Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/471

Rh The crypt was next inspected, and on returning to the choir the Rev. W. Collier took the opportunity of referring to the mortuary chests containing the remains of the early kings; and the Rev. J. G. Joyce at some length urged strong objections against the late removal of the tomb of William Rufus. This led to a somewhat animated discussion, in which the President of the meeting, Archdeacon Jacob, the Rev. W. Collier, and Mr. Parker took part. The perambulation of the Cathedral being afterwards completed, the party returned to Southampton. A Conversazione was afterwards held in the Museum, in which Mr. E. T. Stevens, of Salisbury, read some observations upon "Flint Implements."

"Although much has been written about the three Human Culture-Periods—the Stone Period, the Bronze Period, and the Iron Period—yet there still appears to be some misconception on the subject.

"For instance, the Stone Period is regarded by many as a mere measure of time,—as affording us the first glimpses of man's existence,—and as giving us an insight into his first efforts to learn the mechanical arts, to be followed in due and regular succession by the discovery of the use of metals, and the consequent advent of the Bronze and the Iron Periods. It cannot, however, be too often repeated, that the Stone Period, as a whole, does not afford a measure of time. The Stone Period is a thing of the present as well as of the past; it exists to-day in some countries—it is actually being watched as it expires in others—and it existed elsewhere thousands of years since.

"People living in their Stone Period are those, who, being wholly unacquainted with the arts of metallurgy, use, and use exclusively, natural substances,—such as wood, stone, shell, bone, horn, and the teeth and claws of animals, in the manufacture of weapons, and cutting instruments.

"The one great characteristic of the Stone Period is a total ignorance of the arts of metallurgy. Native copper and meteoric iron to men living in their Stone Period are but malleable varieties of stone, capable of being hammered into convenient forms without the labour of grinding.

"Following upon the Stone Period there appears to have been in some countries an actual Copper Period—a period when native copper was melted and cast into tools and implements. Then came the Bronze Period, when the discovery was made that by adding tin to copper a valuable alloy was produced, much harder than copper. Finally, there is the Iron Period, when the art of reducing iron from its ores was discovered, and this metal superseded the use of both stone and bronze in the manufacture of cutting instruments, and for many other purposes.

"Let it not be imagined, however, that the use of stone implements ceased during the Bronze and the Iron Periods; so far from such having been the case, some forms of stone implements, and certain methods of working stone are actually considered to be typical of these more advanced culture-periods.

"As regards the sequence of the Stone, the Bronze, and the Iron Periods, it would seem that the use of this or that substance was discontinued the moment any other substance better adapted for the special work to be done was discovered; thus the Australian discards his knife-blade of quartz, so soon as he finds that a blade of European glass has a keener edge, and this glass blade in its turn is superseded by some stray