The shape of the swords and knives shows that this burial-place in Jutland must be referred to the latter part of the bronze epoch--to a time, perhaps, when iron was first used.
Following out the _data_ afforded by these records, and all the discoveries which have been made in other tombs, we have given in fig. 226, a representation of _warriors of the bronze epoch_.
The accoutrements of the horseman of pre-historic ages are composed of a bronze sword, like those found in the tombs in Denmark, and a bronze hatchet and sword-belt. His horse is decked with round bronze discs, which, in after times, formed among the Romans the chief ornament of this faithful and intrepid auxiliary of man in all his combats. The horseman's head is bare; for no helmet or metallic head-covering has ever, at least, to our knowledge, been discovered in the tombs of the bronze epoch. The spear and bronze hatchet are the weapons of the foot-soldiers.
Next to the Scandinavian regions, Great Britain and Ireland occupy an important place in the history of the civilisation of the bronze epoch. The same type of implements are found in these countries as in Denmark and Switzerland.
Hatchet-moulds (fig. 227) are also found there--a circumstance which proves that the founder's art was known and practised in these countries. The Dublin Museum contains a beautiful collection of various objects belonging to the bronze epoch.
[Illustration: Fig. 227.--Bronze Hatchet-mould found in Ireland.]
Some of the departments of France have also furnished objects belonging to the same period; but there is nothing peculiar among them which deserves mention.
Did any kind of religious worship exist among the men of the bronze epoch? Nothing would be more interesting than any discovery bearing on this point; but up to the present time no vestiges of anything in the shape of an idol have been found, nor anything whatever which authorizes us unhesitatingly to answer this question in the affirmative. The only thing which might prove the existence of any religious feeling, is the discovery, in various lacustrine settlements, of a certain number of crescent-shaped objects, most of them made of very coarse baked earth and some of stone.