Prehistoric Times

Prehistoric Times

John Lubbock

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

IN this Work I present to the public some essays on Pre-historic Archaeology, part of which have appeared in the Natural History Review, viz. that on —

The "Danish Shell-mounds, in October, 1861.

The Swiss Lake-dwellings, in January, 1862.

The Flint Implements of the Drift, in July, 1862.

North American Archaeology, in January, 1863.

Cave-men, in July, 1864.

Messrs. Williams and Norgate suggested to me to republish these articles in a separate form; and I was further encouraged to do so by the fact that most of them had re-appeared, either in France or America. The conductors of the Annales des Sciences Naturelles did me the honour to translate those on the Danish Shell -mounds and the Swiss Lake - dwellings. The latter also appeared in Silliman’s Journal; and the article on American Archaeology, with the exception of

the last paragraph, was reprinted in the Smithsonian Eeport for 1862.

At first I only contemplated reprinting the papers as they stood; but having, at the request of the managers, delivered at the Boyal Institution a short course of lectures on the Antiquity of Man, it was thought desirable to introduce the substance of these, so as to give the work a more complete character.

My object has been to elucidate, as far as possible, the principles of pre-historic archaeology, laying spe cial stress upon the indications which it affords of the condition of man in primeval times. The tumuli, or burial-mounds, the peat-bogs of this and other coun tries, the Kjokkenmoddings or shell-mounds of Den mark, the Lake-habitations of Switzerland, the bone caves and the river-drift gravels, are here our principal sources of information.

In order to qualify myself, as far as possible, for the task which I have undertaken, I have visited, not only our three great museums in London, Dublin, and Edinburgh, but also many on the Continent, as, for instance, those at Copenhagen, Stockholm, Lund, Elensburg, Aarhuus, Lausanne, Basle, Berne, Zurich,

The article on Cave-men was also translated in the Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Fifth Ser. vol. ii., and that on North American Archaeology in the Revue Archeologique for 1865,

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Yverdon, Paris, Abbeville, etc., besides many private collections of great interest, of which I may particularly specify those of M. Boucher de Perthes, Messrs. Christy, Evans, Bateman, Forel, Schwab, Troy on, Gillieron, Uhlmann, Desor, and, lastly, the one recently made by MM. Christy and Lartet in the bone-caves of the Dordogne.

Sometimes alone, and sometimes in company with Messrs. Brest with and Evans, I have made numerous visits to the Valley of the Somme, and have examined almost every gravel-pit and section from Amiens down to the sea. In 1801, with Mr. Busk, and again in 18C3, I went to Denmark, in order to have the advantage of seeing the Kjbkkenmoddings themselves. Under the guidance of Professor Steenstrup, I visited several of the most celebrated shell-mounds, particularly those at Havelse, Bilidt, Meilgaard, and Fannerup. I also made myself familiar with so much of the Danish language as was necessary to enable me to read the various reports drawn up by the Kjbkkenmodding Committee, consisting of Professors Steenstrup, Worsaae, and Forchhammer. Last year I went to the north of Scotland, to examine some similar shellmounds discovered by Dr. Gordon, of Birnie, on the shores of the Moray Firth, which appear, however,

to belong to a much later period than those of Denmark.

In 1862, M. Morlot very kindly devoted himself to me for nearly a month, during which time we not only visited the principal museums of Switzerland, but also several of the Lake-habitations themselves, and particularly those at Morges, Thonon, Wauwyl, Moosseedorf, and the Pont de Thiele. In addition to many minor excursions, I had, finally, last spring, the advantage of spending some time with Mr. Christy among the celebrated bone -caves of the Dordogne. Thus, by carefully examining the objects themselves and the localities in which they have been found, I have endeavoured to obtain a more vivid and correct impression of the facts than books, or even museums, alone could have given.

generally been found in conjunction with iron, and during the Bronze Age their place seems to have been generally filled by mere pins. Many of the latter articles found in the Swiss

Egyptian Knife.

Bracelets.— Switzerland.

Fig. 51. Fig. 52. Fig. 53. Fig. 54.

Bronze Hair-pins.— Switzerland.

lakes appear, however, to have been hair-pins. Some of them are nearly a foot in length, and two found near Berne even

BRONZE ORNAMENTS.

as much as 2ft. 9in. Many of the pins have large hollow spherical heads, as in figs. 51, 52; the others vary so much that it is impossible to give any general description of them. There can be little doubt that these rm.55. fig.56. fig.57. fig.58. pins really belong to the Bronze Age; but the fact that similar ones con tinued in use long after the introduc tion of iron is equally well established.

One of these later bronze pins is represented in fig. 171. Some other small objects of bronze, including two needles, from the Lake of Neufchatel, are represented in figs. 55 — 60. Bronze hammers are very rare; it is probable that stones were used for this purpose.

Gouges are more common. Small saws have been discovered in Germany and Denmark, but not, as yet, in Great

Fig. co.

Small objects in Bronze. — Switzerland.

Britain. Studs or buttons, though not very abundant, are found both in Switzerland and Scandinavia.* Silver, lead,*)" and zinc appear to have been unknown during the Bronze Age. Glass beads were in use, but no vessels of glass have yet been discovered; in the same manner there are barbarous tribes now which are well supplied with European beads, but which possess no glass vessels.

Further information as to the f Lead, however, is mentioned objects of bronze from Switzerland in the inscriptions of Karnak. See will be found in the chapter on the Lepsius, Les metanx dans les Ins. Swiss lake habitations. Egypt, p. 58.

THE METALLURGY

The weapons and ornaments of the Bronze Age are all cast, and show considerable skill in metallurgy.* Three modes of casting were employed. One was that in a mould, either of stone or metal. Of course in this case the mould was necessarily in two halves, and the line of junction was generally visible, as in fig. 61, representing a celt, which has evidently been cast in this manner. This specimen was found in Kent, and presented to me by Sir George Dasent. It is

clear, however, that such an object as the knife in fig. 40 could not have been cast in this manner. Neither were the pins, figs. 51 — 54, for if they had been, the line of junction between the two halves of the mould must have been traceable.

Indeed this mode of casting was evidently unusual. This is proved by the condition of the objects, by the scarcity of moulds, and also by the fact that we seldom find any two bronze objects exactly similar to one another. Thus, out of the six hundred and eighty -eight Kentish celt. specimens in the Dublin

Museum, no two were cast in the same mould, clearly showing that the moulds were not permanent.

The second mode of casting was by making a model of

See Morlot’s interesting meles metaux employes dans l’age du moir: “Sur le passage de l’age de Bronze.” Copenhague, 1866. la pierre a l’age du Bronze et sur

OF THE BRONZE AGE.

the object in wood or some other hard substance, and press ing it on fine sand, so as to obtain a corresponding hollow. The sand must of course have been contained in two boxes or frames, fitting like the solid moulds one on the other. Objects cast in this manner would therefore also show the line of junction. The advantage of this method is that sand can easily be worked into the required form, and wooden models were much more easily made than hollow moulds, either of stone or metal. Like the former, however, this method was applicable to very simple castings only. Speci mens in which the line of junction is not exactly central, or symmetrical, were probably cast in this manner, the model having been pressed into the one mould rather more deeply than into the other.