II. E INTERNATIONANOTICTH F O E L CONGRES F PREHISTORIO S C ARCHAEOLOGY HELD AT STOCKHOLM IN AUGUST 1874. BY B. W. COCHRAN PATRICK, ESQ., B.A., LL.B., P.S.A. SCOT. opportunite Havinth d gha y this summer, durin gshora t stay in. Sweden and Denmark, of being present at the International Congress of Archaeo- logists at Stockholm, in August, possibly the following brief notice of it, written at the time, may he of interest to some of the members of the Society. The meetin lase th te sevent f seasogth o s hnwa whic s beehha n held. The object of the Congress is to bring together archaeologists from every worlde parth f discuso to t , s subject antiquariaf so n interest connected with prehistoric man. Paper e member th reae e Congres y ar th sb d f o s s on these subjectsgeneralle ar d an ,arrangeo ys d that they have referenco et countre th timee whichn yi meetinth e r th , fo , g takes place. By a standing rule all the papers are written, and public discussion 1 Scotchron. lib. xiii. cap. 42, vol. ii. p. 327. ON THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS HELD AT STOCKHOLM. 103 take's place in French. It has been arranged that the next meeting shall take place at Buda-Pesth. In. many respects the meeting of last year has been the most successful which has been held, and besides nearly a thousand Swedes and Norwe- gians, about four hundred foreign members were present. The Congress was opened on the 7th of August. The place of meeting was the " Kid- darhus," or House of Assembly of the Nobles, a venerable building, of no great architectural pretensions t ful historicaf bu o ,l l interest seancee Th . s commence wordw wa fe sa froy b dm Count Henning Hamilton, Grand Chancellor of the Universities of Sweden, and President of the Committee of Organisation. After welcomin membere gth Stockholmo st callee h , d e secretaryonth , M. Hans Hildebrand givo t , addressn a e whicn i , e h allude histore buildine th th o dt f y o g wher assemCongrese w eth no s - swa bled, and to the stirring events which in bygone times had taken place on this very spot. Here it was that Gustavus Wasa was elected King of Sweden, ane crowth d n declared hereditar s familyhi n i y ; hers hi e grandson, Gustavus Adolphus, addressed to his subjects his famous speech before he started on the career of conquest which only terminated with his life on the fatal field of Liitzen; and here, in still later times, Berna- a countr f o n y so dottesolicito e th , t Paua rd Marsha an , f Pranceo l , directed those wise measures which have restore Swedeo dt n peacd an e prosperity. The inauguratio electioe closes vice-presidente th nwa th y db f no d san council Congrese Th . s chose Mons. Hildebrand, sen., well know thin i s countr Anglo-Saxoe s worth hi n r ko y fo n coinag venerable e th • e Mlsson, now in his eighty-eighth year, yet still as fresh and vigorous in intellect as ever; Mr Pranks, of the British Museum; and MM. de Quatrefages, Virchow, Dupont, Leemans, and Bogdanow as vice-presidents; and as the council, fourteen members froe varioumth s countries representee th t da Congress. Mr Evans, whose recent work on stone implements has gained hi mEuropeaia i reputation s electewa , represeno dt t Great Britaint A . o'clocx si towe kth f Stockholno m entertaine foreige dth n membere th f so Congres vera o syt grand entertainmen t Hasselbackena t charmin,a g spot, beautifully situated in the famous Djurgard. Here preliminary discus- sions on the dry questions which, were to occupy attention, during the coming week took a more lively form, and perhaps the only uncomfortable 104 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JANUARY 11, 1875. ' trace man'f so s past existence which were, noticed, occurred next morning in the crania of some of the members. The first subject considere followine th wasn y do gda , "e Whath e ar t most ancient traces of man's existence in Sweden 1" and in the afternoon- some theories were propounded regardin e occurrencth g f ambereo d an , the routes which it is supposed the commerce in it followed. On Sunda varioue th Congrese t sitt yth s,bu no museumd sdi Stockn si - holm were thrown e members opeth o nt mand an , y took advantage th f eo privilege Nationae Th . l Museum, whic onls hywa complete 1868n di s i , extremeln a y fine building e collectionth d ,an sthemf containeo e ar - t i n di selves quite a recompens thr efo lon gpublie buil journeys th t wa ta c t I . expense occupied an , d eighteen years constructionit n si prehistorie Th . c antiquities are of particular interest. In Sweden the age of stone closed about three thousand years ago. From recent exploration .Vestergotn si - land evidens i t i , t tha domestie th t c animals—suc horse, ox e , th sheep s ha , pig, and dog—were known before the close of this period; but it is not certain, though possibl d probablean e , that agricultur s practisewa e d before the use of metals. Upwards of 35,000 specimens of stone imple- ments, all found in Sweden, are contained in this department, represent- ing nearly every known type. Many of them are of great beauty, and the metho f arrangemendo s admirablei t e bronzth (whic e f ag O e . sups hi - posed to have commenced in Sweden about a thousand years before the Christian era) many fine specimens are also preserved. It is almost cer- tain that the only metals known in the first period of the bronze age were bronz gold d tha d e an bronz an ,th t importes ewa d from other countries. A very fine vase of gold (No. 249 in the catalogue by M. Oscar Mon- telius particularls i ) y worth f attention yo coie th n departmenn I . t ii ts singular to find that the most complete collection of Cufic coins in Europe (with perhaps one exception) is in Stockholm, and that they were all foun Swedenn di , showin ggreaa t intercours earln ei y times with-the East. This collection alone numbers upward 700f so 0 specimens Angloe th d -an , Saxon cabinet contains above 5000 specimens of this series, many of them of the highest rarity. A very interesting part of'the museum is the gallery of Sovereigns, con- taining the actual arms, armour, and clothes worn by the kings and queens of Sweden. Amongst them is-.a magnificent suit of armour of ON THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS HELD AT STOCKHOLM. 105 Charles IX., believe fines e the-wore th b n i f to do t e Cellinif ko on d an , existence; the sword of Charles XII., the shield of John III., and many others anothen I . rclothee rooth e msar wor Charley nb y da se XIIth n o . he was murdered in the trenches at Frederickshald; and it is evident, from, the course of the bullet through his hat, that the shot was fired from behind by an assassin, and not by an enemy from the fortress. The blood-stained gauntlet, whic e fells hea h e raises als h hi i ,s a do t d shown. This most curious collectio s onlni y surpassee th thay b dn i t Castl f Kosenbereo t Copenhagena g e gallerTh .f painting yo s contains Vandyke's pictur f Bubenseo ' house, thre f Eembrandt'o e s worksd an , many examples of the Swedish school, of no particular merit; but in the galler sculpturf yo e Sleepineth g Endymio wels ni l worth f particulayo r study. The library contains the famous Codex Aureus, a Latin MS. of Gospele th s writte sevente th n ni h century, which originally belongeo dt Canterbury Cathedral "Devil'e th ; s Bible, enormoun a " . writtesMS n no 300 asses' skins, and many other curious MSS. The museum of Scandi- navian Ethnography give goosa dvarioue ideth f ao s costumes still worn by the peasants in various parts of Norway and Sweden. e subjec"Wheth f n museum o o n ta curioupoin y t ma ou t sI s fact, whic , thahis t Swede Denmarkd nan , though countries commercially poor, and without any great public resources, are yet able to establish and keep museump u northerf so n antiquities whic e unsurpassehar worlde th n i d. We have nothing at all approaching either the museum in Stockholm or the collections in Copenhagen. In the latter city, an antiquary might hale whaf se o f t spent no ther t seeo montda t ye .es i d hNothinan n gca excee kindnese dth courtesd san patiencd yan e with whic gentlemee hth n entrusted with the care of these museums show them to those who are interested surm a e I thamembey . tan thif ro s Society choso takwh ,o e t e his summer's run to the north, would not regret it, and would meet with a most cordial welcome. e Congressreturo t th t o Mondan nt Bu O . e kins presenth y wa g t during the forenoon sitting, and heard a discussion on the special charac- teristics of the polished stone age in Sweden. On the following day the members of the Congress visited the ancient city of Upsala, for the pur- pose of inspecting the cathedral and university.