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found in western Europe, especially in Scandinavian
countries. Many belong to the Later Stone Age, a few
belong to the Bronze Age, and a large number to the
successive Iron Ages. The most eminent antiquarian
authorities have now to some extent modified their old
theory of successive immigrations, in which an entire
people, using stone implements, was replaced by a
population using bronze; or they believe at least that for
some thousands of years before Christ a Teutonic race
inhabited parts of Germany and the greater part of
Scandinavia. It is probable that antiquities, found chiefly
in south-western Finland and on the chain of islands
which connect Finland with Sweden, really belong to an
old Scandinavian race. The Swedish authors Montelius
and Wiklund believe that such a race actually lived
here two thousand years before Christ. Stone
implements, belonging to the Laplanders, some of them of
a very recent period, have been found in the interior
of Finland; but these differ in character from those
found in the coast districts. Again, on the coast east
of the river Kymmene, the Stone Age, which lasted
much longer in that region, is supposed to indicate a
Finnish race. Moreover, while a large number of
words of Teutonic origin, found in varying numbers in
the different Western-Finnish languages, are to some
extent borrowed from the Goths (so that it is obvious
that somewhere the Finns have been in close relation
with the Goths), yet the greater part have been adopted
into the Finnish language from the Scandinavian,
before the latter was divided into separate languages.
Montelius and Wiklund think it possible, and even
probable, that such a contact between the
Scandinavians and the Finnish tribes took place in
southern Finland. It must be admitted, however, that
the truth about these prehistoric populations is not
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