Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/441

] greater part of the Continent may have been in the Bronze age while Egypt and Assyria were in that of Iron.

The bronze articles which are most widely distributed are the simple wedge-shaped axe, and the simple dagger. These are found in Egypt, in the ruins of Hissarlik, in the island of Termia, in Cyprus, and over the whole of Europe as far north as Sweden. The wedge-axe is found in India (Gungeria), in Mexico, and Peru. These two forms appear together in the early Bronze age of Scandinavia, Britain, and France, and they are therefore probably the first metal implements which found their way into the hands of the Neolithic inhabitants of Europe. The history of their evolution is the same; just as the wedge axe is the descendant from a prototype of polished stone, so is the dagger related to that of stone, of which so many wonderfully worked examples have been found in Scandinavia, and which have also been discovered in Egypt. One specimen from the latter country, in the British Museum, is mounted in a wooden handle, like those of bronze. Swords and more complicated axes, and more elaborate articles, came in afterwards, and present local peculiarities which enable the archaeologists to map out Europe into different regions characterised by the different styles.

Bronze was introduced into Europe first of all in the shape of simple implements, weapons, and ornaments, and afterwards, when smelting became known, ingots of