Primitive Man Part 23

Herodotus[30] speaks of another colossal basin made of bronze, which was sixty times the size of that which Pausanias, son of Cleobrontos, presented to the temple of Jupiter Orios, a temple which had been built near the Euxine, on the borders of Scythia. Its capacity was six hundred _amphorae_, and it was six "fingers" in thickness. The Greeks used to employ these enormous basins in their religious ceremonies.

In Sweden and Norway, large receptacles of a similar kind were in primitive ages employed in sacrificial ceremonies; they used to receive the blood which flowed from the slaughtered animals.

In order to produce objects of this magnitude it was of course necessary to have at disposal large foundries of bronze. These foundries, which existed during historic periods, were preceded by others of less importance used during the pre-historic epochs which we are considering, that is, during the bronze epoch.

Vestiges of these ancient foundries have been discovered in Switzerland, at Devaine, near Thonon, and at Walflinger, near Wintherthur; especially also at Echallens, where objects have been found which evidently originated from the working of some pre-historic foundry.

At Morges, in Switzerland, a stone mould has been discovered, intended for casting hatchets. By running bronze into this ancient mould, a hatchet has been made exactly similar to some of those in our collections.

The casting was also effected in moulds of sand, which is the more usual and more easy plan.

From these _data_, it is possible to imagine what sort of place a foundry must have been during the bronze epoch.

In the production of bronze, they used to mix oxydated tin ore, in the proportions which experience had taught them, with oxydated copper ore or copper pyrites; to this mixture was added a small quant.i.ty of charcoal. The whole was placed in an earthen vessel in the midst of a burning furnace. The two oxides were reduced to a metallic state by means of the charcoal; the copper and tin being set free, blended and formed bronze.

When the alloy was obtained, all that was necessary was to dip it out and pour it into sand or stone moulds which had been previously arranged for the purpose.

The art of casting in bronze must have played a very essential part among primitive peoples. There was no instrument that they used which could not be made by casting it in bronze. The sword-blades were thus made; and, in order to harden the edge of the weapon, it was first heated and then cooled suddenly, being afterwards hammered with a stone hammer.

In fig. 147, we represent the workshop of a caster in bronze during the epoch we are considering. The alloy, having been previously mixed, has been smelted in a furnace, and a workman is pouring it into a sand-mould. Another man is examining a sword-blade which has just been cast.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 147.--A Founder's Workshop during the Bronze Epoch.]

Bronze being precious, it is probable that in these ancient communities bronze weapons and implements were reserved for rich and powerful personages, and that stone weapons remained the attribute of the common people. The use of bronze could only become general after the lapse of time.

The high value of bronze would lead to its being economised as much as possible. The Pre-historic Museum at Copenhagen contains unquestionable proofs of this scarcity of the metal, and the means which were used for obviating it. Among the bronze hatchets in the Museum of Copenhagen, there are some which could only have served as ornaments, for they contained a nucleus of clay, and the metal of which they were composed was not thicker than a sheet of paper.

We must also add that worn-out instruments of bronze and utensils which were out of use were carefully preserved in order to be re-cast; the same material re-appearing in various forms and shapes.

We have just given a representation of the _workshop of a founder of bronze_; but we must also state that in addition to these fixed establishments there must have existed, at the epoch of which we are speaking, certain itinerant founders who travelled about, carrying all their necessary utensils on their backs, and offered their services wherever they were required.

Every one is acquainted with the travelling-tinkers who, at the present day, make their way down from the mountains of Auvergne, the Black Forest, the Alps, or the Cevennes, and are called _peirerous_ and _estama-brazares_ in the south of France, and _epingliers_ in other districts. These men are in the habit of working at separate jobs in the villages and even in the public places of the towns. Of course they travel with no more of the utensils of their craft than strict necessity requires; but, nevertheless, what they carry is sufficient for every purpose. A hollow made in the ground is the furnace in which they place the nozzle of their portable bellows, and they hammer the iron on a small anvil fixed in the earth.

Aided by these merely rudimentary means they execute pieces of metal-work, the dimensions of which are really surprising. They make nails and tacks, and even worm screws, repair locks, clean clocks, make knives, mend skimmers, and restore umbrella-frames. They make bronze rings out of republican _decimes_, and sell these popular trinkets to the village beauties.

Incomparable in their line of business, these men are unequalled in patching or re-tinning vessels made of tin and wrought or sheet-iron.

The mending of crockeryware also forms one of their numerous vocations; and the repairing of a broken plate by means of an iron rivet is mere play-work for their dexterous fingers. But melting down and re-casting--these are the real triumphs of their art. The village housewife brings to them her worn-out pewter vessel, and soon sees it reappear as a new, brilliant, and polished utensil. Lamps, cans, covers, and tin-plates and dishes are thus made to reappear in all their primitive brightness.

The fusion and casting of bronze does not perplex them any more than working in tin. They are in the habit of casting various utensils in bra.s.s or bronze, such as candlesticks, bells, brackets, &c. The crucible which they use in melting bra.s.s is nothing but a hole dug in the earth and filled up with burning charcoal, the fire being kept up with the help of their bellows, the nozzle of which is lengthened so as to open into the middle of the charcoal. On this furnace they place their portable crucible, which is a kind of earthen ladle provided with a handle.

Their system of casting is simple in the extreme. The pressed sand, which serves them for a mould, is procured from the ditch at the side of the road. Into this mould they pour the alloy out of the very crucible in which it has been melted.

These itinerant metallurgists, these _estama-brazares_, who may be noticed working in the villages of Lower Languedoc, whose ways we have just depicted (not without some degree of pleasant reminiscence), are nothing but the descendants of the travelling metal-workers of the pre-historic bronze epoch. In addition to the permanent establishment of this kind--the foundries, the remains of which have been found in Switzerland, the French Jura, Germany and Denmark, there certainly existed at that time certain workmen who travelled about singly, from place to place, exercising their trade. Their stock of tools, like the objects which they had to make or repair, was of a very simple character; the sand from the wayside formed their moulds, and their fuel was the dry wood of the forest.

The existence, at this remote epoch in the history of mankind, of the itinerant workers in metal is proved by the fact, that pract.i.tioners of this kind were known in the earliest _historic_ periods who had already to some extent become proficients in the art. Moses, the Hebrew lawgiver, was able in the wilderness to make a brazen serpent, the sight of which healed the Israelites who had been bitten by venomous snakes; and, during the retirement of the prophet to Mount Sinai, Aaron seemed to find no difficulty in casting the golden calf, which was required of him by the murmurs of the people. Itinerant founders must therefore have accompanied the Jewish army.

We have been compelled to dwell to some extent on the general considerations which bear upon the introduction of bronze among the ancient inhabitants of Europe who succeeded the men of the Stone Age. In the chapters which follow we intend as far as possible to trace out the picture of that period of man's history, which is called _the Bronze Epoch_, and const.i.tutes the first division of _the Age of Metals_.

FOOTNOTES:

[29] It must, however, be observed that the author's theory does not agree with the opinion of metallurgists, who do not consider the reduction of mixed copper and tin ore a practically effective process, and would favour the more usual view that the metals were smelted separately, and afterwards fused together to form bronze.--(_Note to Eng. Trans._)

[30] Book iv. p. 81.

CHAPTER II.

The Sources of Information at our Disposal for reconstructing the History of the Bronze Epoch--The Lacustrine Settlements of Switzerland--Enumeration and Cla.s.sification of them--Their Mode of Construction--Workmanship and Position of the Piles--Shape and Size of the Huts--Population--Instruments of Stone, Bone, and Stag's Horn--Pottery--Clothing--Food--_Fauna_--Domestic Animals.

In endeavouring to trace out the early history of the human race we naturally turn our attention to all the means of investigation which either study or chance have placed at our disposal. Grottos and caves, the rock-shelters, the ancient camps, the centres of flint-working, the Scandinavian kitchen-middens, the _dolmens_, and the _tumuli_--all have lent their aid in affording those elements for the representation of the earliest epoch of the history of primitive man which we have already considered. The data which we shall resort to for delineating the bronze epoch will be of a different kind.

Among all the sources of authentic information as to the manners and customs of man in his earliest existence, none, certainly, are more curious than those ancient remains which have lately been brought to light and explored, and have received the name of _lacustrine dwellings_.

The question may be asked, what are these _lacustrine dwellings_, and in what way do they serve to elucidate the history of the bronze epoch?

These are just the points which we are about to explain.

The most important discoveries have often depended on very slight causes. This a.s.sertion, although it has been made common by frequent repet.i.tion, is none the less perfectly correct. To what do we owe the knowledge of a mult.i.tude of curious details as to pre-historic peoples?

To an accidental and unusual depression of the temperature in Switzerland. But we will explain.

The winter of 1853-1854 was, in Switzerland, so dry and cold that the waters of the lakes fell far below their ordinary level. The inhabitants of Meilen, a place situated on the banks of the Lake of Zurich, took advantage of this circ.u.mstance, and gained from the lake a tract of ground, which they set to work to raise and surround with banks.

In carrying out these works they found in the mud at the bottom of the lake a number of piles, some thrown down and others still upright, fragments of rough pottery, bone and stone instruments, and various other relics similar to those found in the Danish peat-bogs.

This extraordinary acc.u.mulation of objects of all kinds on the dried bed of the lake appeared altogether inexplicable, and every one was at fault in their remarks; but Dr. Keller of Zurich, having examined the objects, at once came to a right understanding as to their signification. It was evident to him that they belonged to pre-historic times. By an a.s.sociation of ideas which no one had previously dreamt of, he perceived that a relation existed between the piles and the other relics discovered in the vicinity, and saw clearly that both dated back to the same epoch. He thus came to the conclusion, that the ancient inhabitants of the Lake of Zurich were in the habit of constructing dwellings over the water, and that the same custom must have existed as regards the other Swiss lakes.

This idea was developed by Dr. Keller in five very remarkable memoirs, which were published in German.[31]

This discovery was the spark which lighted up a torch destined to dissipate the darkness which hung over a long-protracted and little-known period of man's history.

Previous to the discovery made on the dried-up bed of the Lake of Zurich, various instruments and singular utensils had been obtained from the mud of some of the lakes of Switzerland, and piles had often been noticed standing up in the depth of the water; but no one had been able to investigate these vestiges of another age, or had had any idea of ascribing to them anything like the remote antiquity which has since been recognised as belonging to them. To Dr. Keller the honour is due of having interpreted these facts in their real bearing, at a time when every one else looked upon them as nothing but objects of curiosity. It is, therefore, only just to p.r.o.nounce the physician of Zurich to have been the first originator of pre-historic archaeological science in Switzerland.

In 1854, after the publication of Dr. Keller's first article, the Swiss lakes were explored with much energy, and it was not long before numerous traces of human settlements were discovered. At the present day more than 200 are known, and every year fresh ones are being found.[32]

Thanks to the activity which has been shown by a great number of observers, magnificent collections have been formed of these archaeological treasures. The fishermen of the lakes have been acquainted, for many years back, with the sites of some of these settlements, in consequence of having, on many occasions, torn their nets on the piles sticking up in the mud. Numerous questions were asked them, and they were taken as guides to the different spots, and ere long a whole system of civilisation, heretofore unknown, emerged from the beds of the Swiss lakes.

Among the lakes which have furnished the largest quant.i.ty of relics of pre-historic ages, we may mention that of Neuchatel, in which, in 1867, no less than forty-six settlements were counted; in Lake Constance (thirty-two settlements); in the Lake of Geneva (twenty-four settlements); in the Lake of Bienne, canton of Berne (twenty settlements); in the Lake of Morat, canton of Fribourg (eight settlements).

Next come several other lakes of less importance. The Lake of Zurich (three settlements); the Lake of Pfaeffikon, canton of Zurich (four settlements); the Lake of Sempach, canton of Lucerne (four settlements); the Lake of Moosseedorf, canton of Berne (two settlements); the Lake of Inkwyl, near Soleure (one settlement); the Lake of Nussbaumen, canton of Thurgau (one settlement); the Lake of Zug, &c.

Pile-work has also been discovered in former lakes now transformed into peat-bogs. We must place in this cla.s.s the peat-bog of Wauwyl, canton of Lucerne (five settlements).

We will mention, in the last place, the settlement at the bridge of Thiele, on the water-course which unites the lakes of Bienne and Neuchatel. This settlement must once have formed a portion of the Lake of Bienne, at the time when the latter extended as far as the bridge of Thiele.

The lacustrine villages of Switzerland do not all belong to the same period. The nature of the remains that they contain indubitably prove that some are far more ancient than others. The vestiges have been discovered of three successive epochs--the polished-stone epoch and the epochs of bronze and of iron.