiful parasite, has grown up at the expense and in the midst of the ancient temple, and out of 650 great stones, not above twenty are still standing." In spite of this it is still to be classed among the finest ruins in Europe.
Fig. 142.—Avebury, restored by Mr. Fergusson. a, Silbury Hill; b, Waden Hill.
Fig. 143.—Ground-plan of Stonehenge as it probably was. (Stevens.)
Fig. 144.—Stonehenge as it probably was. (Brown.)
The foreign stones, composing the inner circle and the inner apse, some of which are igneous, may have been derived from Wales, Cornwall, or from the Channel Islands. It is obvious that they would not have been transported to Salisbury Plain excepting under the influence
Fig. 145a.—Ground-plan of Stonehenge as it is. (Stevens.)
Fig. 145b.—Stonehenge restored. (Long.)
​ of some strong religious feeling; and a peculiar value must have been attached to the material, since the stone of the neighbourhood would have satisfied all the purposes of a monument.
"If Stonehenge," writes Mr. Stevens, "was erected at two distinct periods, the horseshoe and circle of foreign stone (Figs. 143, b d, and 145) probably formed the earlier temple. It may even have been erected elsewhere at some former period, and then transported to Salisbury Plain and again set up. An intrusive and conquering people may have brought these hallowed stones with them, and have added to the impressive appearance of their old temple, in its new situation, by repeating its features on a far larger scale, using local stone for the purpose." The buildings surrounding the shrine of the Kaaba at Mecca, and the Casa Santa at Loreto, are modern examples of ancient shrines encased in later and more magnificent temples.
The date of both of these temples is indicated by the surrounding tombs. According to Dr. Thurnam, barrows of the Bronze age cluster thickly around Avebury, 106 being still to be seen in the sixteen square miles near it; while round Stonehenge Sir Richard Colt Hoare counted 300 within twelve square miles, and in the days of Stukeley 128 were visible from a hill close by.
These two great temples of an unknown worship represent the Canterbury Cathedral or Westminster Abbey of the period, while the smaller circles to be ​found scattered over the moors and hilltops in the south of England, in Wales and Cumberland, as well as in Scotland, are to be looked upon as the parish churches and chapels of ease. It has been urged by Mr. Fergusson, in his interesting work on Rude Stone Monuments, that these circles are merely tombs. Even if we allow that they originally were tombs in every case, it does not follow that they have not also been temples, for the religious sentiment has in all ages and in all places tended to centre in tombs which ultimately have become places of worship. Many of our Christian churches have originated in this manner, and it is a most obvious transition from the tomb to the temple. The worship of the spirits of the dead at the one would naturally grow into the worship of the Great Unknown in the other. Probably the idea of both large and small circles sprang originally from the stones placed round the base of the circular hut, which was the usual habitation in the Prehistoric period.
Stone circles are to be found over the greater part of Europe and Asia, as well as in northern Africa, and they have been used as places of burial, worship, or assembly by various peoples. Their archæological date in each case can only be fixed by the remains in and around them.
The large standing-stones or menhirs, by no means uncommon where large blocks of stone are easily obtained, may belong to the Neolithic as well as to the Bronze age, and have been objects of worship like the unwrought stone at Hyettos, adored by the Greeks as Herakles, or that taken for the Thespian Eros in ​the Bœotian festivals, or those worshipped by the Hindus.
Hollows or cups for the reception of the offerings to the spirits of the dead are recorded by Sir James Simpson on several megalithic circles and avenues, as well as on menhirs, and the stones of cromlechs, and chambered tumuli. Some of these probably belong to the Bronze as well as to the Neolithic age.
Artistic Designs.
The designs on articles of the Bronze age in Britain and Ireland are nearly all geometric, and animal forms are not represented. They are either stamped, cast, or engraved on metal, or stamped or moulded on pottery. Those figured below (Fig. 146) represent the principal
Fig. 146.—Designs of Bronze Age in France and Britain.
patterns of the Bronze age noted in France by M. Chantre: the whole of the first column and of the third, ​excepting 3 a, and 4 a and c of the fourth column, are characteristic of the Bronze age in Britain. The pottery- is very generally ornamented with a pattern rudely impressed with a cord or twisted thong, or with the point of a stick.
France in the Bronze Age.
The new and higher civilisation introduced into Britain by the Celtic invaders gradually found its way into every part of the country, and the Neolithic manners and customs, such as the habit of burying the dead in caves or in large chambered tombs, became obsolete; the practice of inhumation, formerly invariable, was to a large extent supplanted by that of cremation, although both were carried on in the Bronze age simultaneously, as in Greece and ancient Italy. Before this new civilisation can be satisfactorily analysed, it will be necessary to examine the condition of France, Germany, and Scandinavia during the Bronze age, and to see how it is related to that of the Mediterranean peoples.
The numerous discoveries made in France and Switzerland during the last thirty years, recently collected together by M. Chantre, prove that the divisions of the Bronze age, north of the Alps and west of the Rhine, are similar to those which we have noted in Britain. They are as follow:—
The third of these we shall discuss in the chapter on the Iron age. The other two are the exact equivalents of those of Britain. The association in tombs and sepulchral caves of the ordinary Neolithic implements with bronze articles and with bronze ornaments, characterises the first of these divisions (see Table, p. 346), which is named from the great number of interments of this sort in the region of the Cévennes. In the Second or the Rhodanian age, named from the many discoveries in the valley of the Rhone, bronze is no longer rare, but it has become a necessary in every-day life, and smiths' shops have sprung up in various regions in which the broken implements and ornaments were worked up into new forms. These two subdivisions shade off one into another, and are not more clearly defined in France than in Britain.
The Age of Transition, or the Early Bronze Age.
If we examine the table of the contents of 147 chambered tombs in the Cévennes (p. 346), compiled from the work of M. Chantre, it will be observed that the principal difference between tombs of the Bronze and those of the Neolithic age consists in the addition of articles of bronze and glass. Daggers are comparatively abundant, lances are rare, and only one bronze axe of the simple wedge-shaped type is met with. All the bronze articles are small, and capable of being easily carried, and most of them are intended for personal ornament. Pins, bracelets, and rings are far more common than knives ​daggers, or lances. The introduction of personal ornaments, and especially of glass, probably of Egyptian or Phœnician manufacture, before other articles, which may be presumed to have been used in the country where glass was manufactured, is what might have been anticipated from the past experience of the contact of peoples in different stages of civilisation. At the present time, the natives of Africa prefer articles which minister to their vanity to those of practical use, and glass beads are used as a medium of exchange by the traders, and pass from hand to hand into regions far beyond those into which our weapons and implements penetrate. This "period of transition" of M. Chantre is the necessary result of the intercourse of the inhabitants of France and Switzerland, at the close of the Neolithic age, with the civilised peoples south of the Alps, and it may be taken to be merely the first sign of their influence, subsequently to be felt in "the age of Bronze, properly so called."
From M. Chantre's observations it is evident that in France, as in Britain, cremation was practised side by side with inhumation.
The association of Neolithic implements with bronze articles is equally noticeable in some of the pile-dwellings of the Swiss and French lakes, and there is ample proof that the principal result of the introduction of bronze into those regions was the improvement of the civilisation which had existed long before.
The Late Age of Bronze in France and Switzerland.
The pile-dwellings of France and Switzerland, such more particularly as those in the lakes of Bourget, ​Geneva, Neuchâtel, and Bienne, contain remains referred by MM. Chantre, de Mortillet, and others, to the late age of Bronze. An examination of the principal bronze implements, weapons, and ornaments, compiled from M. Chantre's tables, shows at once to what an extent the later age of bronze differs from the earlier. Various implements for casting bronze, and stamping it and working it in repoussé, are found with tools for working wood, reaping hooks, and swords, daggers, lances, arrow-heads, horse furniture, and personal ornaments; the whole forming a series of a totally different nature from that of the earlier period. Stone implements were, however, still in use, such as saws, wedges, scrapers, and, to a smaller degree, also axes. It may be objected to this collection of things found in and around the lake habitations, that it may be the result of the occupation of the same spots during many centuries, and that it does not necessarily follow that these articles are in any sense contemporaneous. A relic-bed may have been the result of accumulation during long periods of time. This objection will hold good in many cases but not in all, since the frequent conflagrations, by which the settlements were destroyed, would cause the heavy stone and bronze articles in use at the same time to drop to the bottom of the lake. According to Colonel Schwab, about one quarter of the pile-dwellings in the lakes of Bienne and Neuchâtel were burned. It will not hold good in dealing with the "trésors" or hoards of bronze articles prepared for use, and concealed while being carried from one place to another, which have been met with in twenty-nine localities in France, nor will it apply to the sixty-seven hoards, in France and ​Switzerland, of broken implements and articles collected together for the purpose of being worked up by the bronze-smiths. In both these cases the articles were in use simultaneously, and their association offers us a standard of comparison by which the age of isolated finds may be ascertained.
In both these, as well as in the pile-dwellings of the early Bronze age, the plain wedge-axe is conspicuous by its absence, while all the other articles are of a higher and better kind than those which belong to that age.
Hoards of Bronze Merchandise.
The most important of the hoards of merchandise found in France is that discovered at Réallon, after a violent storm had devastated the district. The waters of a stream traversing a little village of that name had hollowed out a new channel for itself, and most of the antiquities were discovered by the villagers in the earth, deposited at a little distance away. They ultimately were purchased for the museum at St. Ger- main, together with those which M. Chantre was able to discover subsequently, representing altogether no less than 461 bronze articles, comprising knives, sickles, lance-heads, horse-bits, rings, buttons, pendants, and bracelets. With them were several small stone rings, a bead of amber, and two of blue glass. The position of Réallon is on a route which has been frequented for a long time, leading from the valley of the Durance to that of the Drac; and it was, M. Chantre remarks, probably that taken by travellers coming from primitive Etruria, from whom the inhabitants of the lake-dwellings "received beyond a doubt the ​knowledge of bronze." The discovery, then, is of especial importance, because it represents the goods of a merchant selected to suit the market of the north and west. The abundance of personal ornaments in it corresponds with that abundance which has been observed in the sepulchres of the early division of the Bronze age. Several other similar discoveries are described by M. Chantre. That of Vaudrevanges, near Sarrelouis, contains, among other things, a sword which is identical with that described by M. le Comte Gozzadini from Ronzano, in Italy. The proportion of ornaments in these hoards is almost the same as in the sepulchres of the Cevennian or early Bronze age. In the one they amount to 75⋅02 per cent; in the other they are 79⋅87. The conclusion which we should draw from this fact is, that these articles were en route to be sold to those who ultimately deposited them, as their chief valuables, in the tombs.
Hoards of the Bronze-smith.
The deposits of fragments of metal, with the necessary implements for working it, in France and Switzerland, no less than sixty-seven in number, differ from those of merchandise, in the fact that the articles have been prepared for working up again. In the case of the former they are either worn out or broken, in the latter they are new and selected for the market. That discovered at Larnaud in 1865, in a potato ground near Lons-le- Saulnier (Jura), may be taken to illustrate the association of articles, amounting to 1485 pieces, intended to pass through the melting pot, and therefore imperfect, but affording a true idea of the art and civilisation in France at one and the same time. Among the materials for ​smelting is a perfect ingot of bronze, weighing 2⋅840 kilos, boat-shaped, and perforated in the centre for convenience of carriage. Similar ingots have been met with in various parts of France, and are very readily mistaken for large and heavy hammers or picks. The tools for working bronze are represented in the following list:—
Materials for Smelting and Implements for Working Bronze.
The cold chisels are composed of bronze, with a large percentage of tin. The stamp is for working the plates of bronze, or possibly for making pottery or moulds. One is terminated by a disk, on which two circles are engraved round a central point. The other is a small elongated rectangular implement, with one end composed of a line of points and the other of a series of oblique lines. Both have evidently been employed in the composition of the beautiful patterns so conspicuous on the personal ornaments. We may therefore conclude that the manufacture of some of the higher works of art was carried on at this very spot.
Implements for various Purposes.
Some of the socketed axes have rings on the same side as the cutting edge, and have been intended for adzes. The sickles and most of the knives have tangs, and the razors, with an open metal-work handle, are of the same type as those found in Italy, Switzerland, and Britain. Two knives have metal handles cast in one piece with the blade, and one is ornamented with a pattern in oblique lines, such as would be produced from a mould marked with one of the stamps found in the hoard.
The arms arc represented in the following list:—
The only perfect dagger-blade is one made out of a broken bracelet hammered out, with a characteristic ​pattern on one side and the other perfectly smooth. A fragment of a round hilt has a large oval pommel, fiat on the upper surface. The arrow-heads are thin triangular plates of bronze, generally with a tang, some hammered, others cast, and only one with a socket. A portion of a horse-bit was also discovered, and three fragments considered by de Mortillet to belong to a chariot.
The collection of ornaments, intended for the most part to be worn on the clothing, is of singular interest and beauty, and presents designs and shapes very widely distributed over Europe. The more important of them are given below.
Personal Ornaments.
The bracelets are either hollow or solid, of the split-ring type, round or flat in section. Some have their ends turned back after the manner of many of those found in Britain, Germany, and Denmark, and most are adorned with patterns of the kind figured above (Fig. 146, 1, 2, 3). One fragment,—a thin rod of bronze, strongly ribbed and twisted into the shape of a bow, with one end twisted so as to form a spring, and the other flattened to receive the pin,—presents us with the most ​rudimentary form of brooch, or that of "the safety-pin." Five similar brooches have been discovered in lake- dwellings of the bronze age in Switzerland, and are to be seen in the museums of Berne, Zurich, and Bienne. Some of the clasps are highly ornamented, and present a pattern in waved lines and dots, which was widely spread throughout the Continent in the Bronze age. Simple torques with turned-up ends, and either twisted or adorned with chevrons, pins, various pendants, chains, and rings, complete the list of the more important ornaments.
Lake Dwellings of Late Bronze Age.
All the articles described in the preceding pages, from the hoards both of the merchant and the bronze-smith, occur in the lake-dwellings of France and Switzerland, assigned by M. Desor to "La Belle Age du Bronze en Suisse," and referred by M. Chantre to the Rhodanian age. They are found also in those considered by M. Chantre to belong to the transition of the age of Bronze to the age of Iron. Bronze swords occur at Moeringen, with hilts inlaid with iron, side by side with bronze-hilted iron swords, and bronze bracelets inlaid with iron. This association of iron with bronze is particularly important, occurring as it does here in the middle of the characteristic ornaments and weapons of the late Bronze age. Other articles before unknown in France or Switzerland also appear along with the new metal; such, for example, as the peculiar brooch made of twisted wire, of the "safety pin" kind, so abundant in the Etruskan tombs of Bologna, and horses' bits also of Etruskan design.
​The designs found on the metal-work and on the pottery of the late Bronze age in Switzerland and in France are those represented in Fig. 146, p. 378. The cross is met with in dots or in right lines, and more rarely the interlaced triangles. The spiral is also seen, but it is by no means so common as in German and Scandinavian bronzes.
The pottery of the late Bronze age in France and Switzerland is far better than that of Britain, and bears obvious traces of foreign influence. Sometimes it is ornamented with the mæander pattern, or with the mystic fylfot (Fig. 146, 4 e). Sometimes it is inlaid with paper-like strips of tin.
The Bronze Age in Scandinavia.
Fig. 147. Diadem of Bronze, Denmark. The Bronze age in Scandinavia is divided into an early and a late period by Worsaae, Montelius, and other antiquaries. To the first belong the great stone-chambered tombs with many skeletons, containing bronze implements and weapons beautifully adorned with spirals and right lines. All have been cast, and the ornaments are never engraved on the metal. In the later period the tombs consist of small stone chambers with cinerary urns, cremation for the most part replacing inhumation. The ornaments are sometimes engraved ​or stamped in repoussé. Socketed celts make their appearance, and articles which, according to Montelius, have been derived from the south of Europe. Most, however, have been manufactured in Scandinavia.
Fig. 148.—Bronze Battle-axe, Denmark.
Fig. 149.—Bronze Axe plated with gold.
The extraordinary beauty of Scandinavian bronze ornaments and weapons may be gathered from the accompanying figures. Fig. 147 represents a diadem of bronze found in Denmark, showing the characteristic style of ornamentation; and Fig. 148 a bronze battle-axe fifteen inches in length and seven pounds in weight. ​Axes, however, of this kind were not merely used in battle, but as insignia of rank. The original, for example, of Fig. 149 consists of a thin layer of bronze cast upon a nucleus of clay, sixteen inches long, and covered with a thin plating of gold. It obviously could not have been used as a weapon. Shields also composed of thin plates of bronze with the edge turned over a thick bronze wire, such as Fig. 150, were used by the warriors.
Fig. 150.—Bronze Shield in repoussé, Denmark.
Gold vessels and ornaments are met with, worked in repoussé, as in Fig. 151. The Bronze age in Scandinavia is remarkable not merely for the beauty of the workmanship, more especially of the hilts of the short leaf-shaped swords, but for the variety of weapons and ​ornaments. Many of these have been derived from more southern regions, and the evidence which they offer as to the overlapping of the Bronze and Iron ages in Europe, north of the Alps, is, as we shall see in the thirteenth chapter, of the very highest importance. The axes figured above are of the same pattern as those represented on the walls of the Etruskan tomb at Cære, and are altogether unlike any axes of the Bronze age either of France or of Britain. They belong to the Iron age of Italy. Fig. 151.—Gold Cup, Denmark.
In the classification of the Scandinavian antiquaries inhumation is supposed to mark a higher antiquity than cremation. It seems more probable from the associated works of art that the two were practised during the later Bronze age. In the tomb of Jaegersborg, near Copenhagen, a bronze shield was found ornamented with gold leaf, worked in repoussé, and of the same style as the golden articles to be described presently, belonging to the late Celtic or Prehistoric Iron age in Britain, and to the early Etruskan age of Hallstadt.
Sculptures of the Bronze Age in Scandinavia.
The sculptures on the glacier-worn rocks of Sweden, and on some of the tombs described by Montelius, ​Bruzelius, Nilsson, and Holmberg, convey to us a vivid idea of the life of the people in the north of Europe in the Bronze age. Fig. 152.—Man with Bronze Axe on a rock at Simrislund, Scania. In Fig. 152 we see a human figure represented, armed with a bronze axe. In some groups the characteristic stone axe-hammer with its handle is to be seen; in others the small-handled short sword, and the round buckler. Some of the figures of the warriors are larger than life-size. The sculptured rock at Tegneby, figured below (Fig. 153), may be taken as an example of some of the groups. In the upper part domestic oxen are represented with their driver, and a man is ploughing with a yoke of oxen. An archer is shooting, and down below a party of four men, armed with round shields and axes, are fighting. Boats also are represented, some of them drawn up in line, and one in front with a covered stern possesses an awning. On a rock in the same place a group of warriors is seen on horseback contending with spears, and ​armed with oblong shields. This may be claimed as the earliest example of the horse being used for riding in northern Europe.
Fig. 153.—Sculptured Rock at Tegneby, Bohuslän.
​ Fig. 154.—Engraved Slab Tomb, Kivik, Scania. In the sculptured slab in the tomb of Kivik, in Scania, a pair of horses is drawing a chariot of the rudest construction, on which stands the driver (Fig. 154). In the left-hand upper corner is an armed man with three captives, and at the bottom a row of eight draped figures, with a man in front of them. On another slab in the same tomb these figures are repeated; the armed man is present with his three captives, and a second also with three, and the draped figures are arranged four on each side of what appears to be an altar; while a row of men are represented above, three blowing the large curved horns of bronze, which have been repeatedly found in Scandinavia. In the same tomb boats of the kind figured above, and two crescents with scrolls of late Celtic design, are also represented; and two axes on each side of a cone, of the type figured above (Fig. 148), prove that the whole set belong to the late Bronze age in Scandinavia, or the Iron age of Italy, France, and Britain.
The boats have highly ornamental ends, and are ​propelled by broad paddles; in one the men are keeping stroke, and the master in the prow of the boat is directing them. Sometimes, though rarely, they carry one mast with sails, as in the slab at Järrestad, figured by M. Bruzelius. Long galleys similar to those engraved on the rocks, with prows and sterns lifted high up above the water, like those above described, frequently adorn the blades of razors and other articles of the Bronze age in Scandinavia.
From these figures we may conclude that the Scandinavian peoples in the Bronze age were possessed of boats, very different from the rude Neolithic canoes, and capable of taking long voyages. It is very likely that these boats are to be looked upon as the precursors of the long ships, snakes, and sea-dragons, which carried the terror of the northern pirates into almost every portion of the seaboard of Europe. They imply a considerable amount of intercourse by sea between Scandinavia and the adjoining countries.
General Conclusions.
From the facts recorded in this chapter it is obvious that the civilisation of Britain in the Bronze age was closely related to that of the Continent, and that it was far higher than that which it succeeded. It was, however, of a lower order than that either of Scandinavia or of France, which is a fact due to the Bronze age of the former having lasted as late as the Christian era, while the latter country was the first to receive advantage from intercourse with the civilised peoples south of the Alps. The origin of bronze, and of the bronze civilisation, will be treated in the following chapter.
* ↑ Archæologia, xv. 124; xviii. 405.
* ↑ Ancient British Barrows, pp. 136, 179, 319.
* ↑ Proceed. Soc. Antiq., 23d Jan. 1873. The Bronze Period.
* ↑ Greenwell and Rolleston, Ancient British Barrows, 8vo, 1877.
* ↑ Vestiges of the Antiquities of Derbyshire. For detailed tables, see Lubbock, Prehistoric Times, 4th edit. pp. 148-151.
* ↑ Archæologia, xliii. pp. 285 et seq.
* ↑ Crawford, Lanark, Journ. Brit. Archæol. Assoc. x. 7, xvii. 110; Wilsford, Wilts, Archæologia, xliii. 163.
* ↑ Bryn Crûg, Carnarvon, Archæol. Journ. xxv. 246.
* ↑ Farway, Devon, Trans. Devon. Ass. iv. p. 300.
* ↑ See Gen. Lane Fox, Journ. Royal United Service Instit., xiii., "Primitive Warfare;" and Mr. Evans, Proceed. Soc. Antiq., 23d Jan. 1873, "on the Bronze Period."
* ↑ For an account of these see Evans, op. cit. chap. viii.
* ↑ The bronze axes figured by Kemble and Franks in Horæ Ferales, pl. v. figs. 51 to 54, are modelled on well-known types of stone.
* ↑ Worsaae, Primeval Antiquities of Denmark, 8vo, 1849, p. 39.
* ↑ Explored by Rev. Harry Jones in 1867; Suffolk Inst. of Archæology and Natural History, June 1869.
* ↑ See Wilde, Cat. R. I. Acad., vol. i. Keller, Lake-Dwellings, transl. J. E. Lee, 2d. edit. vol. i. Archæol. Journ., vi. p. 101; i. p. 425.
* ↑ Proceed. R. Irish Acad., x. part i. 31.
* ↑ Cat. R. Irish Acad., i. p. 99.
* ↑ Cave-hunting, c. iv.; Geologist, 1862; Proceed. Soc. Antiq. SS. ii. p. 177.
* ↑ Greenwell, British Barrows, p. 375.
* ↑ At Dömmestorp in Holland; at Borum-Eshoc, near Aarhuus, in Jutland. Montelius, La Suède préhistorique, Stockholm, 8vo, 1874.
* ↑ Franks, Archæol. Journ. ix. p. 7. This was found at the mouth of the river Wandle, along with a bronze sword, a spear-head, and a palstave.
* ↑ Keller, Lake-dwellings, transl. J. E. Lee, pp. 175, 501, 565.
* ↑ Keller, pp. 178, 388.
* ↑ Thurnam, Archæologia, xliii. p. 501.
* ↑ Ibid. xliii. p. 525.
* ↑ Evans, Ancient Stone Implements, p. 14.
* ↑ Archæologia, xliii. Proceed. Soc. Antiq. SS. iii. 517.
* ↑ Sussex Archæol. Coll. ix. 119.
* ↑ For an account of the bronze-working, see Evans, Proceed. Soc. Antiq. 1873, on "The Bronze Period," pp. 20-21.
* ↑ Proceed. R. I. Academy, iv. pp. 237, 423; Wilde, Cat., 603, Fig. 525. Kemble and Franks, Horæ Ferales, p. 49.
* ↑ Way, Archæol. Journ. 1867. Owen Stanley, Memoirs on Ancient Dwellings in Holyhead Island. 8vo. 1871.
* ↑ Way, Archæol. Journ. 1867. Owen Stanley, Memoirs on Ancient Dwellings in Holyhead Island. 8vo. 1871.
* ↑ They have been classified by Thurnam, Archæologia, xliii. p. 285.
* ↑ Proceed. Soc. Antiq. S. ii. 427.
* ↑ Gristhorpe, and Scale-house Barrow, Rylstone, Yorks, Hove, near Brighton. Williamson, Tumulus near Gristhorpe. 4to. Scarborough, 1836. Greenwell, British Barrows, p. 375. 8vo. London, 1877. Barclay Phillips, Sussex Archæol. Coll., ix. 119.
* ↑ In 1878 Mr. Rooke Pennington and myself obtained an urn out of a cairn on Lose Hill, Castleton, Derbyshire, in which a flint knife had been placed. Its surface was covered with a fine glaze from the fusion of the flint in contact with the alkali in the wood ashes of the funeral fire.
* ↑ Lubbock, Prehistoric Times, p. 123. 1878.
* ↑ In the account of Stonehenge I have followed Mr. Stevens. Wilts Archæol. and Nat. Hist. Soc., Salisbury Meeting, Stonehenge Excursion, 1876.
* ↑ Lubbock, Prehistoric Times, 1878, c. v. Thurnam, Archæologia, xliii. p 309.
* ↑ Archæologia, xliii. p. 305.
* ↑ I am unable to accept the views of Mr. Fergusson that these are post-Roman. On this point see Lubbock, Prehistoric Times, c. v.; British Quarterly Review, Oct. 1872. "The Present Phase of Prehistoric Archæology," Edinburgh Review, April 1878, The Age of Bronze.
* ↑ For an interesting account of the distribution of circles, see Fergusson, Rude Stone Monuments.
* ↑ Tylor, Primitive Culture, ii. p. 151. Lubbock, Origin of Civilisation, p. 222. Elliot, Journ. Ethnol. Soc. Lond., i. p. 94.
* ↑ Archaic Sculpturings, Edinburgh, 1867.
* ↑ L'Age du Bronze, 3 vols. 4to, 1 vol. folio. Paris, 1877.
* ↑ Keller, Lake-Dwellings, transl. by J. E. Lee, 2d edit. p. 672.
* ↑ Keller, Lake-Dwellings trans, by J. E. Lee. 2d vol. pl. xlix.
* ↑ Worsaae, La Colonisation de la Russie et du Nord Scandinave, transl. par G. Beauvois. Copenhague, 1875.
* ↑ Montelius, Congr. Int. Archéol. Préhist., Stockholm vol., 1874, p. 488. Antiquités Suédoises.
* ↑ For a list of articles of the Bronze age in Sweden, see Montelius, Congr. Int. Archéol. Préhist., Stockholm vol., 1874, p. 510. Figs. 147 to 150, from Denmark, are borrowed from Worsaae, Primeval Antiquities, 8vo, transl. Thoms, 1849.
* ↑ Engelhardt, Guide Illustré du Mus. des Antiq. du Nord à Copenhague, 2d edit. p. 10.
* ↑ Congr. Int. Archéol. Préhist., Stockholm vol., p. 453 et seq.
* ↑ Congr. Int. Archéol. Préhist., Stockholm vol., p. 453 et seq.
* ↑ Die Ureinwohner des Scandinavischen Nordens. Hamburg, 1863, p. 9.
* ↑ Scandinaviens Hällsristning ar Arkeologisk Afhandling, 4to, 1848.