Page:Prehistoric Times.djvu/81

Rh In Denmark and Mecklenburg, spiral ornaments are most common; farther south, these are replaced by ring ornaments and lines. The Danish swords generally have solid and richly-decorated handles, as in figs. 30–36, while those found in Great Britain (fig. 26) terminate in a plate which was riveted to pieces of wood or bone. Again, the British lance-heads frequently have loops at the side of the shaft-hole, as in figs. 22, 23, and 24, which is never the case with Danish specimens.

The evidence also indicates that the use of bronze, when once discovered, spread rapidly, because we find the simplest and earliest forms scattered over the whole area, whereas if the process had been slow, the more useful and complex forms would have been developed before the use of metal reached our shores.

The impurities in the bronze indicate, as was shown in the last chapter, that the copper ore was not all derived from one locality; and lastly, the discovery of moulds in Ireland, Scotland, England, Switzerland, Denmark, and elsewhere, proves that the art of casting in bronze was known and practised in many countries.

On the whole, then, though there is, I think, ample evidence to prove that the general use of bronze weapons and implements characterizes a well-marked epoch in history, it must also be admitted that we have still very much to learn in regard to this interesting phase in the development of European civilization, and the race by whom the knowledge of metals was introduced into our Continent.

The discoveries of bronze implements may be arranged under three heads:—

Of these three classes the third is the most important and instructive.

In Great Britain the objects found with burials are