The Origin and Early Spread of Ironworking

F OOR many years past the scientific world has accepted the view, first advanced by Thomsen nearly a century ago, that mankind has passed successively through three stages of culture, known as the ages of Stone, Bronze, and Iron.' In recent years it has been found that in some regions a Copper Age intervened between those of Stone and Bronze, while in other parts of the world, notably in Africa south of the Sahara Desert, men passed directly from stone to iron, and in remote corners of the earth there still live peoples who have not yet advanced beyond a Stone Age condition. Now iron is one of the commonest metals to be found. Iron ores