Primitive Man Part 34

"The work thus commenced was carried up to the requisite height; and when the excavation in the side of the hill was not lofty enough, the dome of the furnace was raised by placing b.u.t.tresses against the fire-clay, so as to prevent the earth falling in. When these furnaces were established on almost level ground, as is sometimes the case, they form a truncated cone, with a base varying in size according to the height of the apparatus.

"The furnace was not always built upright; it often deviated from the perpendicular, leaning to one side or the other to an extent as considerable as its own diameter, but no constant rule as to this can be recognised. The internal shape was just as irregular, changing from circular to oval, without any apparent motive beyond want of care in the workman. The crucibles or furnaces are sometimes larger at the top than at the bottom, and sometimes these proportions are reversed, but always with extreme irregularity. We have noticed some which at a point 10 or 12 inches above the crucible were perceptibly contracted on three sides, thus representing the first rudiments of the appearance of our modern furnaces. But this, perhaps, was nothing but a caprice on the part of the builder.

"The furnace thus being established, the wood was withdrawn which had formed the cone, if, indeed, any had been used, and at the hole made at the base of the crucible a clod of fire-clay some inches in height was placed, so as to form a dam, and to confine in the crucible the molten or soft metal; the scoriae, being of a lighter nature and floating at the top, made their escape over the top of the dam. As the latter were not very liquid, their issue was promoted by means of pokers or wooden poles, perhaps damped, with which also the metal was stirred in the crucible.

"In neither of these two kinds of furnaces do we find any trace of bellows, and a more or less strong draught must have been procured through the opening made for the escape of the scoriae, according to the elevation of the dome of the furnace. The limestones which have been found in certain furnaces were probably employed with a view of increasing the draught; they doubtless belonged to the upper part of the furnace, where they had been fixed so as to add height to the orifice.

This rudimentary plan must have been likewise used in the earliest crucibles. The mode of obtaining a draught which we have just pointed out is indicated most plainly by the scorification of the walls of the furnace on the side opposite to the air-pa.s.sage; this side has evidently experienced a more intense heat, whilst on the other the walls are much less affected by the fire, and in some cases pieces of the mineral still remain in a pasty or semi-molten state, just as they were when the work of the furnace ceased....

"The absence of any machine in the shape of bellows in the ancient metal works of the Jura appears all the more remarkable as these implements were known both to the Greeks and Romans; hence we may at least infer, not only that these nations did not introduce the art of iron-working into the Jura, but that it must have existed at a much earlier period.

It must also be remarked that the openings in the furnaces are not placed in the direction of the winds prevailing in the country--a plan which might have increased the draught--but are made quite at hazard, just as the nature of the spot rendered the construction of the furnace more easy.

"... In respect to fuel it must be remarked that in all the siderurgical establishments which we have discovered, certain features indicate that wood carbonised in a stack was exclusively used as fuel.

The furnaces are too small for the employment of rough wood; added to this, charcoal stores are placed near the furnaces; and charcoal burnt in a stack is constantly met with all round the sites, in the scoriae, and all the _debris_. We must, besides, mention the discovery, at Bellelay, of a charcoal store 8 feet in diameter, situated under a compact bed of peat 20 feet in thickness. It was established on the solid earth, anterior to the formation of the peat. Now from this very peat a parcel of coins belonging to the fifteenth century was recovered, over which only 2 feet of peat had grown in a period of 400 years.

There, too, at a depth of 9 feet, were found the scattered bones of a horse, with the foot still shod with those undulating edged shoes with elongated and strongly punched holes, in which were fitted the ends of nails of the shape of a T, the heads of which were conical. This kind of shoe is found in the Celtic settlements, the villages, habitations, and ironworks, also in the pasturages and forests of the country, but rarely in the Roman camps; in the latter they are always in less number than the wider metallic shoes, which are larger, and furnished with a groove indicating the line in which the nail-holes were punched. The calculations which have been made from the discovery of the coins of the fifteenth century (A.D. 1478) would give an antiquity of at least twenty to twenty-four centuries to the horse-shoe we have just mentioned, for the animal must have died and been devoured on the then existing surface of the ground, and could not have been buried in the peat, as the bones, instead of lying grouped together, were dispersed in every direction.

These same calculations would carry back the date of the charcoal-store to an era 4000 years ago.

"Owing to the imperfection of the furnaces, the quant.i.ty of charcoal used must have been quadruple the present consumption for the same results. The metal, as it was extracted from the ore, fell down into the bottom of the crucible. In proportion as the ma.s.s of metal increased, a workman, with a poker made of damp green wood, brought out the scoriae which floated on the top, and stirred the metal so as to fine it. It is proved that these wooden pokers or poles were made use of in all the furnace-works. A quant.i.ty of morsels of scoriae is found which, having been in a soft state when extracted, have retained the imprint of the piece of wood, the end of which was evidently charred. M. Morlot, in his article on the Roman ironworks at Wocheim, in Upper Carniola, has also noticed the existence, in the scoriae, of frequent traces of pokers, sometimes round and sometimes three-cornered in shape, but all of them must have been made of iron, whilst throughout the whole of the Jura we have never recognised the traces of any but wooden implements of this kind.

"Owing to the imperfection of the furnaces, and especially, the deficiency in the draught caused by the want of bellows, the metal contained in the ore could be but very imperfectly extracted; the scoriae are therefore still so very rich in iron that, about twenty years ago, the manager of the ironworks at Untervelier tried to use them over again as ore. Acc.u.mulations of this dross, measuring from 100 to 200 yards square, may be seen near certain furnaces-a fact which would infer a somewhat considerable production of iron. The examination of these scoriae proves that iron was then made by one single operation, and not liquid pigs fit for casting, or to be converted into iron by a second series of operations.

"The iron produced was introduced into commerce in large blocks, shaped like two quadrangular pyramids joined at the base, weighing from 12 to 16 lbs. One of these pieces was found near a furnace which had been demolished in order to establish a charcoal furnace, in the commune of Untervelier, and another in one of the furnaces of Boecourt.

"All round the furnaces there have been found numerous remains of rough pottery; it is badly baked, and made without the help of the wheel, from clay which is mingled with grains of quartz--the pottery, in fact, which is called Celtic. Pieces of stag's horn have also been discovered, which must have been used for the handles of tools; also iron hatchets. One of them has a socket at the end made in a line with the length of the implement; it is an instrument belonging to the most remote period of the iron age. The others have transversal sockets like our present hatchets. One of the latter was made of steel so hard that it could not be touched with the file. With regard to coins, both Gallic and Roman were found, and some of the latter were of as late a date as that of the Constantines. The persistence in practising the routine of all the most ancient processes may be explained by the monopoly of the iron-working trade being retained in the same families. We have the less need to be surprised at this, because we may notice that the wood-cutters and charcoal-burners of our own days, when they have to take up their abode in a locality for any length of time, and to carry on their trade there, always make certain arrangements which have doubtless been handed down from the most primitive times. In order to protect their beds from the damp, they make a kind of shelf of fir-poles which is used as a bedstead. Some of them have two stories; the under-one intended for the children, and the one above for the parents.

Moss, ferns, and dried gra.s.s form the mattress. Coverlets impossible to describe were made good use of, and some were even made of branches of fir-trees. These bedsteads take the place both of benches and chairs. A stone fire-place, roughly arranged in the centre of the hut, fills the double function of warming in winter and cooking the food all the year round. We may also add, that the fire, which is almost always kept lighted, and the ashes spread over the floor all round, preserve the hut from certain troublesome insects, which lose their lives by jumping imprudently into this unknown trap. The smoke finds no other issue but through a hole made in the roof."[40]

Such is the description given by M. Quiquerez of the iron furnaces of a really pre-historic character, those, namely, which are characterised by the absence of bellows. We think, however, that there must have been holes below the hearth which afforded access to currents of air, and, by being alternately open or closed, served either to increase or diminish the intensity of the draught. But bellows, properly so called, intended to promote the combustion and chemical reaction between the oxide of iron and the charcoal did not then exist.

The addition of the bellows to iron-furnaces brought an essential improvement to the art of the manufacture of iron.

Another improvement consisted in making, at the bottom of the stone receptacle where the fuel and the ore were burnt together, a door composed of several bricks which could be readily moved. At the completion of each operation they drew out, through this door, the cake of iron, which could not be so conveniently extracted at the upper part of the furnace, on account of its height. The hammering, a.s.sisted by several heatings, finally cleared the iron, in the usual way, from all extraneous matter, consolidated it, and converted it into the state of bar-iron fit for the blacksmith's use, and for the fabrication of utensils and tools.

These improved primitive furnaces are well-known to German miners under the name of _Stuckofen_ ("fragment-furnaces"). They are modified in different ways in different countries; and according to the arrangement of the furnace, and especially according to the nature of the ferruginous ores, certain methods or manipulations of the iron have been introduced, which are nowadays known under the names of the Swedish, German, Styrian, Carinthian, Corsican, and Catalan methods.

The ancient furnaces for the extraction of iron may be combined under the name of _smelting-forges_ or _bloomeries_.

The invention of siliceous fluxes as applied to the extraction of iron, and facilitating the production of a liquid scoria which could flow out in the form of a stream of fire, put the finishing stroke to the preparation of iron. The constructors next considerably increased the height of the stone crucible in which the fuel and the ore, now mingled with a siliceous flux, were placed, and the _blast furnace_, that is, the present system of the preparation of iron, soon came into existence.

But, there may be reason to think, neither of these two kinds of furnaces belongs to the primitive ages of mankind which are the object of this work. In the iron epoch--that we are considering--the furnace without bellows was possibly the only one known; the iron was prepared in very small quant.i.ties at a time, and the meagre metallic cake, the result from each operation, had to be picked out from among the ashes drawn from the stone receptacle.

Gold, as we have already said, was known to the men of the bronze epoch.

Silver, on the contrary, did not come into use until the iron epoch.

Another characteristic of the epoch we are now studying is the appearance of pottery made on the potter's wheel, and baked in an improved kind of furnace. Up to that time, pottery had been moulded by the hand, and merely burnt in the open air. In the iron epoch, the potter's wheel came into use, and articles of earthenware were manufactured on this wheel, and baked in an unexceptionable way in an oven especially constructed for the purpose.

There is another fact which likewise characterises the iron epoch; this was the appearance of coined money. The earliest known coins belong to this period; they are made of bronze, and bear a figure or effigy not stamped, but obtained by melting and casting.

The most ancient coins that are known are Greek, and date back to the eighth century before Christ. These are the coins of aegina, Athens, and Cyzic.u.m, such as were found many years ago in the duchy of Posen. In the lacustrine settlement of Neuchatel, coins of a remote antiquity have also been found. We here represent in its natural size (fig. 232), taken from M. Desor's work, a bronze coin found in the settlement of La Tene in the lake of Neuchatel. But these coins are not more ancient than the Greek specimens that we have before named. They are shown to be Gallic by the horned horse, which is a Gallic emblem.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 232.--Bronze Coin, from the Lake of Neuchatel.]

At Tiefenau, near Berne, coins have been found of a nearly similar character a.s.sociated with others having on them the effigy of Apollo, and bearing an imprint of _Ma.s.silia_ (Ma.r.s.eilles). As the foundation of this Phocaean colony dates back to the sixth century before Christ, these coins may be said to be among the most ancient which exist.

Gla.s.s became known, as we have before stated, in the bronze epoch.

In short, the essential features which distinguish the iron epoch are, iron instruments, and implements combining with those of bronze to replace stone in all the uses for which it was anciently employed--the knowledge of silver and lead, the improvement of pottery, and the introduction of coined money. With regard to its chronological date we should adopt that of about 2000 years before the Christian era, thus agreeing with the generality of authors--the date of the bronze epoch being fixed about 4000 years before Christ.

After these general considerations, we shall pa.s.s on to give some account of the manners and customs of man during the iron epoch, or, at least, during the earlier portion of this period, which ere long became blended with historic ages.

When we have completed our study of man in the earlier period of the iron epoch, we shall have terminated the rapid sketch which we have intended to trace out of primitive man and his labours. This period commenced, as we have just stated, about 2000 years before Christ, and ultimately merged into the earliest glimmer of historical records. Our task now is to describe all we know about man at this date of nascent civilisation. Afterwards, the earliest historians--and among them, Herodotus, the father of history--are the authorities whom we must consult for an account of the actions and exploits of the human race in Europe.

FOOTNOTES:

[39] Details as to the relation of the Stone Age to the Bronze and Iron Ages may be found in 'Researches into the Early History of Mankind,' by Edward B. Tylor. Chap. VIII., 'Pre-Historic Times,' by Sir J. Lubbock, Chaps. I. and II.

[40] 'De l'Age du Fer, Recherches sur les anciennes Forges du Jura Bernois,' by A. Quiquerez, Engineer of the Jura Mines. Porrentruy, 1866; pp. 35-39, 77-80. Also, 'Materiaux pour l'Histoire positif de l'Homme,'

by G. de Mortillet, vol. ii. pp. 505-510.

CHAPTER II.

Weapons--Tools, Instruments, Utensils, and Pottery--The Tombs of Hallstadt and the Plateau of La Somma--The Lake-Settlements of Switzerland--Human Sacrifices--Type of Man during the Iron Epoch--Commencement of the Historic Era.

The most valuable traces of the manners and customs of man during the earlier period of the iron epoch have been furnished by the vast burial-ground discovered recently at Hallstadt, near Salzburg in Austria. M. Ramsauer, Director of the salt-mines of Salzburg, has explored more than 1000 tombs in this locality, and has described them in a work full of interest, a ma.n.u.script copy of which we have consulted in the Archaeological Museum of Saint-Germain.

As the tombs at Hallstadt belong to the earlier period of the iron epoch, they represent to us the natural transition from the epoch of bronze to that of iron. In fact, in a great number of objects contained in these tombs--such as daggers, swords and various ornaments--bronze and iron are combined. One sword, for instance, is formed of a bronze hilt and an iron blade. This is represented in figures 233, 234, 235 and 236, drawn from the sketches in M. Ramsauer's ma.n.u.script work ent.i.tled 'Les Tombes de Hallstadt,' in which this combination of the two metals is remarked upon; the sword-hilts being formed of one metal and the blades of another.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 233.--Sword, from the Tombs of Hallstadt (with a Bronze Hilt and Iron Blade).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 234.--Sword, from the Tombs of Hallstadt (with a Bronze Hilt and Iron Blade).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 235.--Dagger, from the Tombs of Hallstadt (Bronze Handle and Iron Blade).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 236.--Dagger, from the Tombs of Hallstadt (Bronze Handle and Iron Blade).]

By taking a rapid survey of the objects found in the tombs of Hallstadt, we can form a somewhat accurate idea of the first outset of the iron age.

The first point which strikes us in this period, is the utter change which had taken place in the interment of the dead.

During the Stone Age, the dead were placed in small subterranean crypts, that is in _dolmens_ or _tumuli_. During the Bronze Age it became to a great extent customary for men to burn the dead bodies of their friends.

This custom was destined to become more and more prevalent century after century, and during historic times it became universal among a great many nations.

In fact, in the tombs of Hallstadt, several little earthen vessels containing ashes may be seen. Sometimes only part of the body was burnt, so that a portion of a skeleton was found in these tombs, and near it the ashes of the parts which the fire had consumed.