It is proper to note, in connection with a discussion of the Bronze Age,
that our word bronze is derived from the Basque, or Iberian broncea,
from which the Spanish derive bronce, and the Italians bronzo. The
copper mines of the Basques were extensively worked at a very early age
of the world, either by the people of Atlantis or by the Basques
themselves, a colony from Atlantis. The probabilities are that the name
for bronze, as well as the metal itself, dates back to Plato's island.

I give some illustrations on pages 239 and 242 of ornaments and
implements of the Bronze Age, which may serve to throw light upon the
habits of the ancient people. It will be seen that they had reached a
considerable degree of civilization; that they raised crops of grain,
and cut them with sickles; that their women ornamented themselves with
bracelets, armlets, earrings, finger-rings, hair-pins, and amulets; that
their mechanics used hammers, adzes, and chisels; and that they
possessed very fair specimens of pottery. Sir John Lubbock argues
("Prehistoric Times," pp. 14, 16, etc.):

"A new civilization is indicated not only by the mere presence of bronze
but by the beauty and variety of the articles made from it. We find not
only, as before, during the Stone Age, axes, arrows, and knives, but, in
addition, swords, lances, sickles, fish-hooks, ear-rings, bracelets,
pins, rings, and a variety of other articles."

If the bronze implements of Europe had been derived from the
Phoenicians, Greeks, Etruscans, or Romans, the nearer we approached the
site of those nations the greater should be the number of bronze weapons
we would find; but the reverse is the case. Sir John Lubbock
("Prehistoric Times," p. 20) shows that more than three hundred and