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236
COPENHAGEN.
Chap. XVI.
ful investigation, the antiquaries gained the day, and
the shells were handed over to the custody of the
Northern Museum. The oysters, mussels, &c., were
found to be all single shells, the periwinkles to be
empty. Bones were also mixed among the heap —
those which had contained marrow were split asunder,
plainly proving they had been used as food; and
bearing, as well as some fragments of pottery, marks of the
action of fire. The whole mass proved to be nothing
more nor less than the contents of a Scandinavian
dust-hole.
2. The Age of Bronze. — That copper was
discovered and came into use previous to iron there can
be no doubt. The former metal is found in an almost
pure state, and was used by the Asiatic tribes in the
first ages of history. Subsequently they endeavoured
to render it more hard by an admixture of tin. This
produced the bronze of which we read in the earliest
writers of the ancients.
Tubal Cain is mentioned in the book of Genesis as the
“ instructor of every artificer of brass and iron,” wdiich
must lead us to infer that iron was known from the
most remote ages in the East, though not in more
northern countries.
In the Scandinavian Museum of Copenhagen the
implements of the age of Bronze are supposed to belong
to a period previous to the birth of Christ, and to have
been the work of an entirely different race of men from
those of the Stone age, probably a nomadic Oriental tribe,
which emigrated from the East and passed away, giving
place in later times to some more powerful invader.
While the axes and sledge-hammers of their
predeces
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