John Evans

“ We know not where or when the dawn of human civilization arose, but it was probably long before the date of our earliest River-Gravels and in some part of the world more favoured by climate than Britain. Why then should we speak of British implements as Eolithic? And how can we apply the term Mesolithic to a period intervening between the Palæolithic and Neolithic Ages, when we know neither when the one ended nor when the other began? ”

“ The Bronze Age, nevertheless, from its close propinquity to the period of written history, is of the highest importance to those who would trace back the course of human progress to its earliest phases; and though in this country many of the minute details of the picture cannot be filled in, yet, taken as a whole, the broad lines of the development of this stage of civilisation may be as well traced in Britain as in any other country. ”

“ Geology is, in fact, but an elder brother of archæology, and it is therefore by no means surprising to find that the one may occasionally lend the other brotherly assistance; although it has been generally supposed that the last of the great geological changes took place at a period long antecedent to the appearance of man upon the earth, and that the modifications of the earth's surface of which he has been a witness have been—with the exception of those due directly to volcanic agency—but trifling and immaterial. ”

“ Among all savage tribes the love of ornament and finery is very great; though it cannot well be greater than that exhibited by more highly civilized races. It has, however, to content itself with decorations of a simpler kind, and requiring fewer mechanical appliances in their production; so that shells, feathers, and trophies of the chase, and ornaments wrought from bone and the softer, yet showy, kinds of stone, usually replace the more costly products of the loom and the jeweller's art. ”

“ The Bronze Age of Britain may, therefore, be regarded as an aggregate of three stages: the first, that characterized by the flat or slightly flanged celts, and the knife-daggers frequently found in barrows associated with instruments and weapons formed of stone; the second, that characterized by the more heavy dagger-blades and the flanged celts and tanged spear-heads or daggers, such as those from Arreton Down; and the third, by palstaves and socketed celts and the many forms of tools and weapons, of which fragments are so constantly present in the hoards of the ancient bronze-founders. ”

“ In point of workmanship, I think it will be perceived that the weapons or implements now under consideration differ considerably from those of the so-called Stone period: of these latter, by far the greater number (with the exception of arrow heads) are more or less ground, and even polished; some with the utmost care all over, but nearly all ground sufficiently to ensure a clean cutting edge. The implements from the drift are, on the contrary so far as has been hitherto observed, never ground, but their edges left in the rough state in which they have been chipped from the flint. ”

“ The investigators into the early history of mankind are like explorers in search of the source of one of those mighty rivers which traverse whole continents: we have departed from the homes of modern civilization in ascending the stream, and arrived at a spot where traces of human existence are but few, and animal life has assumed strange and unknown forms ”

“ There is indeed every ground for believing that in some parts of the world the use of native copper must have continued for a lengthened period before it was discovered that the addition of a small proportion of tin not only rendered it more readily fusible, but added to its elasticity and hardness, and thus made it more serviceable for tools and weapons. Even after the advantages of the alloy over the purer metal were known, the local scarcity of tin may at times have caused so small a quantity of that metal to be employed, that the resulting mixture can hardly be regarded as bronze ”

“ In the cultivated soil and made ground above, and at much less depth from the surface, ground and polished instruments, evidently belonging to the so-called Stone period, have indeed been found; but this again only tends to prove that the shaped flints discovered at a much greater depth belonged to some other race of men, and inasmuch as they certainly are not the work of a subsequent people, we have here again a testimony that they must be referred to some antecedent race, which had perished perhaps ages before the Celtic occupation of the country. ”

“ It is of so absorbent a nature that it is only in the extraordinary event of the ground being hard frozen at the time of a heavy fall of rain, or of a rapid thaw of snow; or of some inches of rain falling in the course of a few hours, that the soil is unable to absorb the water as fast as it is delivered upon it. The moisture when once in the soil is either carried off again by evaporation and vegetation, or descends to a point at which the chalk is saturated with water, which is, however, constantly being drained off by springs along the valleys. ”

“ No antiquary of experience will deny that many bronze ornaments, and even some bronze weapons, remained in use long after iron and even steel were known, any more than he would deny that the use of stone for certain purposes continued not only after bronze was known, but even after iron and steel were in general use, and, in fact, up to the present time, not only in barbarian but in civilised countries. ”

“ It appears to me, moreover, very doubtful, in point of fact, whether human bones have not been really found associated with those of the extinct mammalia, more especially in cave-deposits. At all events it is a negative very difficult to prove. But, assuming the fact to be as stated, are there not reasons why it is probable that human remains should be of extremely rare occurrence, if not entirely absent, in such drifts as those of the valley of the Somme and at Hoxne? ”

“ Comparing the implements of the two periods together, the main differences are that the forms are fewer, and, as a rule, larger and more rudely chipped in the earlier period; and, beyond this, that the art of grinding to an edge appears to have been unknown. If we regard, as probably we safely may do, the remains of human art found in caves like Kent's Cavern, associated with bones of animals belonging to the same fauna as that of the River-Drift, as being attributable to the same age and probably to the same race of people, we get some further insight into their habits and conditions of life. ”

“ Flat celts, or those of simple form with the faces somewhat convex, and approximating in shape to the polished stone celts of the Neolithic Period, have been regarded by several antiquaries as being probably the earliest bronze implements or weapons. Such a view has much to commend it, but, as already observed, it may be doubted whether in the earliest times, when metal was scarce, it would be so readily applied to purposes for which much of the precious material was required, as to the manufacture of weapons or tools of a lighter kind, such as daggers or knives. ”

“ It is a grand spectacle, when the Rhine is thus charged, to see these countless drifts adjust themselves in their relative position, where they unite by congelation, and convey the idea of the fall of some mountain which has covered the plain with rocks of every dimension. ”

“ The existence of a steel for the purpose of sharpening seems to imply not only the knowledge of the preparation of the metal and its subsequent hardening, but also of files or of other tools to produce the peculiar striated surface to which the sharpening property of a steel is due. Had such tools been known, it seems almost impossible that no trace of them should have come down to our times. Moreover, if used for sharpening bronze knives, a steel such as at present used would sooner become clogged and unfit for use than if employed for sharpening steel knives. ”

“ In the beds of mud and sand, we should probably find the shells of some of the molluscs inhabiting the waters, and also those of terrestrial species, washed in from the inundated land surface, or brought down from the banks of the tributary rivulets; while mixed among the larger pebbles we might expect to find any animal bones that had been lying on the land contiguous to the stream, or any of the larger and heavier objects of human workmanship, that would have been carried off by such an inundation, had mankind been living on the banks of the river. ”

“ The process of casting, as practised by the ancient bronze-founders, was, moreover, one requiring a great amount of skill; and though there appear to have been wandering founders, who, like the bell-founders of mediæval times, could practise their art at any spot where their services were required, yet there were probably fixed foundries also, where the process of manufacture could be more economically carried on, and where successive generations passed through some sort of apprenticeship to learn the art and mystery of the trade. ”