iron, are now worn by the natives of Africa. One of these is represented in fig. 68.[1]
Figs. 51, 52, 53, 54.—Bronze hair-pins from the Swiss lakes, one-half of the actual size.
The ornamentation on the objects of bronze is of a peculiar, and at the same time uniform, character; it consists of simple geometrical patterns, and is formed by combinations of spirals, circles, and zigzag lines; representations of animals, and plants being very rarely attempted. Even the few exceptions to this rule are perhaps more apparent than real. Thus, two such only are figured in the Catalogue of the Copenhagen Museum; one is a rude figure of a swan (fig. 40), the other of a man (fig. 42). The second of these forms the handle of a knife, which appears to be straight in the blade, a type characteristic of the Iron Age, but rarely found in that of Bronze. As regards one of them, therefore, there is an independent reason for referring it to the period of transition, or at least to the close of the Bronze Age. There is, indeed, one type of pattern, usually found on the razor-knives, but sometimes also on others, intended probably for a rude representation of a ship (fig. 46). Even, however, if we admit this to be the case, and if we accept these objects as belonging to the Bronze Age, this will only show how little advance had yet been made in the art of representing natural objects.
- ↑ Archæologia, vol. xliii. p. 442.
