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BRONZE AGE

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 641 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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See also:

BRONZE See also:AGE , the name given by archaeologists to that See also:stage in human culture, intermediate between the See also:Stone and See also:Iron Ages, when weapons, utensils and implements were, as a See also:general See also:rule, made of bronze. The See also:term has no See also:absolute See also:chronological value, but marks a See also:period of See also:civilization through which it is believed that most races passed at one See also:time or another. The " finds " of stone and bronze, of bronze and iron, and even of stone and iron implements together in tumuli and sepulchral mounds, suggest that in many countries the three stage& in See also:man's progress overlapped. From the similarity of types of weapons and implements of the period found throughout See also:Europe a relatively synchronous commencement has been inferred for the Bronze Age in Europe, fixed by most authorities at between 2000 B.C. to 'Soo B.c. But it must have been earlier in some countries, and is certainly known to have been later in others.; while the Mexicans and Peruvians were still in their bronze age in See also:recent times. Not a few archaeologists have denied that there ever was a distinct Bronze Age. They have found their See also:chief See also:argument in the fact that weapons of these ages have been found See also:side by side in prehistoric See also:burial-places. But when it is admitted that the ages must have overlapped, it is fairly easy to undertand the mixed " finds." The beginning, the prevalence and duration of the Bronze Age in each See also:country would have been ordered by the accessibility of the metals which See also:form the alloy. Thus in some lands bronze may have continued to be a substance of extreme value until the Iron Age was reached, and in tumuli in which more than one See also:body was interred, as was frequently the See also:case, it would only be with the remains of the richer tenants of the See also:tomb that the more valuable See also:objects would be placed. There is, moreover, much See also:reason to believe that sepulchral mounds were opened from age to age and fresh interments made, and in such a practice would be found a See also:simple explanation of the mixing of implements. Another curious fact has been seized on by those who argue against the existence of a Bronze Age. Among all the " finds " examined in Europe there is a most remarkable See also:absence of See also:copper implements.

The See also:

sources of See also:tin in Europe are practically restricted to See also:Cornwall and See also:Saxony. How then are we to explain on the one See also:hand the apparent stride made by See also:primitive man when from a Stone Age civilization he passed to a comparatively advanced metallurgical skill? On the other, how See also:account for a comparatively synchronous commencement of bronze civilization when one at least of the metals needed for the alloy would have been naturally difficult of See also:access, if not unknown to many races? The See also:answer is that there can be but little doubt that the knowledge of bronze came to the races of Europe from outside. Either by the Phoenicians or by the Greeks metallurgy was taught to men who no sooner recognized the nature and malleable properties of copper than they learnt that by application of See also:heat a substance could be manufactured with tin far better suited to their purposes. Copper would thus have been but seldom used unalloyed; and the relatively synchronous See also:appearance of bronze in Europe, and the scanty " finds " of copper implements, are explained. We may conclude then that there was a Bronze Age in most countries; that it was the See also:direct result of increasing intercommunication of races' and the spread of See also:commerce; and that the See also:discovery of metals was due to See also:information brought to Stone-Age man in Europe by races which were already skilful metallurgists: The Bronze Age in Europe is characterized by weapons, utensils and implements, distinct in See also:design and See also:size from those in use in the preceding or succeeding stage of man's civilization. Moreover—and this has been employed as an argument in favour of the See also:foreign origin of the knowledge of bronze—all the See also:BRONZING- objects in one See also:part of Europe are ide%ical in See also:pattern and size with those found in another part. The implements of the Bronze Age include swords, awls, knives, gouges, hammers, daggers and arrow-heads. A remarkable See also:confirmation of the theory that the Bronze Age culture came from the See also:East is to be found in the patterns of the arms, which are distinctly See also:oriental; while the handles of swords and daggers are so narrow and See also:short as to make it unlikely that they would be made for use by the large-handed races of Europe. The, Bronze Age is also characterized by the fact that See also:cremation was the mode of disposal of the dead, whereas in the Stone Age burial was the rule. Barrows and sepulchral mounds strictly of the Bronze Age are smaller and less imposing than those of the Stone Age.

Besides varied and beautiful weapons, frequently exhibiting high workmanship, amulets, coronets, diadems of solid See also:

gold, and vases of elegant form and ornamentation in gold and bronze are found in the barrows. These latter appear to have been used as tribal or See also:family cemeteries. In See also:Denmark as many as seventy deposits of burnt bones have been found in a single See also:mound, indicating its use through a See also:long See also:succession of years. The ornamentation of the period is as a rule confined to spirals, bosses and concentric circles. What is remarkable is that the ;words not only show the design of the See also:cross in the shape of the handle, but also in See also:tracery what is believed to be an See also:imitation of the Svastika, that See also:ancient See also:Aryan See also:symbol which was probably the first to be made with a definite intention and a consecutive meaning. The, pottery is all " hand-made," and the bulk of the objects excavated are cinerary urns, usually found full of burnt bones. These vary from 12 to 18 in. in height. Their decoration is confined to a See also:band See also:round the upper part of the pot, or often only a projecting flange lapped round the whole rim. A few have small handles, formed of pierced knobs of See also:clay and sometimes projecting rolls of clay, looped, as it were, all round the See also:urn. The ornamentation consists of dots, zigzags, chevrons or crosses. The lines were frequently made by pressing a See also:twisted thong of skin against the moist clay; the patterns in all cases being stamped into the pot before it was hardened by See also:fire. See See also:ARCHAEOLOGY, &c.

Also See also:

Lord See also:Avebury, Prehistoric Times (190o); See also:Sir J. See also:Evans, Ancient Bronze Implements of See also:Great See also:Britain (1881) ; Chartre's Age du bronze en See also:France.

End of Article: BRONZE AGE

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