CHAPTER VI
ARTS AND INDUSTRIES OF THE STONE AND BRONZE AGES
Systematic writers on Archæology generally describe the cultural phenomena dis- closed by the relics gathered on the inhabited sites and haunts of the prehistoric people of Europe under the three famous ages of Stone, Bronze and Iron. It must not, however, be forgotten that these so-called ages are but undated stages in the sequence of events, each representing a group of objects sufficiently differentiated to be recognized as well-defined phases in the progress of European civilization. This system of classification is founded on the fact that there was a time, in the history of mankind, when all industrial tools were made of stone, horn, bone, teeth, etc. After human organizations continued to exist for many ages with the assistance of such objects as could be manufactured from these limited resources, a discovery was made which ultimately revolutionized all mechanical appliances for cutting purposes, and thus raised the culture and civilization of the people to a higher degree than was previously possible. This discovery was the art of making bronze, which simply consisted of adding 10 per cent, of tin to copper, a process which has the effect of rendering the latter sufficiently hard to give to cutting imple-
