During this age, the inhabitants were as much given to war and conquest as any rudely civilized people: we, therefore, meet with remains of their weapons. The principal ones were swords, daggers, spear-heads, and arrows. The swords are always more or less leaf-like in shape, double-edged, sharp-pointed, and intended more for stabbing and thrusting, rather than cutting. No hand guards were used.
Sometimes the handles were fastened to the swords by means of rivets; and, at other times, the handle was plaited with wood or bone. They are of different lengths, intermediate between the sword and the dagger. It is doubtful whether they made use of shields.
Bronze shields are, indeed, found; but, from the ornaments and other circumstances they are generally considered to belong to the Iron Age: for we shall subsequently learn that the introduction of iron did not prevent the continued use of bronze. The bow was well known; and this must have necessitated the use of arrows. Some bronze arrows have been found; but a flint arrow is nearly as serviceable as bronze, and much cheaper, so we may be sure they were more common. They also employed spears and javelins, and the bronze heads of these weapons are found in various places. The invading Celt found many camps and fortified places already in existence, and continued them in use after the original occupant had been driven away.
As we have spent some time in learning the different objects manufactured out of bronze, it may be of interest to learn somewhat of their methods of working bronze. We have already stated how the amateur worker in bronze would follow on after the trader—and so the objects of bronze would be made in all the countries of Europe. Molds have been found in various places. This is a mold for casting the axes having a socket in which to put the handle. It was found in the cave at Heathbury Burn, already mentioned. None of the bronze objects were forged out, as a smith forges out objects of iron—they were cast. In the absence of steel, it would be almost impossible to cut bronze; hence it was necessary to make the casting as nearly perfect as possible. Sometimes the molds were cut out of stone, as in the figure just given. The molds themselves were, in this case, difficult to make; besides, they could scarcely be made so perfect as not to leave a little ridge, where the two halves of the mold came together, which, as just explained, owing to the absence of steel, it would be very difficult to remove. In process of time they discovered an easier way of making the molds, that employed at the present day—that is, by the use of sand. The ridge would still remain, and is to be plainly seen on specimens of ancient bronze.
To overcome the difficulty just mentioned, they invented a third method of casting, which displays great ingenuity. A model of the object desired was made of wood or wax, and inclosed in prepared earth mixed with some inflammable material, in order that, when subjected to heat, it might become porous. The whole was then heated until the wax or wood disappeared. The mold was then ready for use. The great advantage of this method was that there were no projecting lines of junction to disfigure the complete implement. This seems to have been the most common method employed. This explains the fact, that we seldom find any two bronze objects exactly similar to one another. Any impression left on the wax model would be faithfully reproduced. Marks of the spatula, with which the wax was worked, are frequently found; and, in one case, the impression of the human finger was observed.17
A people as highly cultured as those of the Bronze Age must have had some system of government, and one that was a sensible advance over the government of the Neolithic people. In the Neolithic Age it was, doubtless, tribe against tribe. Confederacies, the union of several tribes for common purpose of defense, must have been more common at this age.18 The first Aryan tribes to arrive in Europe, as we have seen, were the Celts. In time, they had to withstand the pressure of invasion themselves. The Belgae, and other Germanic tribes, were also on the move. But war at this period would partake more of the nature of people against people, than of tribe against tribe. The civil and the military departments of government must have taken more definite shape, and we are not without evidence of fairly organized and disciplined forces. As early as two thousand eight hundred years before Christ, the sea-coast people of Europe, while yet in the Bronze Age, allied their forces for the conquest of Egypt.19
We have referred to the influence of trade in shaping civilization. It is commerce that to-day is carrying civilization to remote corners of the globe. Long before the dawn of history, it was an active agent in advancing culture. It is important to note the great expanse of commerce, both inland and marine, which prevailed during the Bronze Age. An important article of trade was, of course, bronze. The people who first learned the secret of its manufacture would speedily find a demand for their wares from surrounding tribes, and we have already pointed out how this trade would quickly give rise to local manufactures. But, to produce bronze, we know tin is just as necessary as copper—and all the countries of Europe are not provided with these metals; so more or less trade would inevitably take place. In various ways the stores of the bronze merchant might be lost, and only revealed in after years by accident. One of these deposits, found in France, is evidently the store of a merchant or trader from Etruria to the tribes of the north and west, and so gives us a quite vivid idea of the trade of that early time. It consisted of over four hundred articles of bronze, “comprising knives, sickles, lance-heads, horse-bits, rings, buttons, pendants, and bracelets.”20