Neolithic Period | anthropology | Britannica.com Neolithic Period Alternative Titles: Late Stone Age, New Stone Age Related Topics Çatalhüyük Neolithic Period, also called New Stone Age, final stage of cultural evolution or technological development among prehistoric humans. It was characterized by stone tools shaped by polishing or grinding, dependence on domesticated plants or animals, settlement in permanent villages, and the appearance of such crafts as pottery and weaving . The Neolithic followed the Paleolithic Period , or age of chipped-stone tools, and preceded the Bronze Age , or early period of metal tools. The large burial mound at Newgrange, County Meath, Ireland. Brian Morrison/Tourism Ireland A brief treatment of the Neolithic Period follows. For full treatment, see Stone Age: Neolithic and technology: The Neolithic Revolution . The Neolithic stage of development was attained during the Holocene Epoch (the last 11,700 years of Earth history). The starting point of the Neolithic Period is much debated, with different parts of the world having achieved the Neolithic stage at different times, but it is generally thought to have occurred sometime about 10,000 bce.

During that time, humans learned to raise crops and keep domestic livestock and were thus no longer dependent on hunting , fishing , and gathering wild plants. Neolithic cultures made more-useful stone tools by grinding and polishing relatively hard rocks rather than merely chipping softer ones down to the desired shape. The cultivation of cereal grains enabled Neolithic peoples to build permanent dwellings and congregate in villages, and the release from nomadism and a hunting-gathering economy gave them the time to pursue specialized crafts. Stone Age: Neolithic Archaeological evidence indicates that the transition from food-collecting cultures to food-producing ones gradually occurred across Asia and Europe from a starting point in the Fertile Crescent . The first evidence of cultivation and animal domestication in southwestern Asia has been dated to roughly 9500 bce, which suggests that those activities may have begun before that date. A way of life based on farming and settled villages had been firmly achieved by 7000 bce in the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys (now in Iraq and Iran ) and in what are now Syria , Israel , Lebanon , and Jordan . Those earliest farmers raised barley and wheat and kept sheep and goats , later supplemented by cattle and pigs .

Their innovations spread from the Middle East northward into Europe by two routes: across Turkey and Greece into central Europe, and across Egypt and North Africa and thence to Spain . Farming communities appeared in Greece as early as 7000 bce, and farming spread northward throughout the continent over the next four millennia. This long and gradual transition was not completed in Britain and Scandinavia until after 3000 bce and is known as the Mesolithic Period . Similar Topics Prehistoric Ages. Categories of Time. Eons and Eras Prehistoric / Archaeological Periods The Stone Age Archaeologists and historians place the Stone Age as that period of human development when most of the tools used by human beings were made from stone. The evidence available to us currently shows that while the this phase of early human development took place in different parts of the globe, the dates for the Stone Age was different for different parts of the world. It varies depending on the dates assigned to stone implements discovered in a region. As a consequence, dates for the Stone Age have changed with every discovery and the development of dating methods.

There is evidence of stone implements having been used in Africa as early as 2.5 million years ago, 1.8 million years ago in Asia, and a million years ago in Europe. Therefore, current theory places the earliest development of human beings in Africa. During the Stone Age of human development, the earth also experienced an Ice Age some 1.6 million to 10,000 years ago. The Stone Age in an area ends with evidence of the earliest known metal implements, and generally ends between 6,000 and 4,000 BCE. The Stone Age is further divided into: • Palaeolithic Age (Old Stone Age - 2.5 million to 15,000 years ago - a time period that spans 95% of human history): the age in which stone tools were chipped or flaked.

(see the page on Anghilak cave, Uzbekistan ) • Mesolithic Age (Middle Stone Age, also called the Epipaleolithic Age - 15,000 to 10,000 years ago): the age in which microliths, small, geometric-shaped stone artefacts were attached to wood, antler, or bone to form implements such as arrows, spears, or scythes. • Neolithic Age (New Stone Age - 10,000 to 6,000-4,000 years ago): the age in which ground and polished stone axes became prevalent. Metal Age The Metal Age starts when human beings began to use metal to make tools. For archaeologists, the transition from the stone to the metal age occurs when these metal tools appear alongside stone tools. The type of metal used initially was probably influenced by the surface availability of the metal in natural form, and appears to have been either gold or copper, both being softer, lower melting point metals. A lower melting point was probably critical since the development of metallurgy closely paralleled the ability to produce hotter fires as well as the development of containers to hold and cast the melted metal.

The use of gold may even have started with the mechanical shaping of the metal, first in cold form, then heated and softened, and finally melted and cast. Golden Age Aryan and Saka legends place the use of gold before the use of copper - possibly a few thousand years earlier. Gold was the more readily available metal in Central Asia. The legends of Ferdowsi state that gold was used in ancient times to make surgical knives used to perform Caesarean operations. Most of the ancient gold artefacts were plundered, smelted and reused. The unearthing of gold artefacts that predated copper tools, requires finding sites that were hidden or otherwise inaccessible to robbers. We will have to await archaeological evidence to support the legendary evidence that the use of gold preceded the use of copper. Copper (Chalcolithic, Eneolithic or ï¿½neolithic) Age The Copper Age in Central Asia and the rest of the Aryan lands is currently said to begin in the late 5th millennium BCE and lasted for about a millennium (4,300-3,200 BCE) leading in to the Early Bronze Age.

Transition from the European Copper Age to the Bronze Age occurs about a millennium later - between the late 4th and the late 3rd millennia BCE. The use of copper required the development of metallurgy - the science of extracting metal from metal ores - and casting the molten metal in castings. Bronze Age Bronze Seal from Anau (Turkmenistan) with unknown markings Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin that is more hard than either pure copper or tin. In addition, bronze has a lower melting point than copper or tin making it easier to form into finished shapes by moulding, casting, or machining. While a harder metal, bronze still did not break easily under stress and was corrosion resistant. Bronze was better suited for weapons and tools than either copper or tin. The manufacture of bronze required the development of alloy-making technology. Current reports suggest that the Bronze Age in Central Asia extended from about 3,300 to 1,300 BCE. Iron Age With the ability to create higher smelting temperatures came the ability to extract and work with iron, a metal that was in earlier ages considered more precious than gold.

Simple iron mixed with some residual slag (the residue when iron is extracted from its ore) is called wrought iron - the earliest form of iron. Wrought iron is weaker than bronze, but because iron was more readily available than copper or tin, wrought iron was less complicated to manufacture than bronze. It was also more easily sharpened than bronze. Wrought iron was eventually replaced by steel - iron with between 0.02% and 1.7% of carbon. Steel weapons and tools were about the same weight as those of bronze, but stronger. The Iron Age in Central Asia is estimated to have extended from about 1,300 to 900 BCE. Categories of Time The broad categories of time are: Cosmological Period The Cosmological Period consists of time periods in the origin and evolution of the universe. According to current scientific theory the Cosmological Period begins with the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago and ends with the formation of the earth 4.5 billion years ago. Geological Period The Geological period consists of time periods in the origin and evolution of earth. The earth is about 4.5 billion years old.

The time from the origin of the earth to the present is divided into super eons, eons, eras and periods. The Precambrian period is a super eon that is sub-divided into three eons: • the Hadean Eon (4.5 to 3.8 billion years before present), • the Archean Eon (3.8 to 2.5 billion years before present),, and • the Proterozoic Eon (2.5 billion to 570 million years before present) millions of years Subdivisions of the Cenozoic Era (65 million years before present to the present) Prehistoric (Archaeological) & Historic Periods The Prehistoric Period consists of time periods in the origin and evolution of humankind from about 2.5 million years to about 900 BCE. the Prehistoric Period is divided into the Archaeological Periods of the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages. The Historic Period records the activities of humankind from about 900 BCE or from that time when records are available or can re reconstructed.

The Historic Period overlaps with the Prehistoric Periods such as the Iron Age when it is possible to reconstruct timelines of a people's history. • ï¿½ Author: K. E. Eduljee, Zoroastrian Heritage , 2005-14 (researched from 1979 onwards) • Contact • Page validated by W3C.org Neolithic Period - Definition Neolithic Period Ancient/Classical History Expert By N.S. Gill Definition: There is an archaeological system that divides the span of mankind into three eras, the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. The Neolithic Period is part of the late Stone Age. It preceded the Bronze Age and followed the Paleolithic period, which was also in the Stone Age. During the Neolithic Period people used stone tools, domesticated plants and animals, and lived in villages. The Neolithic period in China ran from about 10,000 B.C.

to 2000 B.C.; in northern India, from 8000 to 4500 B.C.; in Egypt, from 7000 to 4500 B.C.; in the Eastern Mediterranean, from about 10,000 to 3300 B.C.; in Cyprus, 8500 to 2500 B.C.; in the Balkans and Greece, from 7000 to 3200; in the Italic peninsula, from 5000 to 2000 B.C.; in northern and eastern Europe, from 3000 to 1800 B.C., according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art . Neo=new and lithic=stone, which is why the Neolithic Period is called the New Stone Age. Also Known As: New Stone Age BBC - History - Ancient History in depth: Overview: From Neolithic to Bronze Age, 8000 - 800 BC Print this page The dawn of farming Human beings have been living in the part of northern Europe that is today called Britain for about 750,000 years.

For most of that time, they subsisted by gathering food like nuts, berries, leaves and fruit from wild sources, and by hunting. Over the millennia there were phases of extreme cold, when large areas of Britain were covered in ice, followed by warmer times. Around 10,000 years ago, the latest ice age came to an end. Sea levels rose as the ice sheets melted, and Britain became separated from the European mainland shortly before 6000 BC. The introduction of farming was one of the biggest changes in human history. The people living on the new islands of Britain were descendants of the first modern humans, or Homo sapiens, who arrived in northern Europe around 30,000 - 40,000 years ago. Like their early ancestors they lived by hunting and gathering. The introduction of farming, when people learned how to produce rather than acquire their food, is widely regarded as one of the biggest changes in human history. This change happened at various times in several different places around the world.

The concept of farming that reached Britain between about 5000 BC and 4500 BC had spread across Europe from origins in Syria and Iraq between about 11000 BC and 9000 BC. Top Neolithic revolution? The change from a hunter-gatherer to a farming way of life is what defines the start of the Neolithic or New Stone Age. In Britain the preceding period of the last, post-glacial hunter-gatherer societies is known as the Mesolithic, or Middle Stone Age. It used to be believed that the introduction of farming into Britain was the result of a huge migration or folk-movement from across the Channel. Today, studies of DNA suggest that the influx of new people was probably quite small - somewhere around 20% of the total population were newcomers. Farming took 2,000 years to spread across the British Isles. So the majority of early farmers were probably Mesolithic people who adopted the new way of life and took it with them to other parts of Britain. This was not a rapid change - farming took about 2,000 years to spread across all parts of the British Isles.

Traditionally the arrival of farming is seen as a major and rapid change sometimes called the 'Neolithic revolution'. Today, largely thanks to radiocarbon dates, we can appreciate that the transition from hunter-gatherer to farmer was relatively gradual. We know, for example, that hunters in the Mesolithic 'managed' or tended their quarry. They would make clearings in woodland around sources of drinking water, and probably made efforts to see that the herds of deer and other animals they hunted were not over-exploited. The switch from managed hunting to pastoral farming was not a big change. The first farmers brought the ancestors of cattle, sheep and goats with them from the continent. Domestic pigs were bred from wild boar, which lived in the woods of Britain. Neolithic farmers also kept domesticated dogs, which were bred from wolves. It is probable that the earliest domesticated livestock were allowed to wander, maybe tended by a few herders. Sheep, goats and cattle are fond of leaves and bark, and pigs snuffle around roots. These domestic animals may have played a major role in clearing away the huge areas of dense forest that covered most of lowland Britain.

Burial and belief Stonehenge stone circle, near Amesbury, Wiltshire © Neolithic farmers also brought with them the first seed grains of wheat and barley, which had been bred many millennia earlier from wild grasses that grew in region of modern-day Iraq. Initially, cereals were probably grown in garden plots near people's houses. Once harvested, the grain needed to be stored and protected from natural pests and from raiding parties. This tended to encourage a more settled way of life than that of the Mesolithic communities, who would move around the country on a seasonal pattern, following the animals, birds and fish they hunted. The 'henge' monuments, like Stonehenge, incorporate lunar and solar alignments. In many cases the earliest Neolithic sites (approx 4000 - 5000 BC) occur alongside late Mesolithic settlements, or in areas that we know were important in post-glacial times. From the start of the fourth millennium BC (about 3800 BC), we see a move into new areas that had not been settled or exploited previously.

This period, sometimes referred to as the Middle Neolithic, also witnesses the appearance of the first large communal tombs, known as long barrows, or mounds, and the earliest ceremonial monuments, known as 'causewayed' enclosures. Here people from communities in a particular region would gather together, probably at regular intervals, to socialise, to meet new partners, to acquire fresh livestock and to exchange ceremonial gifts. During these ceremonies, rituals took place which often involved the burial of significant items, such as finely-polished stone axeheads, complete pottery vessels, or human skulls. Some of the great ceremonial monuments of the Middle Neolithic, such as the so-called 'passage' graves, were aligned according to the position of the sun during the winter or summer solstice. The long passage of a passage grave could be carefully positioned to allow the sun on the shortest few days of the year to shine directly into the central burial chamber. Passage graves were also constructed to provide good acoustics, and it seems most probable that they were the scenes of ritual or religious theatrical performances.

The so-called 'henge' monuments, like the famous Stonehenge, seem to have developed out of the causewayed enclosures from around 3000 BC. They also incorporate lunar and solar alignments which are seen as a means of uniting the physical and social structures of human societies with the powers of the natural world. Top The Bronze Age Neolithic houses were usually rectangular thatched buildings made from timber with walls of wattle (woven hazel rods) smeared with a plaster-like 'daub' (made from clay, straw and cow dung). Some of the larger buildings were the size and shape of a Saxon hall and may well have been communal. Most others were smaller and would have been adequate for a family of six to ten people. The appearance of metal marks an important technological development, especially in the control of fire. Neolithic houses are far more commonly found in Scotland and Ireland than in England or Wales, where communities may have retained a more mobile pattern of life, involving fewer permanent buildings. The first bronzes appear in Britain in the centuries just before 2500 BC, which is the usually accepted start date for the Bronze Age.

On the European mainland the arrival of bronze was preceded by copper tools of the Chalcolithic or Copper Age, but in Britain tin and copper appear at about the same time as bronze. Although the appearance of metal marks an important technological development, especially in the control of fire, it does not seem to bring a big change in the way that people lived their lives in the Early Bronze Age. Henges, for example, continue in use, but the larger communal tombs, such as long barrows and passage graves, are replaced by smaller round barrows. Many of these contain an initial or 'primary' burial, often of an important man or woman, who may be buried with distinctive and highly decorated pottery known as 'Beakers', together with bronze or tin metalwork such as daggers or axes. Sometimes fine goldwork rings, bracelets and earrings adorned the bodies. In many instances the round barrows of the Early Bronze Age (2500-1500 BC) continue in use, as smaller or 'satellite' burials and cremations are dug into the main primary mound.

These places were clearly important gathering places for people and they were often carefully placed in the landscape either to be seen over a large area, or to mark the beginning or end or a community's land-holding or territory. Houses in the Early Bronze Age were usually round with a conical roof and a single entrance. Accelerated change The Ringlemere gold cup, found in Ringlemere, Kent © The Middle Bronze Age (1500 - 1250 BC) marks an important period of change, growth and probably of population expansion too. There was a fundamental shift in burial practice away from barrow burial, towards cremation in large open cemeteries where ashes were placed in specially-prepared pottery urns. Settlements consisted of round houses which were often grouped together, possibly for defence, but possibly too because people preferred to live near one another. During this period we find an increasing number of metalwork hoards, where dozens, sometimes hundreds of spearheads, axes and daggers were placed in the ground - often in a wet or boggy place, a practice that would continue right through the Iron Age. The Late Bronze Age saw the start of the so-called 'Celtic' way of life.

Certain hoards found in south western Britain contained large numbers of fancy bronze ornaments, such as elaborate dress-fasteners, rings, pins, brooches and bracelets. The Middle Bronze Age also sees the first field systems in Britain, indicating growing pressure on the land as the numbers of people and animals increased. The Late Bronze Age (1250-800 BC) is marked by the arrival of new styles of metalwork and pottery, but otherwise life continued much as before. Horse-riding became more popular and Late Bronze Age swords were designed as slashing weapons - resembling the cavalry cutlass. Houses were still round, a pattern that would continue into the Iron Age, but a number of large hall-like rectangular houses are also known. The field systems of the Middle Bronze Age continued in use and were enlarged. In the uplands of Britain the Late Bronze Age saw the first construction of a few hillforts and the start of the so-called 'Celtic' way of life.

A Landscape Revealed: 10,000 years on a Chalkland Farm by Martin Green (Tempus Books, 2000) The Age of Stonehenge by Colin Burgess (Dent, 2002) Prehistoric Orkney by Anna Ritchie (Batsford Books, 1995) Avebury: The Biography of a Landscape by Joshua Pollard and Andrew Reynolds (Tempus Books, 2002) Hengeworld by Mike Pitts (Arrow Books, 2001) Understanding the Neolithic by Julian Thomas (Routledge, London, 1999) Ancestral Geographies of the Neolithic: Landscapes, Monuments and Memory by Mark Edmonds (Routledge, London, 1999) The Significance of Monuments by Richard Bradley (Routledge, London, 1998) The Passage of Arms: An Archaeological Analysis of Prehistoric Hoards and Votive Deposits by Richard Bradley (Cambridge University Press, 1990) Top About the author Dr Francis Pryor read archaeology and anthropology at Cambridge.

He has made significant finds from the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages at Fengate, Etton and Flag Fen. He has written several books, including Seahenge (HarperCollins 2001), Britain BC (HarperCollins 2003) and Britain AD (HarperCollins 2004). His latest book, Britain in the Middle Ages will be published in June 2006 by HarperCollins. Neolithic | Define Neolithic at Dictionary.com Neolithic adjective 1. (sometimes lowercase) Anthropology. of, relating to, or characteristic of the last phase of the Stone Age, marked by the domestication of animals, the development of agriculture, and the manufacture of pottery and textiles: commonly thought to have begun c9000–8000 b.c. in the Middle East. (usually lowercase) belonging to or remaining from an earlier era; outdated; passé. Origin of Neolithic Examples from the Web for Neolithic Expand Contemporary Examples Neolithic humans lived in the caves pocking its slopes, and by around 1400 BCE a fortified palace was built atop the Acropolis. Prehistoric Man W. L. H.

Duckworth The only people who did not laugh were Teshumai Tewindrow and all the Neolithic ladies. English Villages P. H. Ditchfield But take the whole Indian race, and they were steadily advancing through the Neolithic stage of culture. The Prehistoric World E. A. Allen When the ice-fields cleared off Neolithic man had his innings. The Dover Road Charles G. Harper British Dictionary definitions for Neolithic Expand noun 1. the cultural period that lasted in SW Asia from about 9000 to 6000 bc and in Europe from about 4000 to 2400 bc and was characterized by primitive crop growing and stock rearing and the use of polished stone and flint tools and weapons adjective Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd.

1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 Word Origin and History for Neolithic Expand neolithic adj. "pertaining to the later Stone Age," 1865, coined by John Lubbock, later Baron Avebury, (1834-1913) from neo- + -lith "stone." Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper Neolithic (nē'ə-lĭth'ĭk) The period of human culture that began around 10,000 years ago in the Middle East and later in other parts of the world. It is characterized by the beginning of farming, the domestication of animals, the development of crafts such as pottery and weaving, and the making of polished stone tools. The Neolithic Period is generally considered to end for any particular region with the introduction of metalworking, writing, or other developments of urban civilization. Also called New Stone Age. Compare Mesolithic , Paleolithic.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved. Neolithic - Ancient History Encyclopedia Neolithic by Cristian Violatti published on 05 August 2014 After the term “ Stone Age ” was coined in the late 19th century CE, scholars proposed to divide the Stone Age into different periods: Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic . The term Neolithic refers to the last stage of the Stone Age. The period is significant for its megalithic architecture, spread of agricultural practices, and use of polished stone tools. Chronology The term Neolithic or New Stone Age is most frequently used in connection with agriculture, which is the time when cereal cultivation and animal domestication was introduced. Because agriculture developed at different times in different regions of the world, there is no single date for the beginning of the Neolithic. In the Near East , agriculture was developed around 9,000 BCE, in Southeast Europe around 7,000 BCE, and later in other regions. Even within a specific region, agriculture developed during different times.

For example, agriculture first developed in Southeast Europe about 7,000 BCE, in Central Europe about 5,500 BCE, and Northern Europe about 4,000 BCE. In East Asia, the Neolithic goes from 6000 to 2000 BCE. Remove Ads Advertisement Pottery is another element that makes the dating of the Neolithic problematic. In some regions, the appearance of pottery is considered a symbol of the Neolithic, but this notion makes the term Neolithic even more ambiguous, since the use of pottery does not always occur after agriculture: in Japan, pottery appears before agriculture, while in the Near East agriculture pre-dates pottery production. All these factors make the starting point of the Neolithic somewhat fuzzy. It should be remembered that the origin of the term lies in a late 19th century CE classification system (detailed above) and we must keep in mind its limitations. Agricultural economies developed while hunting and gathering activities were reduced. A Revolution? In order to reflect the deep impact that agriculture had over the human population, an Australian archaeologist named Gordon Childe popularized the term “Neolithic Revolution” in the 1940s CE.

However, today, it is believed that the impact of agricultural innovation was exaggerated in the past: the development of Neolithic culture appears to have been a gradual rather than a sudden change. Moreover, before agriculture was established, archaeological evidence has shown that there is usually a period of semi-nomadic life, where pre-agricultural societies might have a network of campsites and live in different locations according to how the resources respond to seasonal variations. Sometimes, one of these campsites might be adopted as a basecamp; the group might spend the majority of time there during the year exploiting local resources, including wild plants: this is a step closer to agriculture. Agriculture and foraging are not totally incompatible ways of life. This means that a group could perform hunter-gatherer activities for part of the year and some farming during the rest, perhaps on a small scale. Rather than a revolution, the archaeological record suggests that the adoption of agriculture is the result of small and gradual changes. Remove Ads Advertisement Agriculture was developed independently in several regions.

Since its origin, the dominant pattern in these separate regions is the spread of agricultural economies and the reduction of hunting and gathering activities, to the point that today hunting economies only persist in marginal areas where farming is not possible, such as frozen arctic regions, densely forested areas, or arid deserts. Major changes were introduced by agriculture, affecting the way human society was organized and how it used the earth, including forest clearance, root crops, and cereal cultivation that can be stored for long periods of time, along with the development of new technologies for farming and herding such as plows, irrigation systems, etc. More intensive agriculture implies more food available for more people, more villages, and a movement towards a more complex social and political organization. As the population density of the villages increase, they gradually evolve into towns and finally into cities . Changes During the Neolithic By adopting a sedentary way of life, the Neolithic groups increased their awareness of territoriality. During the 9600-6900 BCE period in the Near East, there were also innovations in arrowheads, yet no important changes in the animals hunted was detected.

However, human skeletons were found with arrowheads embedded in them and also some settlements such as Jericho were surrounded with a massive wall and ditch around this time. It seems that the evidence of this period is a testimony of inter-communal conflicts, not far from organized warfare . There were also additional innovations in stone tool production that became widespread and adopted by many groups in distant locations, which is evidence for the existence of important networks of exchange and cultural interaction. Atlantis, the Antediluvian World: Part III: Chapter VIII: The Bronze Age in Europe. THE BRONZE AGE IN EUROPE. THERE exist in Europe the evidences of three different ages of human development: 1. The Stone Age, which dates back to a vast antiquity. It is subdivided into two periods: an age of rough stone implements; and a later age, when these implements were ground smooth and made in improved forms. 2. The Bronze Age, when the great mass of implements were manufactured of a compound metal, consisting of about nine parts of copper and one part of tin. 3. An age when iron superseded bronze for weapons and cutting tools, although bronze still remained in use for ornaments.

This age continued down to what we call the Historical Period, and embraces our present civilization; its more ancient remains are mixed with coins of the Gauls, Greeks, and Romans. The Bronze Period has been one of the perplexing problems of European scientists. Articles of bronze are found over nearly all that continent, but in especial abundance in Ireland and Scandinavia. They indicate very considerable refinement and civilization upon the part of the people who made them; and a wide diversity of opinion has prevailed as to who that people were and where they dwelt. In the first place, it was observed that the age of bronze (a compound of copper and tin) must, in the natural order of things, have been preceded by an age when copper and tin were used separately, before the ancient metallurgists had discovered p. 238 the art of combining them, and yet in Europe the remains of no such age have been found. Sir John Lubbock says ("Prehistoric Times," p.

59), "The absence of implements made either of copper or tin seems to me to indicate that the art of making bronze was introduced into, not invented in, Europe." The absence of articles of copper is especially marked, nearly all the European specimens of copper implements have been found in Ireland; and yet out of twelve hundred and eighty-three articles of the Bronze Age, in the great museum at Dublin, only thirty celts and one sword-blade are said to be made of pure copper; and even as to some of these there seems to be a question. Where on the face of the earth are we to find a Copper Age? Is it in the barbaric depths of that Asia out of whose uncivilized tribes all civilization is said to have issued? By no means. Again we are compelled to turn to the West. In America, from Bolivia to Lake Superior, we find everywhere the traces of a long-enduring Copper Age; bronze existed, it is true, in Mexico, but it held the same relation to the copper as the copper held to the bronze in Europe--it was the exception as against the rule.

And among the Chippeways of the shores of Lake Superior, and among them alone, we find any traditions of the origin of the manufacture of copper implements; and on the shores of that lake we find pure copper, out of which the first metal tools were probably hammered before man had learned to reduce the ore or run the metal into moulds. And on the shores of this same American lake we find the ancient mines from which some people, thousands of years ago, derived their supplies of copper. Sir W. R. Wilde says, "It is remarkable that so few antique copper implements have been found (in Europe), although a knowledge of that metal must have been the preliminary stage in the manufacture of bronze." He thinks that this may be accounted for by supposing that "but a short time elapsed between the knowledge of smelting and casting copper ore IMPLEMENTS AND ORNAMENTS OF THE BRONZE AGE. p. 241 and the introduction of tin, and the subsequent manufacture and use of bronze." But here we have in America the evidence that thousands of years must have elapsed during which copper was used alone, before it was discovered that by adding one-tenth part of tin it gave a harder edge, and produced a superior metal.

The Bronze Age cannot be attributed to the Roman civilization. Sir John Lubbock shows ("Prehistoric Times," p. 21) that bronze weapons have never been found associated with Roman coins or pottery, or other remains of the Roman Period; that bronze articles have been found in the greatest abundance in countries like Ireland and Denmark, which were never invaded by Roman armies; and that the character of the ornamentation of the works of bronze is not Roman in character, and that the Roman bronze contained a large proportion of lead, which is never the case in that of the Bronze Age. It has been customary to assume that the Bronze Age was due to the Phnicians, but of late the highest authorities have taken issue with this opinion. Sir John Lubbock (Ibid., p. 73) gives the following reasons why the Phnicians could not have been the authors of the Bronze Age: First, the ornamentation is different.

In the Bronze Age "this always consists of geometrical figures, and we rarely, if ever, find upon them representations of animals and plants, while on the ornamented shields, etc., described by Homer, as well as in the decoration of Solomon's Temple, animals and plants were abundantly represented." The cuts on p. 242 will show the character of the ornamentation of the Bronze Age. In the next place, the form of burial is different in the Bronze Age from that of the Phnicians. "In the third place, the Phnicians, so far as we know them, were well acquainted with the use of iron; in Homer we find the warriors already armed with iron weapons, and the tools used in preparing the materials for Solomon's Temple were of this metal." This view is also held by M. de Fallenberg, in the "Bulletin ORNAMENTS OF THE BRONZE AGE. de la Société des Sciences" of Berne. (See "Smithsonian Rep.," 1865-66, p.

383.) He says, "It seems surprising that the nearest neighbors of the Phnicians--the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Etruscans, and the Romans--should have manufactured plumbiferous bronzes, while p. 243 the Phnicians carried to the people of the North only pure bronzes without the alloy of lead. If the civilized people of the Mediterranean added lead to their bronzes, it can scarcely be doubted that the calculating Phnicians would have done as much, and, at least, with distant and half-civilized tribes, have replaced the more costly tin by the cheaper metal. . . . On the whole, then, I consider that the first knowledge of bronze may have been conveyed to the populations of the period tinder review not only by the Phnicians, but by other civilized people dwelling more to the south-east." Professor E. Desor, in his work on the "Lacustrian Constructions of the Lake of Neuchatel," says, "The Phnicians certainly knew the use of iron, and it can scarcely be conceived why they should have excluded it from their commerce on the Scandinavian coasts. . . .

The Etruscans, moreover, were acquainted with the use of iron as well as the Phnicians, and it has already been seen that the composition of their bronzes is different, since it contains lead, which is entirely a stranger to our bronze epoch. . . . We must look, then, beyond both the Etruscans and Phnicians in attempting to identify the commerce of the Bronze Age of our palafittes. It will be the province of the historian to inquire whether, exclusive of Phnicians and Carthaginians, there may not have been some maritime and commercial people who carried on a traffic through the ports of Liguria with the populations of the age of bronze of the lakes of Italy before the discovery of iron. We may remark, in passing, that there is nothing to prove that the Phnicians were the first navigators. History, on the Contrary, positively mentions prisoners, under the name of Tokhari, who were vanquished in a naval battle fought by Rhamses III. in the thirteenth century before our era, and whose physiognomy, according to Morton, would indicate the Celtic type.

Now there is room to suppose that if these Tokhari were energetic enough to measure their strength on the sea with one of the powerful kings of Egypt, they must, with stronger reason, have been in a condition to carry on a commerce along the coasts of the Mediterranean, and perhaps of the Atlantic. If such a commerce really existed before the time of the Phnicians, it would not be limited to the southern slope of the Alps; it p. 244 would have extended also to the people of the age of bronze in Switzerland. The introduction of bronze would thus ascend to a very high antiquity, doubtless beyond the limits of the most ancient European races." For the merchants of the Bronze Age we must look beyond even the Tokhari, who were contemporaries of the Phnicians. CELTIC WARRIOR, FROM EGYPTIAN MONUMENTS. The Tokhari, we have seen, are represented as taken prisoners, in a sea-fight with Rhamses III., of the twentieth dynasty, about the thirteenth century B.C. They are probably the Tochari of Strabo. The accompanying figure represents one of these people as they appear upon the Egyptian monuments.

(See Nott and Gliddon's "Types of Mankind," p. 108.) Here we have, not an inhabitant of Atlantis, but probably a representative of one of the mixed races that sprung from its colonies. Dr. Morton thinks these people, as painted on the Egyptian monuments, to have "strong Celtic features. Those familiar with the Scotch Highlanders may recognize a speaking likeness." It is at least interesting to have a portrait of one of the daring race who more than three thousand years ago left the west of Europe in their ships to attack the mighty power of Egypt. They were troublesome to the nations of the East for many centuries; for in 700 B.C. we find them depicted on the Assyrian monuments. This figure represents one of the Tokhari of the time of Sennacherib. It will be observed that the headdress (apparently of feathers) is the same in both portraits, al, though separated by a period of six hundred years. It is more reasonable to suppose that the authors of the p.

245 [paragraph continues] Bronze Age of Europe were the people described by Plato, who were workers in metal, who were highly civilized, who preceded in time all the nations which wecall ancient. It was this people who passed through an age of copper before they reached the age of bronze, and whose colonies in America represented this older form of metallurgy as it existed for many generations. CELTIC WARRIOR, FROM ASSYRIAN MONUMENTS. Professor Desor says: "We are asked if the preparation of bronze was not an indigenous invention which had originated on the slopes of the Alps? . . . In this idea we acquiesced for a moment. But we are met by the objection that, if this were so, the natives, like the ancient tribes of America, would have commenced by manufacturing utensils of copper; yet thus far no utensils of this metal have been found except a few in the strand of Lake Garda. The great majority of metallic objects is of bronze, which necessitated the employment of tin, and this could not be obtained except by commerce, inasmuch as it is a stranger to the Alps.

It would appear, therefore, more natural to admit that the art of combining tin with copper--in other words, that the manufacture of bronze--was of foreign importation." He then shows that, although copper ores are found in the Alps, the probability is that even "the copper also was of foreign importation. Now, in view of the prodigious quantity of bronze manufactured at that epoch, this single branch of commerce must itself have necessitated the most incessant commercial communications." And as this commerce could not, as we have seen, have been carried on by the Romans, Greeks, Etruscans, or Phnicians, p. 246 because their civilizations flourished during the Iron Age, to which this age of bronze was anterior, where then are we to look for a great maritime and commercial people, who carried vast quantities of copper, tin, and bronze (unalloyed by the lead of the south of Europe) to Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, England, France, Spain, Switzerland, and Italy? Where can we find them save in that people of Atlantis, whose ships, docks, canals, and commerce provoked the astonishment of the ancient Egyptians, as recorded by Plato.

The Toltec root for water is Atl; the Peruvian word for copper is Anti (from which, probably, the Andes derived their name, as there was a province of Anti on their slopes): may it not be that the name of Atlantis is derived from these originals, and signified the copper island, or the copper mountains in the sea? And from these came the thousands of tons of copper and tin that must, during the Bronze Age, have been introduced into Europe? There are no ancient works to indicate that the tin mines of Cornwall were worked for any length of time in the early days (see "Prehistoric Times," p. 74). Morlot has pointed out that the bronze implements of Hallstadt, in Austria, were of foreign origin, because they contain no lead or silver. Or, if we are to seek for the source of the vast amount of copper brought into Europe somewhere else than in Atlantis, may it not be that these supplies were drawn in large part from the shores of Lake Superior in America? The mining operations of some ancient people were there carried on upon a gigantic scale, not only along the shores of the lake but even far out upon its islands.

At Isle Royale vast works were found, reaching to a depth of sixty feet; great intelligence was shown in following up the richest veins even when interrupted; the excavations were drained by underground drains. On three sections of land on this island the amount of mining exceeded that mined in twenty years in one of our largest mines, with a numerous force constantly employed. In one place the excavations extended in a nearly continuous line for two miles. No p. 247 remains of the dead and no mounds are found near these mines: it would seem, therefore, that the miners came from a distance, and carried their dead back with them. Henry Gillman ("Smithsonian Rep.," 1873, p. 387) supposes that the curious so-called "Garden Beds" of Michigan were the fields from which they drew their supplies of food. He adds, "The discoveries in Isle Royale throw a new light on the character of the 'Mound Builders,' giving us a totally distinct conception of them, and dignifying them with something of the prowess and spirit of adventure which we associate with the higher races.

The copper, the result of their mining, to be available, must, in all probability, have been conveyed in vessels, great or small, across a treacherous and stormy sea, whose dangers are formidable to us now, being dreaded even by our largest craft, and often proving their destruction. Leaving their homes, those men dared to face the unknown, to brave the hardships and perils of the deep and of the wilderness, actuated by an ambition which we to-day would not be ashamed to acknowledge." Such vast works in so remote a land must have been inspired by the commercial necessities of some great civilization; and why not by that ancient and mighty people who covered Europe, Asia, and Africa with their manufactures of bronze--and who possessed, as Plato tells us, enormous fleets trading to all parts of the inhabited world--whose cities roared with the continual tumult of traffic, whose dominion extended to Italy and Egypt, and who held parts of "the great opposite continent" of America under their control? A continuous water-way led, from the island of Atlantis to the Gulf of Mexico, and thence up the Mississippi River and its tributaries almost to these very mines of Lake Superior. Arthur Mitchell says ("The Past in the Present," p.

132), "The discovery of bronze, and the knowledge of how to make it, may, as a mere intellectual effort, be regarded as rather above than below the effort which is involved in the discovery and use of iron. As regards bronze, there is first the discovery p. 248 of copper, and the way of getting it from its ore; then the discovery of tin, and the way to get it from its ore; and then the further discovery that, by an admixture of tin with copper in proper proportions, an alloy with the qualities of a hard metal can be produced. It is surely no mistake to say that there goes quite as much thinking to this as to the getting of iron from its ore, and the conversion of that iron into steel. There is a considerable leap from stone to bronze, but the leap from bronze to iron is comparatively small. . . . It seems highly improbable, if not altogether absurd, that the human mind, at some particular stage of its development, should here, there, and everywhere--independently, and as the result of reaching that stage--discover that an alloy of copper and tin yields a hard metal useful in the manufacture of tools and weapons.

There is nothing analogous to such an occurrence in the known history of human progress. It is infinitely more probable that bronze was discovered in one or more centres by one or more men, and that its first use was solely in such centre or centres. That the invention should then be perfected, and its various applications found out, and that it should thereafter spread more or less broadly over the face of the earth, is a thing easily understood." We will find the knowledge of bronze wherever the colonies of Atlantis extended, and nowhere else; and Plato tells us that the people of Atlantis possessed and used that metal. The indications are that the Bronze Age represents the coming in of a new people--a civilized people. With that era, it is believed, appears in Europe for the first time the domesticated animals-the horse, the ox, the sheep, the goat, and the hog. (Morlot, "Smithsonian Rep.," 1860, p. 311.) It was a small race, with very small hands; this is shown in the size of the sword-hilts: they are not large enough to be used by the present races of Europe. They were a race with long skulls, as contradistinguished.

from the round heads of the Stone Period. The drawings on the following page represent the types of the two races. This people must have sent out colonies to the shores of France, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Denmark, and Norway, who bore A SKULL OF THE EARLIEST TIMES OF THE AGE OF IRON, DEMARK (¼ NATURAL SIZE). with them the arts and implements of civilized life. They raised crops of grain, as is proved by the bronze sickles found in different parts of Europe. It is not even certain that their explorations did not reach to Iceland. Says Humboldt, "When the Northmen first landed in Iceland (A.D. 875), although the country was uninhabited, they found there Irish books, mass-bells, and other objects which had been left behind by earlier visitors, called Papar; these papæ (fathers) were the clerici of Dicuil.

If, then, as we may suppose from the testimony here referred to, these objects belonged to Irish monks (papar), who had come from the Faroe Islands, why should they have been termed in the native sagas 'West men' (Vestmen), 'who had come over the sea from the westward' (kommer til vestan um haf)?" (Humboldt's "Cosmos," vol. ii., 238.) If they came "from the West" they could not have come from Ireland; and the Scandinavians may easily have mistaken Atlantean books and bells for Irish books and mass-bells. They do not say that there were any evidences that these relics belonged to a people who had recently visited the island; and, as they found the island uninhabited, it would be impossible for them to tell how many years or centuries had elapsed since the books and bells were left there. p. 250 The fact that the implements of the Bronze Age came from some common centre, and did not originate independently in different countries, is proved by the striking similarity which exists between the bronze implements of regions as widely separated as Switzerland, Ireland, Denmark, and Africa.

It is not to be supposed that any overland communication existed in that early age between these countries; and the coincidence of design which we find to exist can only be accounted for by the fact that the articles of bronze were obtained from some sea-going people, who carried on a commerce at the same time with all these regions. Compare, for instance, these two decorated bronze celts. the first from Ireland, the second from Denmark; and then compare both these with a stone celt found in a mound in Tennessee, given below. Here we have the same form precisely. STONE CELT, MOUND IN TENNESSEE. Compare the bronze swords in the four preceding illustrations-from Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, and Denmark--and then observe the same very peculiar shape--the leaf-shape, as it is called--in the stone sword from Big Harpeth River, Tennessee.

We shall find, as we proceed, that the Phnicians were unquestionably identified with Atlantis, and that it was probably from Atlantis they derived their god Baal, or Bel, or El, whose name crops out in the Bel of the Babylonians, the Elohim, and the Beelzebub of the Jews, and the Allah of the Arabians, And we find that this great deity, whose worship extended so widely among the Mediterranean races, was known and adored also upon the northern and western coasts of Europe. Professor Nilsson finds traces of Baal worship in Scandinavia; he tells us that the festival of Baal, or Balder, was celebrated on midsummer's night in Scania, and far up into Norway, almost to the Loffoden Islands, until within the last fifty years. The feast of Baal, or Beltinne, was celebrated in Ireland to a late period.

I argue from these facts, not that the worship of Baal came to Ireland and Norway from Assyria or Arabia, but that the same great parent-race which carried the knowledge of Baal to the Mediterranean brought it also to the western coasts of Europe, and with the adoration of Baal they imported also the implements of bronze now found in such abundance in those regions. The same similarity of form exists in the bronze knives from Denmark and Switzerland, as represented in the illustrations on p. 254 . In the central figure we have a representation of an Egyptian-looking man holding a cup before him. We shall see, BRONZE KNIVES FROM SWITZERLAND. as we proceed, that the magnetic needle, or "mariner's compass," dates back to the days of Hercules, and that it consisted ofa bar of magnetized iron floating upon a piece of wood in a cup. It is possible that in this ancient relic of the Bronze Age we have a representation of themagnetic cup. The magnetic needle must certainly have been an object of great interest to a people who, through its agency, were able to carry on commerce on all the shores of Europe, from the Mediterranean to the Baltic.

The second knife represented above has upon its handle a wheel, or cross surrounded by a ring, which, we shall see here after, was pre-eminently the symbol of Atlantis. HUT URN, ALBANO. If we are satisfied that these implements of bronze were the work of the artisans of Atlantis--of the antediluvians--they must acquire additional and extraordinary interest in our eyes, and we turn to them to earn something of the habits and customs of "that great, original, broad-eyed, sunken race." We find among the relies of the Bronze Age an urn, which probably gives us some idea of the houses of the Atlanteans: it is evidently made to represent a house, and shows us even the rude fashion in which they fastened their doors. The Mandan Indiana built round houses very much of this appearance. BRONZE LAKE VILLAGE. The museum at Munich contains a very interesting piece of pottery, which is supposed to represent one of the lake villages or hamlets of the era when the people of Switzerland dwelt in houses erected on piles driven into the bottom of the lakes of that country. The accompanying illustration represents it. The double spiral ornament upon it shows that it belongs to the Bronze Age.

Among the curious relies of the Bronze Age are a number of razor-like knives; from which we may conclude that the habit of shaving the whole or some part of the face or head p. 256 dates back to a great antiquity. The illustrations below represent them. These knives were found in Denmark. The figures upon them represent ships, and it is not impossible that their curious appendages may have been a primitive kind of sails. An examination of the second of these bronze knives reveals a singular feature: Upon the handle of the razor there are ten BRONZE RAZOR-KNIVES. series of lines; the stars in the sky are ten in number; and there were probably ten rings at the left-hand side of the figure, two being obliterated. There were, we are told, ten sub-kingdoms in Atlantis; and precisely as the thirteen stripes on the American flag symbolize the thirteen original States of the Union, so the recurrence of the figure ten in the emblems upon ANCIENT GALLEY, FROM A ROMAN COIN. this bronze implement may have reference to the ten subdivisions of Atlantis.

The large object in the middle of this ship may be intended to represent a palm-tree--the symbol, as we shall see, in America, of Aztlan, or Atlantis. We have but to compare the pictures of the ships upon these ancient razor-knives with the accompanying representations of a Roman galley and a ship of William the Conqueror's time, to see that there can be no question that they represented the galleys of that remote age. They are doubtless faithful portraits of the great vessels which Plato described as filling the harbors of Atlantis. SHIP OF WILLIAM THE CONQUERER. We give on page 258 a representation of a bronze dagger found in Ireland , a strongly-made weapon. The cut below it represents the only implement of the Bronze Age yet found containing an inscription. It has been impossible to decipher it, or even to tell to what group of languages its alphabet belongs. IRISH BRONZE DAGGER. It is proper to note, in connection with a discussion of the Bronze Age, that our word bronze is derived from the Basque, or Iberian broncea, from which the Spanish derive bronce, and the Italians bronzo.

The copper mines of the Basques were extensively worked at a very early age of the world, either by the people of Atlantis or by the Basques themselves, a colony from Atlantis. The probabilities are that the name for bronze, as well as the metal itself, dates back to Plato's island. INSCRIBED CELT. I give some illustrations on pages 239 and 242 of ornaments and implements of the Bronze Age, which may serve to throw light upon the habits of the ancient people. It will be seen that they had reached a considerable degree of civilization; that they raised crops of grain, and cut them with sickles; that their women ornamented themselves with bracelets, armlets, earrings, finger-rings, hair-pins, and amulets; that their mechanics used hammers, adzes, and chisels; and that they possessed very fair specimens of pottery. Sir John Lubbock argues ("Prehistoric Times," pp. 14, 16, etc.): "A new civilization is indicated not only by the mere presence of bronze BRONZE HAIR PINS. but by the beauty and variety of the articles made from it.

We find not only, as before, during the Stone Age, axes, arrows, and knives, but, in addition, swords, lances, sickles, fish-hooks, ear-rings, bracelets, pins, rings, and a variety of other articles." If the bronze implements of Europe had been derived from the Phnicians, Greeks, Etruscans, or Romans, the nearer we approached the site of those nations the greater should be the number of bronze weapons we would find; but the reverse is the case. Sir John Lubbock ("Prehistoric Times," p. 20) shows that more than three hundred and fifty bronze swords have been found in Denmark, and that the Dublin Museum contains twelve hundred and eighty-three bronze weapons found in Ireland; "while," he says, "I have only been able to hear of six bronze swords in all Italy." This state of things is inexplicable unless we suppose that Ireland and Denmark received their bronze implements directly from some maritime nation whose p. 260 site was practically as near their shores as it was to the shores of the Mediterranean. We have but to look at our map on page 43 , ante, to see that Atlantis was considerably nearer to Ireland than it was to Italy.

The striking resemblance between the bronze implements found in the different portions of Europe is another proof that they were derived from one and the same source--from some great mercantile people who carried on their commerce at the same time with Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Spain, Greece, Italy, Egypt, Switzerland, and Hungary. Mr. Wright ("Essays on Archæology," p. 120) says, "Whenever we find the bronze swords or celts, whether in Ireland, in the far west, in Scotland, in distant Scandinavia, in Germany, or still farther east, in the Sclavonic countries, they are the same--not similar in character, but identical." Says Sir John Lubbock ("Prehistoric Times," p. 59), "Not only are the several varieties of celts VASES FROM MOUNDS IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. found throughout Europe alike, but some of the swords, knives, daggers, etc., are so similar that they seem as if they must have been cast by the same maker." What race was there, other than the people of Atlantis, that existed before the Iron Age-before the Greek, Roman, Etruscan, p.

261 and Phnician--that was civilized, that worked in metals, that carried on a commerce with all parts of Europe? Does history or tradition make mention of any such? We find a great resemblance between the pottery of the Bronze Age in Europe and the pottery of the ancient inhabitants of America. The two figures on page 260 represent vases from one of the mounds of the Mississippi Valley. Compare them with the following from the lake dwellings of Switzerland: VASES FROM SWITZERLAND. It will be seen that these vases could scarcely stand upright unsupported; and we find that the ancient inhabitants of Switzerland had circles or rings of baked earth in which they placed them when in use, as in the annexed figure. The Mound Builders used the same contrivance. ANCIENT SWISS VASE AND SUPPORTER. The illustrations of discoidal stones on page 263 are from the "North Americans of Antiquity," p. 77. The objects represented were taken from an ancient mound in Illinois. It would be indeed surprising if two distinct peoples, living in two different continents, thousands of miles BRONZE CHISELS.

apart, should, without any intercourse with each other, not only form their vases in the same inconvenient form, but should hit upon the same expedient as a remedy. We observe, in the American spear-head and the Swiss hatchets, on the opposite page, the same overlapping), of the metal around the staff, or handle--a very peculiar mode of uniting them together, which has now passed out of use. SPIRALS, FROM SCOTLAND. A favorite design of the men of the Bronze Age in Europe is the spiral or double-spiral form. It appears on the face of the urn in the shape of a lake dwelling, which is given on p. 255; it also appears in the rock sculptures of Argyleshire, Scotland, here shown. SPIRAL, FROM NEW MEXICO. We find the same figure in an ancient fragment of pottery from the Little Colorado, as given in the "United States Pacific Railroad Survey Report," vol. iii., p. 49, art. Pottery. It was part of a large vessel. The annexed illustration represents this. The same design is also found in ancient rock etchings of the Zuñis of New Mexico, of which the cut on p.

265 is an illustration. SPIRAL, FROM NEW MEXICO. We also find this figure repeated upon vase from a Mississippi Valley mound, which we give elsewhere. (See p. 260 .) It is found upon many of the monuments of Central America. In the Treasure House of Atreus, at Mycenæ, Greece, a fragment of a pillar was found which is literally covered with this double spiral design. (See "Rosengarten's Architectural Styles," p, 59.) This Treasure House of Atreus is one of the oldest buildings in Greece. Click to enlarge SHELL ORNAMENT, MOUND NEAR NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE. We find the double-spiral figure upon a shell ornament found on the breast of a skeleton, in a carefully constructed stone coffin, in a mound near Nashville, Tennessee. Lenormant remarks ("Anc. Civil.," vol. ii., p.

158) that the bronze implements found in Egypt, near Memphis, had been buried for six thousand years; and that at that time, as the Egyptians had a horror of the sea, some commercial nation must have brought the tin, of which the bronze was in part composed, from India, the Caucasus, or Spain, the nearest points to Egypt in which tin is found. Heer has shown that the civilized plants of the lake dwellings are not of Asiatic, but of African, and, to a great extent, of Egyptian origin. Their stone axes are made largely of jade or FRAGMENT OF POTTERY, SAN JOSÉ, MEXICO. [paragraph continues] Mexico. Professor Foster calls attention to the striking resemblance in the designs of these two widely separated works of art, one belonging to the Bronze Age of Europe, the other to the Copper Age of America. These, then, in conclusion, are our reasons for believing that the Bronze Age of Europe has relation to Atlantis: 1. The admitted fact that it is anterior in time to the Iron Age relegates it to a great antiquity. 2. The fact that it is anterior in time to the Iron Age is p.

267 conclusive that it is not due to any of the known European or Asiatic nations, all of which belong to the Iron Age. 3. The fact that there war. in Europe, Asia, or Africa no copper or tin age prior to the Bronze Age, is conclusive testimony that the manufacture of bronze was an importation into those continents from some foreign country. 4. The fact that in America alone of all the world is found the Copper Age, which must necessarily have preceded the Bronze Age, teaches us to look to the westward of Europe and beyond the sea for that foreign country. 5. We find many similarities in forms of implements between the Bronze Age of Europe and the Copper Age of America. 6. If Plato told the truth, the Atlanteans were a great commercial nation, trading to America and Europe, and, at the same time, they possessed bronze, and were great workers in the other metals. 7. We shall see hereafter that the mythological traditions of Greece referred to a Bronze Age which preceded an Iron Age, and placed this in the land of the gods, which was an island in the Atlantic Ocean, beyond the Pillars of Hercules; and this land was, as we shall see, clearly Atlantis. 8.

As we find but a small development of the Bronze Age in America, it is reasonable to suppose that there must have been some intermediate station between America and Europe, where, during a long period of time, the Bronze Age was developed out of the Copper Age, and immense quantities of bronze implements were manufactured and carried to Europe. Iron Age - definition of Iron Age by The Free Dictionary Iron Age - definition of Iron Age by The Free Dictionary Related to Iron Age: bronze age Iron Age n. The period in cultural development succeeding the Bronze Age in Asia, Europe, and Africa, characterized by the introduction of iron metallurgy. In Europe it began around the eighth century bc. See Usage Note at Three Age system . iron age n (Classical Myth & Legend) classical myth the last and worst age in the history of the world Iron Age n (Archaeology) a. the period following the Bronze Age characterized by the extremely rapid spread of iron tools and weapons, which began in the Middle East about 1100 bc b. (as modifier): an Iron-Age weapon. I′ron Age` n. 1.

the period in the history of humankind, following the Stone Age and the Bronze Age, marked by the use of implements and weapons made of iron: in Europe generally regarded as extending from the first millennium b.c. to the early first century a.d. ; the Halstatt and La Tène cultures are representative. 2. (often l.c.) (in Greek and Roman myth) the last and worst of the ages of the human race, characterized by danger, corruption, and toil. [1585–95] Iron Age The period in human history following the Bronze Age, during which people discovered how to make iron tools and weapons. ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend: Noun 1. Iron Age - (archeology) the period following the Bronze Age; characterized by rapid spread of iron tools and weapons archaeology , archeology - the branch of anthropology that studies prehistoric people and their cultures prehistoric culture , prehistory - the time during the development of human culture before the appearance of the written word 2.

iron age - (classical mythology) the last and worst age of the world classical mythology - the system of mythology of the Greeks and Romans together; much of Roman mythology (especially the gods) was borrowed from the Greeks period , period of time , time period - an amount of time; "a time period of 30 years"; "hastened the period of time of his recovery"; "Picasso's blue period" Translations

Question: Which prehistoric period preceded the Bronze Age?
Answer: Stone Age