Bronze Age

Bronze Age, a term denoting a bygone condition of races among whom bronze was the chief materials for weapons and tools, or the period in which it existed. Such a condition was by no means universal, but seems to have prevailed at one time in a great part of Europe and Asia; when it did occur it almost always followed the Stone Age, and was followed by the Iron Age. It necessarily varied in duration, and some races seem to have passed from the use of flints directly to iron, as have some of the Pacific islanders in our own day. Moreover, when such a period did occur, it was not marked off sharply from that which preceded or followed it; the use of bronze lingered on - though at last only for ceremonial purposes - long after iron was known, as may be seen from many passages in Virgil and Ovid. In Europe the Bronze Age has been brought into prominence by discoveries in Denmark; the finds show marks of a higher state of culture than do those of the Stone Age, and progress may be traced in the bronze implements and ornaments. Tylor is of opinion that bronze was used, even when iron was known, on account of the ease with which it could be cast. Lubbock thinks that the "knowledge of metals is one of those great discoveries which Europe owes to the East," and that the use of copper was not introduced into our continent until it had been observed that "by the addition of a small quantity of tin it was rendered harder and more valuable."