LIZATION.) Hissarlik Finds.—The earliest specimens of undoubted bronze were obtained by Schliemann from the second city at Hissarlik; they formed part of the famous hoard L. This city was twice re built and the period of its existence may thus be divided into three phases. It seems clear that hoard L belonged to the third of these phases, which is roughly contemporary with the first middle Min oan period in Crete and with the iith and 12th dynasties in Egypt. This phase may thus be dated roughly as having lasted from about 2200 to about z goo B.C.
It has been pointed out recently that objects, some clearly made at the second city at Hissarlik and others that are imitations of such objects, have been found at various sites throughout the cen tral portion of the Danube basin, in the Moravian gap, and still farther north in Silesia and Saxony. A line of trade seems to have existed along this route at that time, and it has been suggested that traders from Hissarlik came hither in search of metal ores. It is believed that ultimately they found and worked the copper deposits of the Erzgebirge and later on the tin lodes in the same region. As a result of this, it would seem, the discovery was made that a certain percentage of tin, added to the copper, increased its hardness and made it possible to make castings in a closed mould. How early this discovery was made, and whether by the Hissarlik traders or by the Bohemian miners, is uncertain; it seems likely, however, that bronze, hardened by the addition of about 6 to so% of tin, was being made and used at Hissarlik as early as the begin ning of the third phase of the second city, if not earlier. Thus we may believe, with a fair measure of certainty, that bronze was known in the Aegean about 2200 B.C. This date accords well with the available evidence from Crete, Egypt and other fields of archaeological activity.
Not long after the discovery of bronze we find a considerable development of metallurgy arising in Bohemia and Saxony. The civilization in which this first arose is known as the Aunjetitz cul ture, from the site at which this industry was first noted, a village some miles south of Prague. All the evidence available at the moment suggests that it was from these two centres, Hissarlik and Bohemia, that the knowledge of bronze became dispersed through out Europe and the adjacent regions.
With the discovery of bronze, a few centuries before z000 B.C., this trade increased, and we find objects, bearing unmistakable affinities to metal tools found at Hissarlik, Crete and Cyprus, at all the places mentioned as far as Portugal. In the Iberian pen insula various centres of metallurgy arose, and there can be little doubt but that the supplies of Cassiterite, found in that peninsula, were worked very early in the bronze age. The need for tin sup plied an added impetus to this trade, and we find evidence of greater activity along the coastal regions.
In the Iberian peninsula there arose several metallurgical cen tres, of which two are the most important ; one in the copper bearing region of south-east Spain, the other in south Portugal. The latter seems to have traded mainly with the west of Brittany, Ireland and the west of Britain, while the route from Spain passed by land along the coast to the neighbourhood of Narbonne, through the Carcassonne gap, down the Garonne valley and along the Atlantic coast to the Morbihan; thence it passed across Brittany, probably up the Cotentin peninsula, and thence to vari ous points on the south coast of England. At an early date some of the traders who followed this route landed near St. Austell, and doubtless discovered the tin deposits of Cornwall. For a time, at least, the route to Denmark was discontinued.
The Aunjetitz culture arose in Bohemia out of a copper culture, in which a few objects of poor bronze are occasionally found. This copper culture is known as the Marschwitz culture, from the village of that name, near Ohlau in Silesia, where the culture was first noted. A few bronze axes, similar in shape to some found at Hissarlik II., found their way to Bohemia and farther north in Germany before the beginning of the true Aunjetitz culture, and their distribution north of the Elbe gap suggests the existence of trade routes to various places on the southern shore of the Baltic between Jutland and Danzig. It was not, however, until the latter half of the first period of the bronze age that the Aunjetitz cul ture, which received influences from Italy, and perhaps indirectly from Spain, was fully developed. The culture then spread rapidly to Silesia, Saxony, Moravia and Bavaria, and even as far as Lower Austria and Hungary. Though the people responsible for this culture did not spread north of a line running through Magde burg from Glogau to Brunswick, their bronze wares were carried almost all over north Germany, especially in the region lying between the Ems and the Oder, while some found their way still farther to the north-east. Only along the shores of the Baltic are they lacking, except in the Province of Holstein. Thus we find two groups of implements, the one starting from the Aegean and spreading coastwise to Normandy, the British Isles, and, later, to Scandinavia, while the other radiates from the Erzge birge region, spreading chiefly to the north and reaching Scandi navia mainly through Schleswig and Jutland.
Since bronze, unlike copper, could be cast in closed moulds, it was possible to make a great variety of forms, and the bronze age is essentially a period of metallurgical experiments. As re gards tools and weapons, the bronze age exhibits far more types than are met with during the much longer period in which iron and steel have been in use. This is especially true for axes, spear heads, daggers and swords. The types show a steady development from the primitive shapes, formerly made in copper, based as they were in most cases upon stone models. There are, how ever, several parallel lines of de velopment, which pursued their courses simultaneously in differ ent regions. This is especially true of the axe-heads, which, ow ing to the many phases exhibited by their evolution, form the best series by which we can build up a relative and, to some extent, a positive chronology.
It was this latter type that acquired a thickness at the sides, due to blows designed to keep the blade in place, thus forming slight flanges. These were then cast and developed in depth until what is known as the flanged axe-head appeared. The place of origin of this type is uncertain, but it seems likely that it arose in the copper area of south-east Spain. Thence it travelled, not only to England by the route al ready traced, but along the shores of the Mediterranean, across the Rhone valley and the pass of Mt. Genevre into north Italy, where it assumed a more elon gated form, with a more devel oped edge, sometimes spatulate in shape, and with a small notch in the butt. From Italy this last type of axe-head spread in many directions, across the Alps into Switzerland, into many parts of France, across the Brenner pass, down the valley of the Inn, and so through Bohemia into Saxony. Ultimately some form of flanged axe-head spread into most parts of Europe.
The advantage of the flanges was that the axe-head could not now slip sideways from the cleft stick that formed the haft, but constant use of this tool caused the haft to split farther with every blow until it became useless. To avoid this, a ridge was cast across the middle of the blade, to receive the impact of the blow and thus to avoid the farther splitting of the haft; this is known as a stop-ridge. Thus was developed the form of axe-head, known as a palstave, with flanges or wings on the upper half of the blade and a pronounced stop-ridge. What appear to be the primitive forms of this paistave have been found in Schleswig, and the early development of the palstave took place principally in north Germany. The use of this type of axe-head spread widely in north Europe and ultimately down the west of the continent as far as Portugal, in which land flanged axes had been unknown. It remained in use for many centuries, during which at least six successive variants can be traced.
In the south, however, the flanges developed in size, though they were confined, sometimes to the • centre, but more often to the butt end of the blade. These flanges, or wings as they are called, were hammered round the haft until they almost met, and later were cast in this form. This last type, the winged axe head, was the prevailing form in the south of Europe and in the southern part of central Europe, especially in Bavaria, and re mained in use there until long after iron had become the mate rial employed for most cutting tools and weapons. Towards the close of the bronze age this type was occasionally carried still farther north, for it occurs, though rarely, in England and Denmark.
In Saxony axe-heads like other tools took on forms peculiar to that area, though they were carried thence to most of the adjoining regions. It seems probable that it was in this area that there developed a new type of axe-head, known as the socketed axe-head, in which the haft fitted into a hollow socket in the blade, though how this form arose is still uncertain. The advantage of this form was that the end of the haft could not split, while every blow fixed it more firmly into the socket. This type of axe-head spread over most parts of Europe except the south, and has been found in great numbers in the Cotentin ; it seems to have been carried. as we shall see, not so much by the ordinary channels of trade as by considerable movements of peoples, which took place in the centuries immediately preceding i000 B.C.
Daggers of the Spanish type were often attached to long poles by being inserted in a cleft and riveted ; the blade was usually attached at right angles to the pole or nearly so. Daggers that have been so attached are known as halberds, and they are found abundantly in Spain and Portu gal, also in Ireland. They occur more rarely in France and Eng land and one has been found in Holland ; they found their way, too, into the region of the Saale and the Elbe, whither the Aunjetitz culture had already penetrated, and here the shaft and blade were cast in one piece in bronze.
In Britain flat daggers, not unlike those of the Spanish type, but with a long tang, were attached upright at the ends of staves, and used as spear-heads. As the tang tended to split the staff, this was enclosed in a bronze ferrule, which was attached by rivets to the staff. Then blade and ferrule, including the rivet heads, were cast in one piece, thus producing the first socketed spear-head. These at first had loops at their sides, and later at the base of the blade, through which leather thongs could be passed for strengthening the attachment. Finally this was achieved by passing a long rivet through socket and shaft.
' During the pre-copper and copper ages there had been great movements of peoples across Europe and in some places a mingling of peoples of diverse origins and customs. During the earlier half of the bronze age the population seems to have been fairly stationary, and each group continued to develop its civili zation in its own way. Trade, however, received an impetus from having a new commodity to carry, and from the need felt by manufacturers of procuring the raw material for their industry, namely copper and tin.
The bell-beakers have been found very widely distributed over the greater part of Spain and Portugal, though they are rela tively scarcer in the north-west of that peninsula. They have been found also in Sardinia, Sicily, in north Italy and some parts of France, pointing it is thought, to a route through the Belfort gap. Either by the latter route or by the Brenner pass they are said to have reached Bohemia, where their makers came into contact with those who used the cord-ornamented vases, which during the neolithic age had had a wide range over north Ger many. These cord-ornamented vases had long cylindrical necks, and it has been conjectured that it was the influence of these that led to the development of the northern beaker, consisting of a globular body with a long, though slightly expanding cylin drical neck and a flat base. Be this as it may, the beakers that have been found north of Bohemia are many of them of the latter type, and the few bell-beakers discovered in that region have to some extent lost their resemblance to the Spanish form. The zonal decoration has often degenerated into a succession of parallel horizontal rings, of ten of true cord-ornament. Others would bring this ware from the Ukraine, believing that it passed from central Europe to Spain, where its characteristic zonal deco ration was more fully developed. The beaker culture spread over the whole of England, though it has less commonly been found in the western counties; it is found sparingly in Wales, and is abun dant in the eastern half of Scotland as far north as the Moray Firth, though rarely in the west. It has not yet been found in Ireland, though hemispherical bowls, which occur with beakers in Spain, have been found in County Down. This culture lasted for some centuries in Jutland, Holland and Great Britain, and in the former country three distinct periods have been recognized.
Greece.—During the bronze age the mainland of Greece formed two cultural provinces, Thessaly and the Peloponnese, while the intervening region, central Greece, oscillated between the twc. Before the close of the copper age Cycladic mariners had made settlements in the Argolid, where their culture is known as Hel ladic ; before the introduction of bronze they had penetrated northwards as far as the Spercheios valley, to some extent dis placing Thessalian peasants, who had preceded them in this area. These Thessalian peasants had, at an earlier date, been ousted from eastern Thessaly by people coming, it is believed, from the Black Earth lands of south Russia, who had introduced the painted pottery known as Dhimini ware. Some centuries before the introduction of bronze this painted pottery deteriorated, and its place was taken by encrusted ware, decorated by the applica tion of pink and white colour to the surface of grey-black or reddish pots. Finally the decoration was abandoned and plain pottery came into general use. It was while this degeneration of the pottery was taking place that bronze came gradually into use. After 2000 B.C. a new type of pottery is found there; this is known as Minyan ware. It was wheel-made and of a silver-grey colour. The origin of this ware is unknown. Some authorities believe that it came from Asia Minor, others that it developed from the plain wares of Thessaly. It is found gradually super seding the previous wares in that province, and was introduced forcibly into central Greece by invaders, who destroyed the sec ond city of Orchomenos. The makers of the Minyan ware, who were armed with daggers, halberds and spears of bronze, soon made themselves masters of central Greece, and extended their dominions to include the Peloponnese. Here their culture lasted until about 1625 B.C., when the whole mainland of Greece, except Thessaly, came under the control of Cretan lords, who introduced many elements of late Minoan culture.
Lausitz Culture.—Towards the close of the middle bronze age a new culture, with a more developed metal industry, arose in the south-west of Saxony and the adjacent part of Silesia. This is known as the Lausitz culture. The people responsible for this civilization burned their dead and deposited the ashes in biconical urns, over which they erected round barrows. This culture spread into east Bohemia and Moravia, where it dis placed the Aunjetitz culture; it was carried also eastward across Poland to the confines of Russia. The Lausitz culture was fertile in developing new types of implements, and it has been suggested that it was here that the socket axe-head was invented. Ulti mately, in conjunction with other culture influences from the plain of Hungary, the Lausitz burial customs and types of imple ments spread over the greater part of Europe.
Cremation.—It has often been stated that the dead were buried in the neolithic age and that cremation was introduced in the bronze age, some would say in the late bronze age. Such state ments are, however, not strictly accurate. It seems probable that cremation was very generally practised in central Europe in the neolithic age, for, though a few cases of inhumation have been found, they are relatively rare in regions in which villages of this date are common. Cremated remains have recently been found in Belgium in a neolithic settlement, and burnt bones have been met with in long barrows in Yorkshire. Cremation was also practised at an early date in many parts of Germany. Still it is true that these cases of cremation were to some extent con fined to limited regions, while in others both practices prevailed at the same time. The almost universal practice of cremating the dead and placing the charred remains in an urn, to be buried in a round barrow or in an urn-field, seems to have spread from central Europe, probably from the Lausitz region, at the beginning of the late bronze age, to almost every part of Europe.
Hungary.—It is believed that the plain of Hungary was twice invaded, for the first time in the middle of the third millennium and again at its close, and that these invaders had come, directly or indirectly, from the grassy steppes of south-east Russia. It is believed, too, that these invaders established themselves as war-lords over the peasants, who had for long occupied that region. Be that as it may, about 1500 B.c. the inhabitants of Hungary developed very efficient weapons of a larger size than were used elsewhere. In this region the dagger, originally of west European type, was made much larger, until the strain on the rivets, by which the hilt was attached to the blade, became in supportable. At length an experiment was made of casting with the blade a flanged tang, to which plates of bone or wood could be riveted to form the hilt, and afterwards of adding to this a hilt cast in bronze. The experiment was successful and the blades became longer and frequently expanded in the middle. Thus arose the leaf-shaped sword, the most formidable weapon yet invented.
It would seem that about this time the Lausitz people, with their improved art of bronze working, coalesced with the people of the Hungarian plain, and together they began to spread in almost every direction. The first move seems to have been to the north, in the direction of Jutland, and their arrival in these parts may have accounted for the growth of the bronze industry in the neighbourhood of Bremen and Hamburg. Later they reached the west of Schleswig, where more than three thousand round barrows have been noted. Up till then metal had been relatively scarce in the Baltic region, and such early specimens as have been found, many of copper, are of types that arrived by sea traffic from the west. The chief warlike implement was the per forated battle-axe of stone. After the arrival of the invaders from central Europe bronze became abundant and the conspicuous weapon was the bronze sword. There is reason for believing that about 1250 B.C. a movement was made towards the south, for several swords of central European type have been found in Greek lands, two at Mycenae, two at Muliana in Crete, and one at Levadia in Boeotia; besides these two have been found in Egypt, on one of which was engraved the cartouch of Seti II. It has been suggested that the presence of these swords in Greek lands betokens the arrival of northern invaders; these have been identi fied with the Homeric Achaeans and the Akaiwasha, who attacked Egypt in the reign of Meneptah. Others, however, think that the swords passed southwards by way of trade, or were loot taken by the Mycenaean inhabitants of Greece in some northern f orgy. Swords of similar type found their way into Italy, probably across the Adriatic, for the majority have been found in the neighbour hood of Lake Fucino.
The leaf-shaped swords found in western Europe are of a still later type, and the bearers of these cannot have left central Europe long before i 200 B.C., while some seem to have set out considerably later. These swords reached Switzerland fairly early, but were later in their arrival in France, where they have been found over the eastern half of the country, from the valley of the Seine to the mouth of the Rhone. It was not until a much later time that a still later form reached Brittany, probably by sea, and later still that they were carried across the Pyrenees into Spain. About I Doc) B.C. the bearers of these swords seem to have passed down the Rhine into Holland, and then to have crossed the North Sea to the east coast of England, where they are thought to have arrived rather before i 000 B.C. There is also some evidence that at a slightly earlier date a few of them pene trated south Russia, though the evidence of their presence there is slight.
Wherever they went the bearers of the leaf-shaped swords carried with them socketed axe-heads, which seem to have been invented in the Lausitz region, socketed gouges and a great variety of tools. They also used spear-heads with a leaf-shaped blade and a single rivet through the socket. The shafts of these spears had their ends cased in bronze ferrules. The sudden arrival in most parts of Europe of a civilization, which had its origin in Saxony, Moravia and Hungary, seems to indicate that these new tools and weapons of bronze were carried, not by the ordinary channels of trade, but by invading hordes. It appears safe to attribute to these people the universal custom of cremation, which was adopted in the late bronze age, and we may with good reason attribute to them also the use of those cinerary urns that have been found in many of the round barrows and in the urn-fields, but without associated tools or weapons. A few settlements of these people have been noted and some of them excavated with care ; little study has yet, however, been made of their domestic pottery, though large numbers of their cinerary urns have been studied. This culture, which was fairly uniform over most of Europe, lasted with but little change until the introduction of iron weapons.
Life in the Bronze Age.—Though much is known of the tools and weapons used at this time, and many examples of the domestic pottery of the earlier phases of the bronze age have been found in graves, as well as of cinerary urns used during the latest phase, relatively little is known of the way in which these people lived. No settlements, dating from the first phases, have been explored, while at the close of this age some of the people lived in villages, defended by a rectangular ditch and bank, and others seem to have made settlements in the low lands by the sides of lakes and rivers. Since the knowledge of agriculture had reached most parts of Europe earlier than implements of bronze, we may assume that the people of the bronze age cultivated grain, while remains of domesticated animals have been found in their later settlements. Of their clothing we know little by direct evidence, though the complete outfit of a man of this period has been found at Treenhol and that of a woman at Borum-Eskoi, in Jutland. These garments, of simple cut, were made of a woven woollen material. The man had worn a tunic and a mantle, stock ings or some other woollen covering on his legs, and a high cap. The woman had worn a long skirt and a short jacket, and upon her head a bonnet made of a net-work of woollen threads. The ornaments worn were relatively few. Bracelets of bronze, more rarely of gold, have been found, dating from all parts of the bronze age ; these are usually plain circlets of metal, though during the last phase they are sometimes decorated with geometrical designs; towards the end of the bronze age oval penannular bracelets some times occur, especially in central Europe. Metal ear-rings were also worn, sometimes of considerable size ; these were of ten made of gold. The most important ornament, however, was the torque, usually made of a twisted band of bronze or gold. Torques have been found in several forms, characteristic of this age. The most curious ornament was the gold crescent or lunula, which has been found abundantly in Ireland, as well as in England, the north of France, north-east Germany, and Denmark. These lunulae are large thin plates of gold, shaped like crescents, with the points almost joining, and profusely decorated with incised geometric designs. How they were worn has not been explained. The people who carried the leaf-shaped swords throughout Europe seem to have worn over their shoulders a plaid or some similar garment; this they fastened with a long bronze pin. As this pin tended to slip out, various devices were designed to keep it in place. At length, about 1 400 B.c., it was bent, with a coil, into a simple brooch or fibula, like a safety-pin, and during the latest phase of the bronze age these fibulae began to pass through that series of changes which continued throughout the iron age.
There is no part of Europe that has furnished so large a number of gold objects of prehistoric date as Ireland, and the great majority of these can be shown by their decoration or asso ciations to have been made in the bronze age. Reference has already been made to the lunulae or crescents, found so commonly in Ireland, and it is generally agreed that these, wherever found, are of Irish gold, showing that the precious metal was at that time exported in many directions. The fact that two such cres cents were found in a barrow near Harlyn bay, in association with a flat axe-head of bronze, shows us that this gold trade was well developed long before the close of the early bronze age. It has been pointed out that alluvial gold deposits were worked in the Wicklow hills in the 18th century, and there is little doubt that it was these deposits that attracted traders quite early in the bronze age. These deposits and the tin lodes of Cornwall, as well as certain copper and, perhaps, gold deposits in Wales, were the lures that tempted the first bronze traders to these countries. Thus it was that, within a very few centuries after the first use of this alloy, bronze was brought to the British Isles.
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