The Prehistoric World or Vanished races Part 17

We have just seen what inferences have been drawn from the use of the circle as an ornament. This is not the only sign that has been thought to have some symbolical meaning. The cross was also used as an ornament, and possessed probably some religious significance. A third figure which has caused some discussion was the triangle. "It is, on the whole, very probable that all these signs, which are not connected with any known object, bear some relation to certain religious or superst.i.tious ideas entertained by the men of the Bronze epoch, and, as a consequence of this, that their hearts must have been inspired with some degree of religious feeling."<26>

Ill.u.s.tration of Avebury Restored.-------------

We have mentioned the use of stone circles in Neolithic times. During the Bronze Age they built the circle very large, sometimes twelve hundred feet in diameter, and they were sometimes made of earth. These circles are regarded by some<27> as being simply burial places, and many of them have been proved to be such. But others regard them as temples, meaning thereby not a building, in our sense of the word, but a place of sanct.i.ty, and probably where some form of wors.h.i.+p was held. Even if we allow that they were originally tombs in every case, it does not follow that they have not also been temples, for the religious sentiment has, in all ages, and in all places, tended to center in tombs, which ultimately have become places of wors.h.i.+p. Many of our Christian Churches have originated in this manner, and it is a most obvious transition from the tomb to the temple. The wors.h.i.+p of the spirits of the dead at the one would naturally grow into the wors.h.i.+p of the Great Unknown in the other.<28>

The preceding cut is a restoration of one of the largest of these temples. Here we see a circle twelve hundred feet in diameter, of upright stones, guarded by both a ditch and embankment. From the two openings in the embankment formerly extended two long winding avenues of stone. Between them rises Silbury Hill, the largest artificial mound in Great Britain, being one hundred and thirty feet high. The area of the large inclosure was about twenty-eight and a half acres. This was a temple of no inconsiderable size. It was, of course in ruins when the earliest account of it was written, and we can only speculate as to the lapse of time since it was venerated as a place of wors.h.i.+p.

Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain, is a better known ruin, though not on as large a scale as at Avebury. The cut gives us a restoration of it. The outer circle of standing stones is one hundred feet in diameter, and when entire consisted of one hundred stones. These are of sandstone, and were obtained in the vicinity. A course of stone was laid along the top.

We notice within a smaller circle of stone. The material of these stones is such that we know they must have come from a distance. Mr. James tells us that they are erratic--that is, bowlders brought from the North of Scotland by the glaciers--and that others of the same kind are still to be seen lying around the country.<29> But the more common opinion is that they were brought there by the people from a distance, perhaps Cornwall or the Channel Islands. If this be true, it is evidence of a strong religious feeling, and a peculiar value must have been attached to the material, since for any ordinary monument the stones in the neighborhood would have sufficed. Still nearer the center were five groups of three great stones each, and immediately within these a horseshoe of smaller stones. Finally, near the head of the horseshoe, a great slab of sandstone is supposed to have served for an altar. The date of the two structures just described has been a matter of some dispute.

Ill.u.s.tration of Stonehenge Restored.--------

It is worthy of notice that in the immediate neighborhood of both of them are found a great number of barrows of the Bronze Age. Over three hundred were erected in the neighborhood of the latter. In the opinion of many this fixes their date in the Bronze Age. Stonehenge, in its ruined state, has formed the subject of no little speculation. Modern explorers, in connecting it with the Bronze Age, have not dispelled from it the enchantment of mystery. We must ever wonder as to the nature of the rites there observed. Our questionings meet with but feeble response; for though we have learned somewhat of past times, it is comparatively but little. Ruined columns, crumbling burial mounds, and remains of stone and bronze will always be surrounded with more or less mystery--a striking ill.u.s.tration that science is able to dispel but little of the darkness which unnumbered years have thrown around the culture of the past.

Ill.u.s.tration of Ancient Tower, Scotland.-----------

REFERENCES

(1) The ma.n.u.script of this chapter was submitted to Prof. Chas.

Rau, of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution for criticism.

(2) Brace's "Races of the Old World," p. 60.

(3) Brace's "Races of the Old World," p. 61.

(4) Dawkins's "Early Man in Britain," p. 343.

(5) "One ma.s.s estimated to weigh two hundred tons." Dana's "Manual of Mineralogy," p. 291.

(6) Evans's "Ancient Bronze Implements," p. 2.

(7) Rau's "Anthropological Subjects," p. 89. In his preface to this collection he a.s.serts his belief, that "former inhabitants of North America, notwithstanding all a.s.sertions to the contrary, were unacquainted with the art of melting copper."

Ibid., vii.

(8) Dawkins's "Early Man in Britain," p. 401.

(9) "Dawn of History," p. 367.

(10) For an excellent discussion of this subject, about which there is yet much uncertainty, we would refer the reader to Evans's "Ancient Bronze Implements," chap. xxii.

(11) Dawkins's "Early Man in Britain," p. 355.

(12) Dawkins's "Early Man in Britain," p. 350.

(13) "Prehistoric Times," p. 34.

(14) "Early Man in Britain," p. 351.

(15) Figuier's "Primitive Man," p. 255.

(16) Rau's "Early Man in Europe," p. 135, and note.

(17) Lubbock's "Prehistoric Times," p. 39.

(18) Morgan's "Ancient Society," pp. 119, 120.

(19) Dawkins's "Early Man in Europe," p. 449.

(20) Dawkins's "Early Man in Britain," p. 383.

(21) Lubbock's "Prehistoric Times," p. 157.

(22) Lubbock's "Prehistoric Times," p. 74.

(23) A.D., 995-1035.

(24) Ferguson's "Rude Stone Monuments."

(25) Dawkins's "Early Man in Britain," p. 367.

(26) Figuier's "Primitive Man," p. 283.

(27) Ferguson's "Rude Stone Monuments."

(28) Dawkins's "Early Man in Britain," p. 377.

(29) James's "Stonehenge," p. 3.

Chapter VIII

THE IRON AGE IN EUROPE.

Bronze not the best metal--Difficulties attending the discovery of Iron--Probable steps in this discovery--Where this discovery was first made--Known in ancient Egypt--How this knowledge would spread--Iron would not drive out Bronze--The primitive Iron-worker--The advance in government--Pottery and ornaments of the Iron Age,--Weapons of early Iron Age--The battle-field at Tilfenan--Trade of early Iron Age--Invention of Money--Invention of Alphabetic Writing--Invasion of the Germanic Tribes--The cause of the Dark Ages--Connection of these three Ages--Necessity of believing in an extended past--Attempts to determine the same--Tiniere Delta--Lake Bienne, British Fen-beds--Maximum and Minimum data--Argument from the widespread dispersion of the Turanian Race--Mr. Geikie's conclusions--The isolation of the Paleolithic Age.

The introduction of bronze was the harbinger of better days to the various tribes of Europe. Without metals it is doubtful if man would ever have been able to raise himself from barbarism. His advance in civilization has been in direct proportion to his ability to work metals. As long as he knew how to work bronze only he could not hope for the best results. The trouble was not in the metal itself, but in the supply; for copper and tin, the const.i.tuents of bronze, are found only in limited amounts. When we reflect on the multiplicity of purposes for which some metallic substance is needed, we at once perceive that men require a metal which can not only be worked cheaply, but must exist in great abundance, so that the needs of a rich and varied culture may be met.

The Divine Author of nature has stored away just such a metal, and in such exhaustless quant.i.ties that it forms an ingredient in nearly all soils, and flows away in the waters of many springs and rivers. It exists in abundance in nearly every country of the globe, in some forming veritable mountain ma.s.ses. We refer to iron, the king of metals; and when man had learned to reduce it from its ores he had taken the first step in a new direction, the end whereof is yet far distant.

We have in the preceding chapter presented some reasons why copper would be known before iron. In the first place, how were men to learn there was such a thing as iron? Supposing its ores did occur in abundance, there was nothing to attract attention to them. They were not of great heft, like tin ore or of striking color, like the ores of copper. In the hills, and under the foot of man, nature indeed had imprisoned a genius; but there was no outward sign by which man was to divine his presence.

Copper, as we have seen, occurs frequently in a native form that is ready for use, without reducing from its ores. Native iron, on the contrary, is almost the rarest of substances, though it is reported as occurring in one or two localities on the earth.<1> Almost the only examples of native iron has been obtained from meteorites. Strange as it may seem, these wanderers in s.p.a.ce, which occasionally flame athwart the sky, consist largely of pure iron; at least this is true of such specimens as have from time to time been found on the earth's surface.

This supply is of course extremely limited, yet some Siberian tribes are said to make knives from iron obtained in this manner.<2> Moreover the evidence of language, as used by the ancient Greeks and Egyptians, would imply the meteoric origin of the first known form of the metal.<3> But though such accidental finds might prove the existence of another metal, they would furnish no hint how to extract it from its ores, or indeed, that it existed in the form of ores.

The prolonged schooling in metallurgy, which men received during the Bronze Age, could not fail to give them many hints, and doubtless accidental discoveries of metallic substances were made. We can conceive how, by accident or design, iron ore, treated in a similar manner to copper and tin ore, would leave behind a ma.s.s of spongy iron. The difficulty would be in working it; for, as we have seen, they were in the habit of casting their articles of bronze. But iron is very difficult of fusion. It was a long while before they learned how to do that. They had therefore to learn an entirely new art--that is, to fas.h.i.+on their implements of iron by hammering the heated ma.s.s.

There is no reason to suppose that iron was first discovered in Europe.

Its spread has been from the east and south to the north and west.

It, in all probability, was discovered, like bronze, in Asia. Although evidence, both archaeological and traditional, goes to show that bronze was in use long before iron, yet iron has been known from time immemorial. Explain it how we will, civilization and history follow close after the knowledge of iron. Wherever the light of history first falls on the nations of the Old World, we find them acquainted with iron, but such knowledge, at least on the part of the Mediterranean nations, does not long precede history, for at that early time, iron was still a most precious metal. It was not yet produced in sufficient quant.i.ties to take the place of bronze; hence the prehistoric Iron Age was there but of short duration.

Among the early Egyptians iron was known, but was probably not very common. There is on this subject some diversity of opinion; some believing that at the very earliest historical period they were skilled in working it, and employed it in all the affairs of life, but others a.s.sure us that at the most ancient period they did not really use iron, and that bronze was the metal employed for all ordinary purposes.<4>

A wedge of iron is said to have been found in a joint between the stones of the great pyramid. Here, then, at the dawn of historic times iron seems to be making its way among a bronze-using people. The ancient Chaldeans employed iron as an ornament, but not for implements. With them it was therefore a precious metal. Among the a.s.syrians, iron was largely used, and at a comparatively early date. A careful study of the poems of Homer shows that the Greeks of nearly three thousand years ago had a knowledge of iron, though it was a highly prized metal. But to the north of the Mediterranean the prehistoric Iron Age was of longer duration.

We can readily see that a knowledge of iron would spread in much the same way as did bronze. When first introduced, it would be rare and costly, and so would be used sparingly. Bronze axes have been found with the edge of iron. Afterwards, as it became more abundant, it would be used altogether for cutting instruments and weapons, while bronze, being more easily worked, would still be used for ornaments, brooches, etc. At Hallstadt, in Austria, was discovered a cemetery which evidently belongs to a time when iron was taking the place of bronze. In this case, the implements of bronze are those forms which we have learned were produced near the close of the Bronze Age. The iron implements are not those forms best suited for that metal, but imitations of those of bronze.<5> We remember when bronze was first introduced, the weapons were simply copies of those forms already made in stone.<6>

We may suppose that a knowledge of iron would spread rapidly. The knowledge of metallurgy necessary for the production of bronze was at this time widely disseminated. It would require, therefore, but a hint to start them in experiments. In the dissemination of this knowledge, commerce, of course, played a most important part. Whenever the early Greek and Roman writers have occasion to mention the arms of the less civilized tribes of Europe, we learn they were of iron. This shows that at a very early time this knowledge had spread all over Europe.<7>

It is scarcely necessary to remark that the use of iron would not drive out the use of bronze. That would still be used for many purposes; and even stone would continue in use, at least for some purposes. At the battle of Marathon, arrow-heads and lances of stone were largely used.

We can easily understand how, by one of a number of causes, some rude tribes, yet unacquainted with the use of metal, would come to occupy the site of some settlement, the inhabitants of which had been in the Bronze or Iron Age. This actually happened at ancient Troy, where the remains of a stone-using folk have been found above those of a people using metal. This, though an exception to the general rule, need give us no surprise.

Iron manufacture at the present day, is one of our great industries. In its present form it is the final development of an industry whose first unfoldings we have now to glance at. That the first process man employed to procure iron should have been very rude, is what we would expect.

Some of the partially civilized tribes of to-day may give us an insight into the process employed. We are told that in Tartary each native makes the iron he needs, just as every household would make its own bread. The furnace is a very small affair, not holding more than three pounds of ore. This is filled with ore and charcoal. The bellows are used, and after the charcoal is all burned out, the result is a small piece of spongy iron, which needs only repeated heating and hammering to be made serviceable.<8> Primitive furnaces, on a somewhat larger scale, have been discovered in Switzerland. Here the excavation was made in the side of a hill, and a rude, dome-shaped chimney built over it.

We must not forget that our task ends where the historian's begins.

The use of iron did not long precede history, so we have but little to describe as to the customs and manners of life during the prehistoric Iron Age. A general advance in all the social arts must surely have taken place. Improved tools, and more cheaply produced, could not fail to advance man very materially in culture. Some lake settlements were still in use as places of residence, but better means of protection than water was now known--walled cities were in use, especially around the Mediterranean sea.

Mr. Morgan has traced for us the evolution of government. At this early date the Greek and Roman people were engaged in subst.i.tuting for ancient society the modern idea of government founded on territory.<9> The great body of European tribes were now in the final stage of barbaric life.

Their system of government was doubtless the highest known to ancient society--that of confederacies; the union of tribes speaking dialects of the same language, for offensive and defensive purposes.