THE AGE OF IRON.
Date of Commenconco/.—In Volume I. (p. 173) we have seen that the beginning of the Age of Iron in Europe was prehistoric, although it can not be placed many centuries before the existence of written records. Some antiquaries, indeed, have argued that as iron is a simple metal, while bronze is a compound of two metals, one of which, tin, is quite rare, the knowledge of iron must have preceded that of bronze. They explain the absence of implements of iron in the more ancient deposits by its much greater readiness to oxidize and thus to disappear.
This plausible reasoning has, however, been controverted by Professor Rolleston and others, who have pointed out that iron buried in the soil becomes not infrequently encrusted by carbonate of lime, and is thus pro tected for an indefinite period from the results of oxidation. The iron weapons taken from the Saxon cemeteries are often in almost perfect preservation, and whole hoards of iron tools, scarcely injured by the rust of nearly two thousand years, have been exhumed from the still older sites of Roman occupation in Britain. Beyond this, again, in graves of the later Bronze Period, such as those at Hallstadt referred to on page 52, occasional iron tools or weapons occur which are as well preserved as the bronze itself. We may be sure, therefore, that had the Iron Age preceded, or even been coeval with, the Age of Bronze, we should have discovered ample testimony to the fact.
Reiles.—Specimens and hoards of prehistoric iron implements have been exhumed of recent years at Meisdorf in Hanover, at Bohlscn in the Hartz Mountains, at Graudenz on the Vistula in West Prussia, and elsewhere in Germany, as well as in Denmark and Southern Russia. These finds disclose the character of the culture of the period. The articles unearthed were in a fair state of preservation, sufficient to enable one to recognize their uses. them were points for spears, lances, and javelins, but arrow-heads were absent or scarce; swords of the shape of those of bronze were common; knives with blades curved in a semi lunar contour, such as are now used for cutting leather and probably intended for this purpose, were preserved. Of minor objects may be enumerated bosses for shields, needles with eyes, straight knife-blades, fibulae or clasps, spurs for equestrians, tips for bows, and nails for carpentry work. Metal caps with a sharp projecting spike, and iron handles for pots, were other familiar forms.
Proofs of is sufficient to glance over this list to see that the people who manufactured and employed in their daily life such mis cellaneous articles had made long strides toward a developed system of social life, and were familiar with many of the amenities of civilization. Although to the writers of Greece and Rome they seemed barbarians, to us, who have been taking a hasty survey of the very long period of lower culture which preceded them, the Central European tribes of this epoch appear far advanced on the path of intellectual progress.
If we may judge from what are believed to be the oldest specimens of iron swords in Central and Western Europe, such as those obtained from the cemetery at Hallstadt and elsewhere, the introduction of this metal brought with it little if any change in the form and character of the weapons then in use. There is uo such rapid advance in the designs and
processes of the arts as we had occasion to note at the period when bronze came into general use instead of stone. The change, indeed, was a much less vital one. This is obvious from the fact that the Egyptians, though from remotest times familiar with the manipulation of iron, did not gen erally esteem it as valuable as bronze. Probably this arose in a measure from a want of familiarity with processes for converting iron into steel, and thus adding greatly to its value as a material for fabricating cutting instruments.
Method of A7aking native tribes of Central and Western Europe who have been vaguely called the Celtiberians had learned or had discovered a method of manufacturing steel implements in an effective though tedious manner. The classical historian Diodorus Siculus particularly mentions their process as one new to the Greek and Roman smiths, and so successful that "neither shield, helmet, nor bone could resist the blows of swords so tempered." The means employed was to bury the iron blade for a long time in the earth in a bed of char coal. When taken out it was hammered repeatedly without heating, and thus brought into shape. Some authorities say that the remarkably fine temper of the Japanese swords is obtained by a similar process of pro longed inhumation.
The results of this process are, however, uncertain, and consequently the tools of the early Iron Age differ much in hardness and temper. The Danish chemist 0. Blom tested five specimens from the most ancient deposits of iron relics in Denmark. One of them proved to be of very finely-tempered steel, one of steel of an inferior quality, and the remainder of soft iron.
convenience of study antiquaries have divided the prehistoric Age of Iron, so far as it refers to that portion of Europe out side of the dominion of Rome, into three epochs. The first of these embraces the time from the introduction of the metal down to the year 45o A. D. ; the second, from that date until Soo A. D. ; and the third, the two or three centuries which followed until the north of Europe appears in written history.
Introduction of the Italy and Greece iron superseded bronze about seven or eight centuries before the Christian era; about 200 B. C. a practical knowledge of it had extended over Gaul and Britain; by the commencement of our era it had penetrated to the basin of the Baltic Sea, to Denmark, and to the Gothic tribes; while for centuries later the isolated and savage peoples of the Scandinavian Peninsula, of Finland, and of North-western Russia knew no metal whatever, as we learn from the Latin historian Tacitus, who tells us that in his day the "Fermi" (Finns) and their neighbors made their arrow-heads of sharpened bones. On the other hand, in South-eastern Russia and among the Seythians the use of iron in a variety of forums, some of them highly artistic, was familiar as early as the sixth century before our era. It had been introduced by merchants and traders front the Greek colonies at the south, and the "kourgans," or ancient Scythian tombs, of the southern provinces of Russia have yielded many fine specimens of worked metal.