with its general introduction into the arts and industries of human civilization.
During the Homeric Age iron was known in Greece as a rare and expensive commodity, but in the time of Hesiod it came largely into general use, as we find this author assigning to Hercules, besides armour of gold and greaves of bronze, a helmet of steel and a sword of iron; and to Saturn a steel reaping-hook (Ilios, p. 252). As the knowledge of the new metal slowly spread to the outlying districts in the north and west of Europe, partly through commerce and partly through immigrants, and probably through warlike expeditions, it is but natural to expect that antiquarian remains of the period found in Central Europe would disclose the metallurgical changes which had been effected in consequence of the substitution of iron for bronze in their manufacture. On this score archæologists have not been disappointed. Two localities in particular have been discovered which have yielded relics so instructive and characteristic of this transition stage that their names are now universally used not only as generic expressions for the civilizations they respectively represent, but also as standards of comparison for contemporary antiquities. These are the cemetery of Hallstatt, in Austria, and the Oppidum La Tène, in Switzerland. Antiquities similar to those found in both these stations due to the same primary influences, had a wide area of distribution, extending broadly from North
