DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12655#0021
INTRODUCTION.
XVII
from M. Piot in 1886, and the series of bronze mirror-cases (288-302). We
must not, however, omit to mention the considerable number of early bronzes
obtained during the Museum excavations in Cyprus, chiefly at Enkomi (Salamis)
in 1896 ; the special importance of these bronzes is that they nearly all belong
to the Mycenaean period.
II. HISTORY OF BRONZE-WORKING IN ANTIQUITY.
Thc earliest bronzes in the collection belong to the Mycenaean period or
later Bronze Age of Southern Europe, and have been obtained from Rhodes,
Cyprus, and other localities ; but of the exact provenance of the greater
number we have no record.
On the subject of the Bronze Age in Southern Europe a
The Bronze Age, very extensive literature has arisen, but it may be regarded
its eharaeter as a matter of general agreement that throughout Europe
and duration. there was a period when on the one hand stone fell into
disuse for cutting-implements, and on the other iron was
practically unknown or at any rate little used for tools and weapons. It is
however impossible to fix hard-and-fast limits for this stage of civilisation,
as not only does its approximate duration vary in different countries, but it
is overlapped by the Stone Age on the one side and the Iron Age on the other.
And it is very probable that the Bronze and Iron Ages make their respective
appearances earlier in some countries, and at a comparatively late date in
others ; thus for instance Maspero traces the use of iron in Egypt back as far as
the Sixth Dynasty (3300-3100 B.c.),* while in Greece it was quite unknown until
Homeric and post-Mycenaean times, about 800 B.C.
In the Old Testament, especially in the Pentateuch,! we find occasional
mention of the use of iron, as opposed to the frequent mention of brass
(i.e. bronze) ; but some of these passages must not be pressed, such as Gen. iv. 22,
vvhich speaks of Tubal-Cain as “ the forger of every cutting instrument of brass
and iron ” (R.V.). Here the A.V. reads “an instructor of every artificer in brass
and iron,” a phrase which recalls Pliny’s frequent allusions to early artists as
inventors of particular processes, implying no more than that they were early
workers in metal, like Daedalos.
As far as concerns actual remains of the Bronze Age discovered on Greek
soil, the contents of tombs of the Mycenaean period may be considered to answer
with tolerable accuracy to this period. Little was found at Mycenae itself, but
a considerable number of bronze weapons have been found in Rhodes (see
* Maspero, Guide au Musie de Boulaq, p. 296 ; see also Reinach in Revue Archeol. viii. (1886), p. 119,
ancl Evans, Ancient Bronze Imflements, p. 6. It seems most probable that in Egypt both bronze and iron
had always been known and worked trvm ihe earliest times, and that there was no succession of the two
Ages as in Europe. Cf. Piehl in Ymer for 1888, p. 99.
t E.g. Numb. xxxi. 22, xxxv. 16; Dcut. iii. 11, iv. 20, xxvii. 5 ; Job xxviii. 2.
b
XVII
from M. Piot in 1886, and the series of bronze mirror-cases (288-302). We
must not, however, omit to mention the considerable number of early bronzes
obtained during the Museum excavations in Cyprus, chiefly at Enkomi (Salamis)
in 1896 ; the special importance of these bronzes is that they nearly all belong
to the Mycenaean period.
II. HISTORY OF BRONZE-WORKING IN ANTIQUITY.
Thc earliest bronzes in the collection belong to the Mycenaean period or
later Bronze Age of Southern Europe, and have been obtained from Rhodes,
Cyprus, and other localities ; but of the exact provenance of the greater
number we have no record.
On the subject of the Bronze Age in Southern Europe a
The Bronze Age, very extensive literature has arisen, but it may be regarded
its eharaeter as a matter of general agreement that throughout Europe
and duration. there was a period when on the one hand stone fell into
disuse for cutting-implements, and on the other iron was
practically unknown or at any rate little used for tools and weapons. It is
however impossible to fix hard-and-fast limits for this stage of civilisation,
as not only does its approximate duration vary in different countries, but it
is overlapped by the Stone Age on the one side and the Iron Age on the other.
And it is very probable that the Bronze and Iron Ages make their respective
appearances earlier in some countries, and at a comparatively late date in
others ; thus for instance Maspero traces the use of iron in Egypt back as far as
the Sixth Dynasty (3300-3100 B.c.),* while in Greece it was quite unknown until
Homeric and post-Mycenaean times, about 800 B.C.
In the Old Testament, especially in the Pentateuch,! we find occasional
mention of the use of iron, as opposed to the frequent mention of brass
(i.e. bronze) ; but some of these passages must not be pressed, such as Gen. iv. 22,
vvhich speaks of Tubal-Cain as “ the forger of every cutting instrument of brass
and iron ” (R.V.). Here the A.V. reads “an instructor of every artificer in brass
and iron,” a phrase which recalls Pliny’s frequent allusions to early artists as
inventors of particular processes, implying no more than that they were early
workers in metal, like Daedalos.
As far as concerns actual remains of the Bronze Age discovered on Greek
soil, the contents of tombs of the Mycenaean period may be considered to answer
with tolerable accuracy to this period. Little was found at Mycenae itself, but
a considerable number of bronze weapons have been found in Rhodes (see
* Maspero, Guide au Musie de Boulaq, p. 296 ; see also Reinach in Revue Archeol. viii. (1886), p. 119,
ancl Evans, Ancient Bronze Imflements, p. 6. It seems most probable that in Egypt both bronze and iron
had always been known and worked trvm ihe earliest times, and that there was no succession of the two
Ages as in Europe. Cf. Piehl in Ymer for 1888, p. 99.
t E.g. Numb. xxxi. 22, xxxv. 16; Dcut. iii. 11, iv. 20, xxvii. 5 ; Job xxviii. 2.
b