But even supposing that iron and steel were known during some part of the so-called Bronze Age, I do not see in what manner it would affect the main features of the case or the interest attaching to the bronze objects which I am about to describe. “De non apparentibus et non existentibus eadem est ratio” is a maxim of some weight in archæology as well as in law; and in the absence of iron and all trace of its influence, it matters but little whether it was known or not, except in so far as a neglect of its use would argue some want of intelligence on the part of those who did not avail themselves of so useful a metal. It will be seen hereafter that some of the objects described in these pages actually do belong to an Iron Period, and nothing could better illustrate the transition of one Period into another, or the overlapping of the Bronze Age upon that of Iron, than the fact that in these pages devoted to the Bronze Period I must of necessity describe many objects which were still in use when iron and steel were superseding bronze, in the same manner as in my “Ancient Stone Implements” I was forced to describe many forms, such as battle-axes, arrow-heads, and bracers, which avowedly belonged to the Bronze Period. A point which is usually raised by those who maintain the priority of the use of iron to that of bronze is, that inasmuch as it is more readily oxidized and dissolved by acids naturally present in the soil, iron may have disappeared, and indeed has done so, while bronze has been left; so that the absence of iron as an accompaniment to all early interments counts for nothing. Professor Rolleston,[104] in a paper on the three periods known as the Iron, the Bronze, and the Stone Ages, has well dealt with this point; and observes that in some graves of the Bronze Period the objects contained are incrusted with carbonate of lime, which would have protected any iron instrument of the Bronze Period as well as it has done those of Saxon times. Not only are the iron weapons discovered in Saxon cemeteries often in almost perfect preservation, but on the sites of Roman occupation whole hoards of iron tools have been found but little injured by rust. The fact that at Hallstatt and other places in which graves have been examined belonging to the transitional period, when both iron and bronze were in use together, the weapons and tools of iron, though oxidized, still retain their form and character as completely as those in bronze, also affords strong ground for believing that had iron been present with bronze in other early interments it would also have been preserved. The importance attaching to the reputed occurrence of bronze swords with Roman coins as late as the time of Magnentius cannot be better illustrated than by a discovery of my own in the ancient cemetery of Hallstatt. In company with Sir John Lubbock I was engaged in opening a grave in which we had come to an interment of