Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric PeoplesNadaillac, Jean-François-Albert du Pouget, marquis de
History
Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric Peoples
Nadaillac, Jean-François-Albert du Pouget, marquis de
Archaeology; Prehistoric peoples
Beneath the dolmens of Roknia (Algeria) were found thirteen bronze
ornaments, and two in silver gilt of very superior workmanship, and
under those of the Caucasus were picked up blue-glass beads,
arrow-heads, and bronze rings; but M. Chantre, who is an authority in
the matter, thinks these objects date from interments subsequent to the
erection of the dolmens.
Iron was much more rarely used than bronze in the greater part of
Europe. It was not even known in Scandinavia before the Christian era.
In Germany, Pannonia, and Noricum its use dates from the sixth or
seventh century B.C. Beneath the mounds of Central America we find but
a few fragments of meteoric iron, the rarity of which made them
extremely valuable; on the other hand iron was known to the Hellenes as
long ago as the fourteenth century B.C., and it had been employed in
Egypt for many centuries prior to that time. The most ancient
sepulchres of Malabar contain iron tridents, and Genesius dates their
use from before the deluge. It is therefore surprising to find that
some races remained for an illimitable time ignorant of the way to
procure a metal of such great utility.
Iron was not used in Brittany until towards the close of the period
during which megalithic monuments were erected. Stone, bronze, and iron
were found together in the Nignol tomb at Carnac, which dates from the
time when cremation was already practised. We find the same association
of different materials in the Rocher dolmen.
In the British Isles, especially in Scotland and in Ireland, bronze and
iron objects are more numerous than in France. At Aspatria, near St.
Bees in Cumberland, a cist was discovered containing the skeleton of a
man measuring seven feet from the crown of the head to the feet. Near
the giant lay numerous valuable objects, including an iron sword inlaid
with silver, a gold buckle, the fragments of a shield and of a
battle-axe, and the iron bit of a snaffle bridle. The great cairn of
Dowth, in Ireland, contained iron knives and rings mixed with bone
needles, copper pins, and glass and amber beads, all showing rapid
progress in the industrial arts. The remarkable cairns near Lough Crew
(Ireland), which were untouched and indeed unknown to archæologists
until 1863, were found to contain, amongst many other interesting
objects, numerous human bones, fragments of pottery, shells of marine
mollusca, 4,884 bone implements, and seven pieces of iron very much
oxidized. The tumuli of the Grand Duchy of Posen and those of Prussia
cover kistvaens containing funeral vases, weapons, and silver and gold
ornaments.
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