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18
PREHISTORIC TIMES

of luxury only, but also for the ordinary implements of daily life.

Nor is it only in the presence or absence of bronze that the lake-dwellings differ from one another; there are many other indications of progress. We cannot expect to find much evidence of this in the implements of bone or stone; but, as has already been mentioned, the better forms of stone axe, and those which are perforated, are very rare, if not altogether absent, in the Stone Age, none having been found at the Pont de Thiele, at Moosseedorf, or at Wauwyl, and only two at Wangen.

Again, it is not only by the mere presence of bronze, but by the number, beauty, and variety of the articles made out of it, that we are so much struck. In a collection of objects made at any of the Stone Age settlements, no one can fail to remark the uniformity which prevails. The wants of the artificers seem to have been few and simple. In the Bronze Age all this is altered. We find not only axes, arrows, and knives, but, in addition, swords, lances, sickles, ear-rings, bracelets, pins, rings, and a variety of other articles. The list on page 16 gives an idea of the objects found in some of the Swiss lake settlements, whilst the number of bronze objects found in the lakes of Bienne and Neufchâtel alone exceeds 20,000. As regards France, M. Chantre gave the following numbers:—Celts, 9153; swords and daggers, 727; lances, 513; knives, 342; sickles, 225; pins, 1220; needles, 204; bracelets, 1086; rings and chains, 1572; arrow-heads, 213; hammers, 23; anvils, 5; chisels, 58; gouges, 31; razors, 62; saws, 8; hooks, 172; moulds, 74; and a variety of other articles, making altogether no less than 20,000 objects, since which time many more have been discovered. The bronze objects, therefore, evidently cannot be regarded as mere isolated and exceptional specimens, but represent a special and somewhat advanced phase of civilization.

The pottery also shows a considerable advance. The potter's wheel indeed seems to have been unknown