CHAP. XI.]
NO COPPER AGE IN EUROPE.
397
CHAPTER XI.
THE INTRODUCTION OF BRONZE, AND OF THE BRONZE CIVILISATION, INTO EUROPE.
No Copper Age in Europe.—Copper Mines worked in Britain and Spain in the Bronze Age.—Tin-stone often associated with Gold.—Tin in Scandinavia, Germany, and Britain.—Tin Mines worked in France and Spain in the Bronze Age.—Tin Mines in Tuscany worked by the Etruskans.—Probable Sources of Assyrian and Egyptian Tin.—Bronze introduced into Europe from one Centre.—Knowledge of Bronze derived from Asia Minor.—The Early Bronze Implements in Europe.—The Development of the Bronze Industry in the late Bronze Age.—Local Centres of Bronze Industry in the late Bronze Age.—Distribution of Gold in Europe.—Distribution of Amber in Europe.—The Duration of the Bronze Age north of the Alps.—Commercial Relations of Britain in the Bronze Age.
No Copper Age in Europe.
Cutting implements of bronze gradually supplanted those of stone, not only in the area north of the Alps and Pyrenees, but also, as is proved by many discoveries, in Greece and Italy, without any sign of an intervening period when copper alone was used. Copper celts have been met with in Ireland, Hungary, and France, but most of them belong to well-known and highly-advanced types in bronze, and more particularly so in Hungary.[1]
- ↑ Among those from Hungary are socketed celts, and perforated axes and axe-hammers.—See Pulszky, Congr. Int. Archéol. Préhist. Buda-Pesth vol., 1877, p. 220.
