Ancient Bronze.
The raw material, copper, smelted and beaten or poured from a crucible into moulds, was in more ancient times used in its unalloyed purity—and it is still used in that state. It was, however, soon discovered that copper might be improved for many purposes by mixing with it other metals possessing different properties. The prehistoric peoples who lived in Britain, and in other countries within reach, soon added tin, which was found in Cornwall quite near to the surface, and was from early times sold to Phœnician traders, thereby producing bronze. It is of this metal that most of the much valued curios of the so-called Bronze Age are made. Those who fashioned them were clever manipulators of the alloyed metal, and by processes now little understood were able to temper tools and weapons and to give them keen-cutting edges. Our museums are full of spear-heads, celts, axes, and palstaves of bronze, which were cast in moulds of stone cut to the required shapes by those primitive workers in metal, who used simple crucibles in which it was melted.
FIG. 2 (1).—BRONZE BUCKLER FROM THE THAMES VALLEY.
FIG. 3 (2).—ANOTHER BUCKLER FROM ABERYSTWYTH.
(In the British Museum.)
The prehistoric bronzes, some examples of which are referred to in another chapter, are the earliest collectable curios formed of metal. They include implements of war and of the chase and some domestic utensils and cooking vessels. To these useful objects must be added ornaments and trinkets of bronze, so many of which have been found in the barrows and burying-places of prehistoric races.
The knowledge of bronze appears to have been widespread. It was understood by those who dwelt in this country, by the inhabitants of European countries, by Eastern nations, and by the Egyptians, who left such wonderful monuments behind them, giving evidence that they knew how to impart a knife-like edge to their tools of bronze.