Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 2.djvu/318

292 has adopted the simple, yet comprehensive system of classifying the relics of earlier times according to the materials of which they are composed; for unquestionably the material marks the period in which such relics respectively were produced; while the skill displayed in their construction seems to shew the gradual development of the arts, the gradual progress of civilization during such period. And little does the uninformed reader, who is ready to scoff at what he considers the useless labours of the antiquary, little, we say, does such a reader dream how much of historical information as to the state of society, and the condition of the people, the daily business of their lives, their domestic relations, their modes of warfare, and the extent of their commercial intercourse with other parts of the globe, M. Worsaae has acquired from an examination of the monuments of which he treats, and how agreeably he brings such information to bear upon the illustration of those very mouldering and time-eaten monuments from which he has extracted it.

Our limits will not admit of our laying before our readers any evidence of this in the shape of extracts, neither would such extracts do justice to the book, without the neat woodcuts by which they are accompanied: we must content ourselves, therefore, by directing attention to its contents. These are divided into three parts. The first, and to our mind the most interesting, treats of The Antiquities of Denmark:—our Antiquities, the author styles them, and so closely are they identified with those discovered in this country that we might well adopt his phraseology and his book as an exponent of our Antiquities. This division treats, 1. Of Antiquities of the Age of Stone. 2. Of Antiquities of the Age of Bronze. 3. Of Antiquities of the Age of Iron. The second division treats of Barrows and Tumuli under the several heads of, 1. Graves of the Age of Stone. 2. Of the Bronze, and 3. Of the Iron Age. 4. Of Graves in other countries, (more particularly in Sweden and Norway,) and 5. Of Rune Stones.

The third division treats, 1. Of the Importance of Monuments of Antiquity for History. 2. Of their Importance in a National point of view: and lastly the work concludes with some Observations on the opening of Barrows and Tumuli, and the preservation of Antiquities.