Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/361

Rh ARCH JE L G Y 341 it admit of that isolation so natural to man in a rude state; and these, added to the frequent discovery of copper, in its natural condition much more nearly resembling a ductile metal than the ironstone, abundantly account for its use having preceded that of the more abundant metal. Great experience must have been acquired in earlier metallurgy before the iron ore was attempted to be wrought. In this, co-operation was indispensable ; but that once secured, and the first difficulties overcome, the other results appear inevitable. The supply is inexhaustible, widely diffused, and procurable without excessive labour. The material elements of civilisation were thereby rendered available, and all succeeding progress might be said to depend on the capacity of the race. The simplicity which characterises the archaeological disclosures of Scandinavia, Germany, Ireland, and other regions of trans-Alpine Europe lying outside of the range of ancient Greek or Koman influences, has contributed some important aids to the study of prehistoric arts; but the full significance of their teachings has yet to be tested by com parison with the primitive arts pertaining to Egypt, Greece, Asia Minor, and other ancient centres of earliest civilisa tion. To this certain singularly interesting disclosures of very recent date, which some have regarded as at variance with the foregoing classification of archaeological epochs, help to furnish the desired materials. The researches of Dr Heinrich Schliemanu on one of the most memorable sites which epic poetry has selected for the mythic begin nings of history, have brought to light what he believes to be actual remains of the Troy of the Iliad. Dr Schlie- mann began his systematic explorations in 1871, and pur sued them, during the available seasons, till the month of June 1873. With patient assiduity the accumulated debris on the scene of ancient civic settlement was sifted and opened up by regular excavations, till the natural rock was exposed at a depth of upwards of 50 feet. Throughout the whole of this, abundant traces of former occupation were brought to light; and so great an acciimu- lation of debris and rubbish upon an elevated site affords undoubted evidence of the vicissitudes of a long-settled centre of population. To this specific evidence lent addi tional confirmation. The foundations of a temple, sup posed to be that of the Ilian Athena of the time of Alexander, along with coins, inscriptions, and numerous remains of architecture and sculpture, combined to fix the era of an ancient, but strictly historical, period. At a fur ther depth of upwards of G feet, broken pottery, imple ments of bronze, and charred wood and ashes, showed the traces of an older settlement which had perished by fire. But the artificial character of the debris encouraged further research; arid when the excavations had been carried to about double the depth, Dr Schliemann came upon a deposit rich in what may be styled neolithic remains : axes, hammers, spear-heads, and other implements of polished diorite or other stone, weights of granite, querns of lava, and knives and saws of flint abounded, associated with plain, well-executed potteiy, but with only two pins of copper or bronze to indicate any knowledge of metal. Continued excavations brought to light additional stone implements and weapons; until at a depth of some 33 feet, well-wrought implements and weapons of bronze, and pottery of fine quality and execution, revealed the traces of an earlier civilisation on the same ancient site. In all this, while there is much to interest, there is no thing to surprise us. Here, near the shores of the Helles pont, at a point accessible to the oldest known centres of civilisation, to Egypt, Phoenicia, .Assyria, Greece, Carthage, and Rome, a civilised community, familiar with the arts of the bronze period of the Mediterranean shores, appears to have yielded to vicissitudes familiar enough to the student of ancient history. After a time the desolated locality tempted the settlement of some barbarian Asiatic horde, such as the steppes of that continent could fur nish even now. They were ignorant of metallurgic arts; though probably, like the savage tribes of the New World at the present time, not wholly unaware of the manufac ture of implements and weapons of bronze or other metals. Such a local alternation of bronze and stone periods in a region lying in close proximity alike to vast areas of Asiatic barbarism, and to the most important centres of ancient civilisation, in no degree conflicts with a general system of succession of archaeological periods. Mexico and Peru, while in a purely bronze age, were overthrown by Spanish invaders. Large portions of their ancient territories were abandoned to utter barbarism, and even now are in the occupation of savage tribes. But the ancient city of Montezuma has been made the capital of a civilised state; the beds of its canals have been filled up, burying therein obsidian, stone, and bronze implements, pottery, sculptures, and much else pertaining to its ante-Columbian era; and it only requires such a fate as its modern history renders conceivable enough, to leave for future ages the buried strata of a civic site revealing similar evidences of the alternation of semi-civilised, barbarian, and civilised ages, on the same long-inhabited site of Toltecans and Aztecs, Indian savages, and modern Mexicans and Spaniards. That man has everywhere preceded history is a self- evident truth. So long as no scientific evidence seemed to conflict with a long-accepted chronology in reference to the antiquity assigned to the human race, it remained unchallenged, though the like computation had been uni versally rejected in reference to the earth as the theatre of his history, and we were content to regard the prehistoric era of man as no more than a brief infancy of the race. But the investigations and disclosures of recent years in reference to the whole prehistoric period have involved of necessity a reconsideration of the grounds on which a definite antiquity of comparatively brief duration has been assigned to man ; and the tendency at present is rather to exaggerate than to diminish the apparent antiquity of the race. The nature and extent of the evidence which has thus far rewarded intelligent research have been suf ficiently indicated above; and as it is still far from com plete, the student of archaeology will act wisely in pushing forward his researches, and accumulating and comparing all available evidence, without hastily pronouncing any absolute verdict on this question. But, without attempting to connect with any historic chronology the men of the English drift, or the troglodytes of the mammoth or rein deer periods of France, it may be useful, in concluding this summary of primitive archaeology, to glance at the origin of civilisation, and the evidences of the antiquity of what appear to constitute its essential elements. Everywhere man seems to have passed through the same progressive stages : First, that of the savage or purely hunter state; a condition of precarious instability, in which man is most nearly in the state of a mere animal subsisting on its prey. It is the condition of nomad life, incompatible with a numerous or settled population ; exhausting the resources of national being in the mere straggle for existence, and therefore inimical to all accu mulation of the knowledge and experience on which human progress depends. In this primitive state, man is disclosed to us by the evidence with which the archaeologist now deals. He appears everywhere in this first stage as the savage occupant of a thinly-peopled continent, warring with seemingly inadequate means against gigantic carni- vora, the contemporary existence of which is known to us only by the disclosures of geological strata or ossiferous