Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/412

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384
EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN.
[CHAP. X.

knowledge of bronze." The discovery, then, is of especial importance, because it represents the goods of a merchant selected to suit the market of the north and west. The abundance of personal ornaments in it corresponds with that abundance which has been observed in the sepulchres of the early division of the Bronze age. Several other similar discoveries are described by M. Chantre. That of Vaudrevanges, near Sarrelouis, contains, among other things, a sword which is identical with that described by M. le Comte Gozzadini from Ronzano, in Italy. The proportion of ornaments in these hoards is almost the same as in the sepulchres of the Cevennian or early Bronze age. In the one they amount to 75⋅02 per cent; in the other they are 79⋅87. The conclusion which we should draw from this fact is, that these articles were en route to be sold to those who ultimately deposited them, as their chief valuables, in the tombs.

Hoards of the Bronze-smith.

The deposits of fragments of metal, with the necessary implements for working it, in France and Switzerland, no less than sixty-seven in number, differ from those of merchandise, in the fact that the articles have been prepared for working up again. In the case of the former they are either worn out or broken, in the latter they are new and selected for the market. That discovered at Larnaud in 1865, in a potato ground near Lons-le- Saulnier (Jura), may be taken to illustrate the association of articles, amounting to 1485 pieces, intended to pass through the melting pot, and therefore imperfect, but affording a true idea of the art and civilisation in France at one and the same time. Among the materials for