Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/417

] 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 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