Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 1.djvu/115

Rh Phoenicians obtained it. But, unless the ancients had some source of tin with which we are unacquainted, it seems to be well established that the Phoenician tin was mainly derived from Cornwall, and consequently that even at this early period a considerable commerce had been organized, and very distant countries brought into connection with one another. We are justified in concluding that, between b. c. 1500 and b. c. 1200, the Phoenicians were already acquainted with the mineral fields of Spain and of Britain.

Of the still earlier Age of Stone no less than 30,000 relics, mainly in the shape of implements, are preserved in the Danish museums alone. There is enough evidence to justify us in believing that there was a period when society was in so barbarous a state that sticks or stones (to which we must add horns and bones) were the only implements with which men knew how to furnish themselves.

Our knowledge of this ancient period is derived principally from four sources: namely, the tumuli, or ancient burial mounds; the Lake habitations of Switzerland; shell mounds of Denmark; and the Bone caves. There are, indeed, many other remains of great interest, such, for example, as the ancient fortifications, the "castles" and "camps" which crown so many English hill-tops, and the great lines of embankment; there are the so called Druidical circles and the vestiges of ancient habitations. The majority of these belong, however, in all probability, to a later period; and at any rate, in the present state of our knowledge, we cannot say which, or how many of them, are referable to the Stone Age.

Flint appears to have been the stone most frequently used in Europe, and it has had a much more important influence on our civilization than is generally supposed. Savages value it on account of its hardness and mode of fracture, which is such that, with practice, a good sound block can be chipped into almost any form that may be required.

In many cases block and pebbles of flint, picked up on the surface of the ground, were used in the manufacture of implements; but in other cases much labor was spent to obtain flint of good quality. A good illustration of this is afforded by the so called Grime's Graves, near Brandon, one of which has recently been explored by Mr. Greenwell. These turned out to be excavations made for the purpose of obtaining flint. The end of an ancient gallery was exposed to view. The flint had been hollowed out in three places, and in front of two of these recesses, pointing toward the half excavated stone, were two deer horn picks, lying just as they had been left, still coated with chalk dust, on which was in one place plainly visible the print of the workman's hand. They had evidently been left at the close of a day's work; during the night the gallery had fallen in, and they had never been recovered.

The flint knives, or "flakes," simple as their forms appear, are