## The three-age system of European antiquity 🔹 *parent* [[⧋ Modes of Production|Modes of Production]] ▫️ *related* [[Capital Volume 1]], [[@ Adam Smith|Adam Smith]], [[✧ Sociology|Sociology]] ### Hesiod's description of moral decline An understanding of pre-history was developed by [[@ Christian Jürgensen Thomsen|Christian Jürgensen Thomsen]] in the 19th century who first understood pre-history as developed into the Stone, Bronze, and Iron ages after studying [[Lucretius]]. Lucretius first studied the ancient Greek poet [[Hesiod]], who had actually understood the succession of five ages which defined in the work *[[#^worksAndDays|Works and Days]]*[^1] as: Golden, 2. Silver, 3. Bronze, 4. Heroic and 5. Iron. What's incredibly interesting about this is that Hesiod's 5 stages of development was actually mixing metaphors of metal quality but also supposed worth. Meaning, that he actually believed society to be in a process of degradation: successively decreasing value, but increasing hardness. >... then Zeus the father created the third generation of mortals, the age of bronze ... They were terrible and strong, and the ghastly action of Ares was theirs, and violence. ... The weapons of these men were bronze, of bronze their houses, and they worked as bronzesmiths. There was not yet any black iron. >... > "And I wish that I were not any part of the fifth generation of men, but had died before it came, or had been born afterward." ### From metals to tool usage [[Nicholas Mahudel]], physician, antiquarian and numismatist, developed the concept of tool development throughout pre-history. He describes and classifies tools as either *natural* or *man-made*: > It was Man's hand that made them serve as instruments (_C'est la main des hommes qui les leur a données pour servir d'instrumens_...) He goes on to describe _l'industrie_, which foreshadows the popularization of the term _industry_. > "the industry of our forefathers" (_l'industrie de nos premiers pères_). This shows a historical narrative connecting the usage of tools in pre-history to the modern understanding of industrial development. ### References [^1]: Hesiod (650 BC). *Works and Days*, Lines 109–201. [Poem](https://www.google.com/books/edition/Hesiodi_carmina_recensuit_Aloisius_Rzach/LMmGAAAAIAAJ?hl=en) [^2]: Wikipedia Commons (2022). *Nicholas Mahudel (person)*.[Wiki](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Nicholas_Mahudel)