and must at first have been very dear in the far North, the excellent native iron ores being then still unknown. Be that as it may, it is certain that the old culture of the Bronze-Age could not possibly have been preserved in the north German plain and in the Scandinavian North with a breadth purity and individuality of development so far surpassing that of central and south Europe, where iron came into use much earlier, had the previous lively communications on both sides not been at one stroke broken off by violent commotions among the peoples in the interior of Europe. Otherwise the same trade-routes which so long had brought bronze and gold from the south would also in early times have served to bring iron and iron products in larger quantities to the Baltic coasts. So remarkable an interruption seems even to presuppose a condition of open hostilities between the evidently warlike bronzeusing peoples of the North and the iron-using peoples in central Europe. It was precisely in the regions of the upper Rhine, according to the testimony of history, that several centuries before Christ various forward movements and shiftings of the Gauls Germans and other tribes took place. The result was natural: some at least of the older races, who had immigrated during the Bronze-Age, must have been isolated or driven out of their old settlements, especially where these lay on the great highway of nations from the East in Hungary and Austria: some would turn their steps southwards, e.g. to north Italy: others retreated north across the Carpathians and mountains of Moravia and Bohemia to the north German plain lying mostly east of the boundaries of the stone graves on the Oder and as yet but thinly peopled. Here in complete isolation, behind a rampart of forest-covered mountains, they were henceforth reduced to carry on by themselves and develop the national Bronze-culture they brought with them. Here too both to west and east they found neighbours still in the Bronze-Age on much the same level of civilisation, and in origin belonging to the same great family of nations. Under such circumstances a closer intercourse and even blending of peoples could hardly fail to ensue. It is not yet decided at what time this eastern current from Austria and Hungary first began to set northwards. Possibly it was in motion contemporaneously with the western current. In itself there was nothing to prevent its first and furthest ramifications from reaching the south-eastern borders of the Scandinavian North at a time when the Stone-Age in these remoter regions was not yet wholly expelled. But encountering far more obstacles than the western stream in its advance, with mountain-chains vast morasses forests and deserts to cross, its progress was much slower to the south-coasts of the Baltic. To the east it was soon lost in the present Baltic Provinces of Russia. Still later, doubtless again under increased. pressure from the south, it seems to have broadened and spread further north across the Baltic to Scandinavia. The fusion of the earlier western and later eastern current, which began of course in Mecklenburg and Hannover, and was continued in the higher North, probably occurred about 500 B.C. From this time onwards the last relics of the Bronze-culture of central 1 Esthonia Livonia and Kurland. Europe evidently remained for centuries crowded into the lands north and south of the Baltic. There can hardly be any real doubt that it was specially this more eastern movement of culture and peoples, which in the course of a slow but steady advance at last brought about the general adoption of cremation in the North. Among other proofs it has left its mark in the warrior-howes already mentioned, containing burnt bodies in the smaller graves above, and unburnt bodies in the larger tombs at the bottom of the barrow. In contrast with the west of Germany, where graves containing skeletons from the BronzeAge frequently occur, the graves in the east of Germany, especially beyond the old eastern boundaries of the Stone-Age towards the Oder or somewhat beyond it, almost exclusively contain burnt bodies. As in the North, the barrows in eastern and north Germany now often contain a number of funeral urns with burnt bones and ashes deposited at various times in the same mound. Not less remarkable is the contrast presented by western Germany and the country east. Besides the grave-finds large hoards of bronze objects have been discovered in hitherto unexampled quantities from Austria and Hungary across the North German plain. They are found in fields lakes and bogs, and were clearly enough deposited intentionally. This custom likewise recurs in the Scandinavian North, especially during the Later Bronze-Age. Here in all parts-but more particularly to the east-we find numerous objects of bronze, new in form and peculiar in ornamentation. Either they were actually imported from Austria and Hungary, or else copies were made in north Germany and the north after unmistakable models from the southern countries. This style, originally eastern in technique and beauty of form, reached almost as high a standpoint as the older western style, with which it must have been largely mixed in the North. But various circumstances indicate that in, the Northern lands towards the close of the Bronze-Age taste had at least in some points lost much of its earlier simplicity and purity. "cast Numerous moulds metal "tags" and large finds," (Stöbefund),2 as they are called, throughout Denmark, are irresistible evidence for the general spread of native manufactures in bronze and gold. These again may be recognised in whole series of peculiar Northern and north-European forms of weapons utensils and ornaments, which do not appear in other parts of Europe. By degrees, as the Iron - culture moved on from central Europe northwards, the native manufacture of bronze in the North must have largely increased; while the importation of foreign objects of bronze, even from north Germany, into the old Danish lands fell off more and more. During the long continuance of the Bronze-Age with the steady flow of population from south to north both in the earlier and later periods skill in metal-working had on the whole risen to a considerable height. The complete casting and polishing of horns (Lurer) 3 for instance and of large ceremonial axes-fashioned of thin elegantly orna 2 The Author's "Danish Arts," figs. 103-5. J. M., fig. 208. |