वेदों की प्राचीनता एवं काल-निर्णय / ओरायन (लोकमान्य बाल गंगाधर तिलक - खगोलीय वैदिक शोध)

8 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. works. The belief, that man is post-glacial and that the Polar regions were never suited for human habitation, still lingers in some quarters, and to those who still hold this view any theory regarding the Polar home of the Aryan race may naturally seem to be a priori impossible. It is better, therefore, to begin with a short statement of the latest scientific conclu- sions on these points. Human races of earlier times have left ample evidence of their existence on the surface of this globe; but like the records of the historic period this evidence does not consist of stately tombs and pyramids, or inscriptions and documents. It is of a humbler kind, and consists of hundreds and thousands of rude or polished instruments of stone and metal recently dug out from old camps, fortifications, burial grounds (tumuli), temples, lake- dwellings, &c. of early times spread over the whole of Europe; and in the hands of the archæologist these have been found to give the same results as the hieroglyphics in the hands of the Egyptologist. These early implements of stone and metals were not previously unknown, but they had not attracted the notice of scientific experts till recently; and the peasants in Asia and Europe, when they found them in their fields, could hardly make any better use of them than that of worshipping the implements so found as htunderbolts or fairy arrows shot down from the sky. But now after a careful study of these remains, archæologists have come to the conclusion that these implements, whose human origin is now undoubtedly established, can be classified into those of Stone (including horn, wood or bone), those of Bronze, and those of Iron, representing three different stages of civilization in the progress of man in prehistoric times. Thus the implements of stone, wood or bone, such as chisels, scrapers, arrow-heads, hatches, daggers, etc., were used when the use of metal was yet unknown, and they were gradually supplanted first by the implements of bronze and then of iron,