FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41  
42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   >>   >|  
le with a circular camp. Traces of his agricultural operations may still be found in the "terraces," or strips of ground on hillsides, which preserve the marks of our early Neolithic farmers. [Illustration: BARBED AND LEAF-SHAPED ARROW-HEADS] Their implements are far superior to those of the Old Stone men, and are found on the surface of our fields, or on hillsides, where they tended their flocks, or dug their rude pit shelters. Their weapons and tools are highly polished, and have evidently been ground on a grindstone. They are adapted for an endless variety of uses, and are most skilfully and beautifully fashioned. There are finely wrought arrowheads, of three shapes--barbed, tanged and barbed, and leaf-shaped; axes, scrapers for cleansing and preparing skins for clothing, hammer stones, wedges, drills, borers, knives, and many other tools. In the Reading Museum may be seen a heavy quartzite axe and chipped flint hatchet, which were found with some charred timber on an island in the Thames, and were evidently used for scooping out the interior of a boat from a tree with the aid of fire. So this New Stone man knew how to make boats as well as a vast number of other things of which we shall presently speak more particularly. His descendants linger on in South Wales and Ireland, and are short in stature, dark in complexion, and narrow-skulled, like their forefathers a few thousand years ago. [Illustration: NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE IMPLEMENTS] Another wave of invaders swept over our land, and overcame the long-headed Neolithic race. These were the Celtic people, taller and stronger than their predecessors, and distinguished by their fair hair and rounded skulls. From the shape of their heads they are called Brachycephalic, and are believed to have belonged to the original Aryan race, whose birthplace was Southern Asia. At some remote period this wave of invaders poured over Europe and Asia, and has left traces behind it in the languages of all Indo-European nations. Their weapons were made of bronze, although they still used polished stone implements also. We find chisels, daggers, rings, buttons, and spear-heads, all made of bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, and fashioned by the skilled hands of these early Celtic folk. As they became more civilised, being of an inventive mind, they discovered the use of iron and found it a more convenient metal for fashioning axes to cut down trees. When Caesar came to Britai
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41  
42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Celtic

 

weapons

 

barbed

 

evidently

 

invaders

 

fashioned

 

bronze

 

polished

 

Neolithic

 
Illustration

hillsides
 
ground
 

implements

 
skulls
 

skulled

 
rounded
 
Another
 

narrow

 

believed

 

belonged


original

 

Brachycephalic

 
stature
 
complexion
 

called

 

forefathers

 

overcame

 

NEOLITHIC

 

people

 

BRONZE


IMPLEMENTS

 

taller

 

stronger

 

headed

 

thousand

 

predecessors

 

distinguished

 
European
 

civilised

 

inventive


copper

 

skilled

 
discovered
 

Caesar

 

Britai

 

convenient

 
fashioning
 
Europe
 

traces

 
poured