"
But here we have in America the evidence that thousands of years must
have elapsed during which copper was used alone, before it was
discovered that by adding one-tenth part of tin it gave a harder edge,
and produced a superior metal.
The Bronze Age cannot be attributed to the Roman civilization. Sir John
Lubbock shows ("Prehistoric Times," p. 21) that bronze weapons have
never been found associated with Roman coins or pottery, or other
remains of the Roman Period; that bronze articles have been found in the
greatest abundance in countries like Ireland and Denmark, which were
never invaded by Roman armies; and that the character of the
ornamentation of the works of bronze is not Roman in character, and that
the Roman bronze contained a large proportion of lead, which is never
the case in that of the Bronze Age.
It has been customary to assume that the Bronze Age was due to the
Phoenicians, but of late the highest authorities have taken issue with
this opinion. Sir John Lubbock (Ibid., p. 73) gives the following
reasons why the Phoenicians could not have been the authors of the
Bronze Age: First, the ornamentation is different.
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