EARLY MAN to assign some of them, particularly those which bear marks of very elaborate work, to the Bronze age rather than to the Neolithic age. Arrowheads are recorded as having been found at the following places in Norfolk : Attleborough,' Aylsham,^ Necton,' Panxworth,* Thetford° and Weeting." The last example was found upon a barrow in which it had probably been deposited. Norfolk in the Bronze Age Of the various changes which have occurred in the social and industrial phases of the history of the human race in ancient times probably none was greater than that which was produced by the intro- duction of metal and the knowledge of the art of working it. The discovery of the secret of extracting copper and tin from their natural ores produced results which revolutionized the earlier methods of war- fare and the chase, and the arts of the carpenter and the builder, and many other pursuits.' Hitherto the inhabitants of our island during what is known as the Neolithic age had lived without the knowledge of metals, and with but limited means of intercourse with the people who inhabited the conti- nent of Europe. When bronze was introduced into their island however it was by a new race of Aryan origin, the Goidels or Gaels, an import- ant branch of that great Celtic family of which many traces remain in the present inhabitants of Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the Isle of Man. Everything points to the conclusion that when bronze implements were introduced, the earliest forms of which were flat celts, and perhaps small hand daggers, the art of working and successfully blend- ing copper and tin, so as to produce hard bronze, had reached some degree of perfection. When this secret became known, the discovery of the metallic ores in their natural state probably soon followed, but in the earlier part of the Bronze age the metal was doubtless scarce and regarded as a valuable possession. In process of time when bronze could be procured in sufficient quantity, it would be a natural desire to reproduce in metal the heavy stone celts which had hitherto been the common form of large weapon in use. For this purpose it was natural to use an actual stone celt to serve as the model for a mould for the bronze casting ; and as some knowledge of casting was already possessed it would be a comparatively easy task to pro- duce metal celts of this kind. The remains of the Bronze age com- prise celts of metal which have evidently been cast in this way from stone originals, and they have been considered to represent the earliest form in which metal celts were made.^ The objection to such a theory is that they would require a large amount of metal at a time when it was
- Evans, Ancient Stone Impkments, ed. 2, p. 390. * Op. at. p. 381. ' Op. cit. p. 307.
- Norfolk Arc/jaohgy, viii. p. 327. ^ Evans, Ancient Stone Impkments, ed. 2, p. 385.
' 'Norfolk Archceohgy, iv. p. 361. Munro, Prehistoric Scotland,^. 177.
- Wilde, Catalogue of the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, p. 366 ; Evans, Ancient Bronze
Implements, p. 40. 267
