Transcriber’s Note:
###################
This e-text is based on the 1922 edition. Minor errors in punctuation
and hyphenation, particularly inconsistencies in citations, have been
tacitly corrected. Uncommon spellings (‘developes’ for ‘develops’,
etc.) as well as incorrect spellings in foreign languages have
not been altered. Inconsistent (but not erroneous) hyphenation
(e.g., ‘foot-hills’/‘foothills’) and use of diacritical marks
(‘Anchinoe’/‘Anchinoë’) have been retained.
Italic passages in the original version has been placed between
underscores (_italic_); text in small caps have been symbolised by
forward slashes (/small caps/). Bold numbers in the bibliography have
been highlighted using equals signs (=bold=).
The following passages have been corrected or need to be commented:
# p. 32: ‘Mullerup amd Svædborg’ → ‘Mullerup and Svædborg’
# p. 36: ‘Eygptian’ → ‘Egyptian’
# p. 43: ‘millenium’ → ‘millennium’
# p. 60: ‘indicates’ → ‘indicate’; ‘undeed’ → ‘indeed’
# p. 108: ‘speading’ → ‘spreading’
# p. 119: ‘how can be we’ → ‘how can we be’
# p. 184: ‘154-54’: range could not be resolved; therefore,
left as found; ‘Flach-kund Randäxte’ → ‘Flach- und Randäxte’
# p. 186: ‘seige’ → ‘siege’
# p. 187: ‘1921-17’: retained; could possibly be 1912-1917
# Footnote 356: ‘1908-8’: range could not be resolved,
left as found
# Footnote 375: ‘Aeschylus’ → ‘Æschylus’
# Caption of Plate I: Item 9 missing, but also missing in
illustration on the following page
# Caption of Plate II: Item 7 missing, but also missing in
illustration on the following page
# Caption of Plate VI, Item A: ‘Buda-pest’ → ‘Buda-Pest’
THE BRONZE AGE AND THE CELTIC WORLD
THE BRONZE AGE AND
THE CELTIC WORLD BY
HAROLD PEAKE, F.S.A.
LONDON: BENN BROTHERS, LIMITED
8 BOUVERIE STREET, E.C.4
1922
PRINTED AND MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN BY HEADLEY BROTHERS,
18, DEVONSHIRE STREET, E.C.2; AND ASHFORD, KENT.
DEDICATION
To the anonymous benefactors whose liberality made possible the
delivery of these lectures this work is gratefully dedicated.
PREFACE
The substance of the following pages was delivered in February last
in a series of six lectures at The University College of Wales,
Aberystwyth. In volume form the matter has been somewhat re-arranged
and the latter part expanded.
So many attempts have been made during the last century and a quarter
to locate the Aryan cradle and to trace the wanderings of the Wiros,
that it may be considered presumptuous for the author to venture on
a further suggestion. He can only plead that most of the previous
attempts have been made by philologists, usually with little or no
archæological experience, while the discoveries of the last quarter
of a century have placed the inquirer to-day in a position which is
vastly superior to that of most of his predecessors. The evolution and
distribution of the leaf-shaped swords seem to provide a crucial test
by which to gauge the value of previous suggestions.
The author has felt that it would be for the convenience of the reader
if he reduced the footnotes at the bottom of the page to the smallest
possible dimensions, while describing each work quoted very fully in
the bibliography at the end of the volume. In many cases, where the
subject matter does not form the basis of his argument and the fact is
not in dispute, he has thought that it would be more useful to quote
a recent and readily accessible volume, preferably in English, in
which authorities are fully cited, than to include all the original
authorities in the notes and bibliography. This applies specially to
Chapter II, and to some extent to those immediately following.
The author would like to take this opportunity of thanking his many
friends, who have so kindly placed their knowledge and experience at
his disposal, especially the Principal and other authorities of The
University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, for inviting him to deliver
the lectures, and Professors H. J. Fleure and H. J. Rose. He wishes
also to thank the Rev. Professor A. H. Sayce, Professor W. M. Flinders
Petrie and Miss M. A. Murray, who have sent him valuable notes, Mr. E.
Sharwood Smith for much help with classical references, Professor J.
L. Myres and Dr. S. Singer for many helpful suggestions. Especially
are his thanks due to Mr. J. H. Le Rougetil, for procuring drawings
of swords from the Buda-Pest Museum, to Sir Arthur Evans, Dr. A. J.
B. Wace and Mr. S. Casson for photographs and drawings from Crete and
Athens, to Dr. W. Šmid and Dr. F. Neumann for sketches and notes on
the specimens at Graz and Laibach, and above all to Dr. Adolf Mahr, of
the Naturhistorisches Museum at Vienna, for drawings of the swords and
other objects in his museum and for an immense amount of help in other
ways. He wishes also to thank the authorities of various museums for
permission to publish drawings of specimens in their collections, and
the Trustees of the British Museum for allowing him to reproduce Plate
III.
These are only some of the many kind friends who have given him
assistance and who have helped him with suggestions and in verifying
references. To all these he returns his grateful thanks. He wishes also
to acknowledge the great help afforded to him by the officials of the
London Library, the Society of Antiquaries, the Royal Anthropological
Institute, the Hellenic Society and the Royal Asiatic Society, and to
take this opportunity of thanking them for their unvarying courtesy.
HAROLD PEAKE.
_29th June, 1922._
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
PREFACE 9
LIST OF FIGURES AND MAPS 11
LIST OF PLATES 13
I THE PROBLEM 15
II THE FIRST INHABITANTS OF CELTIC LANDS 19
III EARLY TRADE WITH CELTIC LANDS 34
IV THE PROSPECTORS 48
V THE CELTIC CRADLE 61
VI MANY INVASIONS 71
VII THE EVOLUTION OF THE LEAF-SHAPED SWORD 81
VIII THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE LEAF-SHAPED SWORDS 92
IX GREEK LANDS AND THE BASIS OF CHRONOLOGY 104
X THE IRON SWORD 117
XI A RECAPITULATION 126
XII THE ARYAN CRADLE 132
XIII P’S AND Q’S 144
XIV THE WANDERINGS OF THE WIROS 153
XV CONCLUSION 168
/App. I/ CHRONOLOGY 170
/App. II/ MATRILINEAR SUCCESSION IN GREECE 173
BIBLIOGRAPHY 177
INDEX 191
LIST OF FIGURES AND MAPS
PAGE
1 MAP OF CELTIC LANDS AND THE CELTIC CRADLE 16
2 POTSHERD FROM KOSZYLOWSCE, GALICIA 65
3 BOWL DECORATED WITH RED LINES, DISCOVERED IN THE GREAT “THOLOS”
OF HAGHIA TRIADA 65
4 CARINATED VASE FROM SPAIN 77
5 SILVER VASE FROM HISSARLIK II. 78
6 BELL BEAKER 78
7 NORTHERN BEAKER 79
8 GROOVED ITALIAN DAGGER 83
9 RIVETED DAGGER-HILT 84
10 LEAF-SHAPED SWORD 84
11 BRONZE HILT OF LEAF-SHAPED SWORD 85
12 TANG, WITH FLANGED EDGES, SHAPED TO FIT THE HAND 86
13 CONVEX AND CONCAVE BUTTS 87
14 (_a_) SECTION NOT UNLIKE THAT OF A SPEAR-HEAD 88
(_b_) RHOMBOID SECTION WITH CONCAVE SIDES 88
15 SPINDLE-SHAPED SECTION 90
16 THE CUTTING EDGE OF THE BLADE BEGINS AN INCH OR TWO
BELOW THE BUTT 90
17 SPINDLE-SHAPED SECTION WITH MODIFIED EDGE 91
18 DEVEREL-RIMBURY URNS 102
19 URN OF TYPE 3 102
20 FIVE TYPES OF RACQUET PINS 119
21 RACQUET PINS FROM THE KOBAN 120
22 SWORD FROM ZAVADYNTSE 121
23 MAP SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF TYPE G SWORDS IN FRANCE 123
24 MAP SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF IRON SWORDS IN FRANCE 124
25 TYPE G SWORD FROM FINLAND 130
26 MAP SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF SWORDS AND DIALECTS IN
ITALY 150
LIST OF PLATES
(AT END OF VOLUME)
PLATE
AXES FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN AND WEST EUROPE I
DAGGERS FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN AND WEST EUROPE II
AN ETRUSCAN PROSPECTOR III
FIVE HUNGARIAN DAGGERS IV
SIX LARGER DAGGERS V
THE SEVEN TYPES OF LEAF-SHAPED SWORDS VI
SWORDS OF TYPE A, FROM HUNGARY VII
SWORDS OF TYPE C, FROM HUNGARY VIII
SWORDS OF TYPE D, FROM HUNGARY IX
SWORDS OF TYPE E, FROM HUNGARY X
SWORDS OF TYPE G XI
SWORDS FROM GREEK LANDS XII
SWORDS FROM ITALY XIII
SWORDS FROM ENGLAND XIV
/Chapter I/
THE PROBLEM
For the last fifteen hundred years the Celtic tongues have been spoken
only in the extreme north-west of Europe, in parts of Ireland, the west
of Scotland, and the Isle of Man, in Wales, Cornwall and Brittany,
and for some little time these languages have ceased to be spoken in
Cornwall and the Isle of Man.
But we have ample evidence that these tongues had once a wider range,
and were pushed westward in the first instance by the spread of Roman
culture and the Latin language as the empire increased its bounds, and
still more by the Teutonic tribes who invaded the western half of that
empire and brought about its fall.
If however we examine the evidence which has come down to us from the
first century before the Christian era, especially such material as
has been furnished by Cæsar and Strabo, we shall find that languages
of the Celtic type were spoken at that time throughout all Europe west
of the Rhine and north of the Pyrenees and the southern slopes of the
Alps. We shall note also that these tongues were spoken in many parts
of Spain and in North Italy, though in both these areas they were of
relatively late introduction.
Again there is another area in which Celtic speech was in use at that
time, or had been shortly before. This is the mountain or Alpine zone
of Central Europe, as far east, at least, as a line drawn from Cracow
to Agram. It is possible, too, that such tongues may have been spoken
at one time still further east.
The problem before us is to inquire first in what region the Celtic
tongues originated, then how and when they spread to the areas in
which we find them two thousand years ago. To do this we shall have
to review the condition of these areas both from the standpoint of
prehistoric archæology and physical anthropology, to see whether the
evidence derived from these sciences, taken together with that drawn
from comparative philology and the study of place-names, can help us to
reach a solution.
But the problem is further complicated by the fact that the Celtic
languages fall into two groups. In the one occurs the sound _qu_, which
has in later days become a hard _c_, while in the other this sound has
become labialised and converted into a _p_ or _b_. It has been thought
by some that the _qu_ peoples, spoken of usually as Goidels or Gaels,
arrived first from the common Celtic home, and that the _p_ peoples,
called Brythons or Cymri, came later from the same centre; this view
is, however, strenuously denied by others. We have, therefore, to
determine if we can, not only whence and when the Celtic languages
arrived in the west, but whether they came in one, two or more waves.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--CELTIC LANDS AND THE CELTIC CRADLE.]
Lastly, we find that the Celtic tongues, as spoken to-day, contain
elements of grammar and syntax, and not a few words too, which divide
them off sharply from those groups of languages to which they are
in other respects akin. Also it is believed by some that non-Celtic
languages, such as Pictish, survived in this region until relatively
late times, while it is well-known that a primitive non-Celtic tongue,
the Basque, is still spoken in the fastnesses of the Pyrenees. It is
important, therefore, if we are to have before us all the factors which
enter into the problem, that we should inquire what people were here
before the first Celts arrived, and that we should make ourselves to
some extent familiar with all the different races and cultures which
preceded the Celtic invaders.
If we pass across England and Wales from east to west, and the same
is almost as true if we cross Scotland, we find, first of all that
the population is mainly tall and fair, while as we proceed we come
across elements which are darker and shorter, until in Wales and the
West Highlands we find the majority of the people are small brunettes
of slender build. This dark type is also to be met with in Ireland,
especially in the west, the part of that island in which the Erse
language has best survived.
It is because the Celtic tongues, whether _qu_ or _p_, are spoken
chiefly by people of this small brunette type, that it is frequently
called the Celtic race, and yet all the evidence of ancient authorities
goes to show that 2,000 or 2,500 years ago the Celts were looked upon
as a tall, fair people.[1] Here is another difficulty which must be
taken into consideration as we make our inquiries, for no solution
can be considered sound which cannot, without straining the evidence,
answer all these questions.
As we have seen the main areas which were Celtic-speaking in the time
of Cæsar were the British Isles and Gaul, west of the Rhine; these I
shall term Celtic lands, leaving out Spain and Cis-alpine Gaul as areas
into which the Celtic invasion arrived at a relatively late date. Now,
besides these Celtic lands Celtic tongues were spoken in the Alpine
zone, and perhaps at one time still further east. It is from this area
that the Celtic languages have been thought by some to have entered
the lands of the west. They cannot have been introduced from Spain or
Italy, into which they were late entrants, but it has been suggested
by some writers that they arrived from the north-east, from the Baltic
region. It is true that there is some slight evidence that Celtic
place-names have existed in this area, but the balance of evidence, as
I shall hope to show, seems to prove that Celtic people arrived there
relatively late and not in large numbers, and that they were never the
dominant people of that region. There remains only the Alpine zone
and the lands to the east of it. This area, from the Jura to the Iron
Gates, from the northern slopes of the Carpathians to the southern
foot-hills of the Alps, I shall term the Celtic cradle, and I trust
that the evidence which I shall produce will convince my readers that I
am correct in so doing.
/Chapter II/
THE FIRST INHABITANTS OF CELTIC LANDS
Of the earliest inhabitants of Celtic lands we know little or nothing.
We have, it is true, a number of tools made of flaked flint, but they
tell us little of the men who fashioned them. In spite of the recent
admissions by the eminent French archæologists who have examined the
new discoveries at Foxhall,[2] there is still no little difference of
opinion as to the human workmanship[3] of rostro-carinates, eoliths and
such like early attempts, and no human remains have come to light which
can be attributed with any probability to this horizon.
When we come to what is usually termed the lower palæolithic period we
are on surer ground, for no one now denies the origin of implements of
the Chelles and St. Acheul types. But the only skeletal remains which
can with certainty be attributed to this period are the human jaw
from the Mauer sand-pit near Heidelberg,[4] and the famous Piltdown
skull.[5] Few people now believe that the Galley Hill skeleton dates
from so remote a time,[6] while the discoverer himself has disclaimed
so early an origin for the Ipswich man.[7]
To attempt to reconstruct a human type from a mandible alone would be
indeed to carry far the principle of _ex pede Herculem_, and as yet
there is little agreement among anthropologists as to the exact date,
or for that matter the exact reconstruction, of the Piltdown skull,[8]
though the ingenious hypothesis that a unique human cranium without a
jaw, was found in close association with a unique troglodyte mandible
has now, I understand, definitely been abandoned.[9]
Thus little or nothing is known of the first inhabitants of Celtic
lands, beyond their tools, but when we come to the middle palæolithic
period the case is different. While some difference of opinion still
exists, the view advanced by Obermaier[10] and others seems to be
gaining ground, that in Celtic lands the industry of Le Moustier
first appeared as the climate was becoming colder on the approach of
the last or Würm glaciation, though it is thought by some that it
had flourished in an earlier and warmer time in the regions lying
to the east.[11] This industry is believed by most authorities to
have survived the first Würm maximum and to have lasted through the
temporary amelioration of the Laufen retreat. Whether it survived, too,
the second maximum, and lasted until the climate definitely improved
is more doubtful, but many archæologists of great repute believe that
it did so,[12] and unless this was the case it will be difficult to
explain certain features of the Audi flints.[13]
Though there is as yet no general agreement as to the duration of the
Mousterian industry, it is different when we come to consider the type
of man who was responsible for this work. Everyone is agreed that
the authors of this culture were of the type known as Neanderthal
man, for several skeletons of this type, or parts of them, have been
found associated with flint implements of Le Moustier design, and none
have as yet turned up under conditions which make this correlation
impossible.[14]
A considerable number of skulls and skeletons, about two dozen in all,
of Neanderthal man have been found, the great majority in Celtic lands;
but, though there is a general resemblance between all the members of
the series, sufficiently strong to mark them off from the Piltdown
skull on the one hand and from modern men on the other, the type is
in many respects very variable. There are vast differences observable
between the skull from Chapelle-aux-Saints,[15] the highest form yet
discovered, and that of the Gibraltar man,[16] or rather woman, which
is the most primitive yet found in Europe. As far as one can judge from
the descriptions which have appeared as I write, the skull recently
found at Broken Hill in Rhodesia differs from that of Gibraltar hardly
if at all more than the Gibraltar skull differs from that found at
Chapelle-aux-Saints. In the latter case there are several intermediate
forms, in the former such may yet turn up, for Africa has, as yet,
produced but one other skull of this type, that found not long ago near
Constantine in Algeria, no description of which has, I believe, yet
been published.
Skulls of this type have been so frequently described,[17] individually
and collectively, that it is unnecessary to give another detailed
account. It will be sufficient to say that they are large and massive,
the vault is low, and they are specially distinguished by having over
the eye sockets a heavy and continuous projecting ridge, known as a
_torus_, which is one of the distinguishing features of the large
anthropoid apes. Another point of importance is that the head was
so attached to the body that it could not have been held absolutely
erect, and must have produced a slouching gait, though the degree of
this slope varied considerably in different specimens, and in the case
of the Rhodesian skull was quite halfway between the slope of the
Gibraltar skull and that of the gorilla.[18]
But it is unnecessary for our purpose to pursue this question further,
for with the arrival of modern man, after the last glaciation was
past, Neanderthal man disappeared. That the two races met, though not
necessarily in this continent, seems clear from the fact that at Audi,
near Les Eyzies, in the Dordogne, we find a culture, which in some
respects resembles that of Le Moustier, and in others the succeeding
culture of Aurignac.[19] That these two races interbred is unlikely,
for Neanderthal man must have appeared an unsightly beast to his
modern successor. In any case, if mating did take place, the union
must have been sterile, for, in spite of much that has been written to
the contrary,[20], there is no clear evidence of the survival of any
distinctive Neanderthal traits in the men of later days.[21]
The second maximum of the Würm glaciation seems to have culminated
about 15,000 /B.C./,[22] and about that time, or conceivably earlier,
modern man first arrived in North Africa, if we may judge by the
appearance of a fresh type of flint industry, known usually as
Capsian.[23] Whence he came is uncertain. It has been suggested that he
may have reached the north from tropical Africa,[24] but no evidence
has been adduced in support of this hypothesis. It seems more likely
that he came from Asia, probably by means of the Sinaitic peninsula,
or possibly across the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. This much is certain;
about this time the Capsian culture is found extending along the north
of the continent, from Egypt as far west at any rate as Algeria,
and perhaps beyond, though at no point but one is it found far from
the Mediterranean coast.[25] The one exception is in Egypt, where
implements of this type have been found as far south as Luxor,[26] so
that we may be satisfied that modern man in his earliest movements
passed up the Nile valley at least as far as the First Cataract. It
would seem probable that in Egypt the invaders came into touch with
their Neanderthal predecessors, who retreated before them up the Nile
valley towards Luxor, where Dr. Seligman has found implements of Le
Moustier type more developed than any discovered elsewhere[27]; it is
possible that some retreated further south and may even have reached
Rhodesia.
Other of these Neanderthal refugees seem to have gone westward, and
perhaps passed up the Italian land-bridge to western Europe; if so it
was probably these, who had come into contact with the Capsian culture
of North Africa, who were responsible for the Audi industry. They were
followed before long by the invaders, and in Celtic lands at least were
soon exterminated, though it is just possible that they survived to a
later date further east.[28]
The culture of the newcomers is known as that of Aurignac, and seems to
have started in Europe about 12,500 /B.C./ A great many skeletons of
this period have been discovered and described, and though all of these
show us men very like those of the present day, there is a considerable
range of variation among them.[29] The skulls of the upper palæolithic
periods, apart from the Chancelade skull[30] to be discussed later,
may be divided into three marked groups, though it is well to remember
that there is no strict uniformity among all the members of each group.
All the skulls of this period, however, are long, for the broad-headed
type, so prevalent in Central Europe to-day, did not arrive until the
closing phase.
Of the first of these three groups we have only two examples, the
mother and son from the Grotte des Enfants, near Mentone.[31] But
as these are the earliest in date, and differ in some respects very
markedly from the remainder, they have been distinguished by the name
of the Grimaldi race, after the owner of the cave, the Prince of Monaco.
This type was small, being less than 5 ft. 3 in. in height, the skulls
were of the long variety, having length-breadth indices of 68.5 and
69.2, and the jaws and teeth project, so that they exhibit a character
known as prognathism. This latter character has caused the race to
be termed negroid, and unjustifiable deductions have been drawn
from this term. It has been shown, however, that there is no reason
for supposing any affinity between this type and the negro race of
tropical Africa.[32] Both of these skeletons were found in a contracted
position, and that of the boy was covered with red ochre.[33]
Our second group is the Cromagnon, and is based largely on the
skeletons found in the cave of Cromagnon, near Les Eyzies. By many
anthropologists this term is used to cover all the skeletons from this
period except those of the Grimaldi type, but more recently it has
been shown that all these remains cannot conveniently be placed in
one group, for the distinguishing characters are but faintly visible
in some and totally absent from a large number.[34] The term is now
becoming used in a more restricted sense.
The Cromagnon type is tall. The men were often 5 ft. 10 in. or 5 ft. 11
in. high, though the women were frequently much shorter. Their heads
were large, larger than the average in Europe to-day, but not very
high; they were long as compared with their breadth, having a cranial
index of about 74; their noses were narrow, but their faces were short
and relatively broad. This combination of a long head and a short face
is unusual, and is called disharmonic, and this disharmony is one of
the most striking characteristics of Cromagnon man.[35]
It is often thought that this disharmonic trait, the long head and
the short face, is evidence of the mixed ancestry of the race which
exhibits it,[36] and if this were the case we might expect Cromagnon
man to be the result of a crossing of two other races. There is no
other evidence to indicate that this was the case, and if such crossing
had occurred, it seems likely that it took place before the Cromagnon
type reached Europe.
It seems probable that it is to the men of the Cromagnon type that we
must attribute the beginnings of that art, which reached its finest
development in a later age, and has provided the most conspicuous as
well as the most pleasing feature of the upper palæolithic culture.[37]
Lastly we have the type represented by Brünn I., Brüx, Lautsch, Combe
Capelle, Barma Grande (one of the skulls from B.G. now in the Musée
de Menton, but not the skulls generally known as B.G. 1 and 2), the
woman from the upper layer in the Grotte des Enfants, the _Calotte du
gravier de fond_ at Grenelle, the Denise fragments, as well as by one
or two skulls of the transition period from palæolithic to neolithic
found at Ofnet (No. 21, i.) and a few of those belonging to the same
period found at Mugem. The type is usually high-headed as well as
narrow-headed, and tends to have the orbits horizontally lengthened,
the glabella and supraciliaries strong, the fore-head retreating, the
nose broad and the upper jaw projecting (alveolar prognathism). The
cephalic index is usually between 68 and 72; the stature is moderate or
low.[38]
Thus we find during the period of Aurignac three groups of long-headed
men, the Grimaldi, Cromagnon and Combe Capelle, and, especially on the
Riviera, in the Barma Grande cave and the Grotte des Enfants, skulls
which show various apparent combinations of these types, while at
Solutré and Laugerie Basse we find the last type showing modifications
to some extent towards the characteristics of modern men. These types
and intermixed types occupied west and central Europe, so far as it was
habitable during the later palæolithic periods, and the combinations
of Combe Capelle and Cromagnon characters in the skulls of Obercassel
(Magdalenian period) is noteworthy. The earliest in point of time is
the Grimaldi, which has been found only near Mentone, and there are
reasons for believing that its distribution lay around the western
Mediterranean, then an inland sea. This view is supported by the fact
that marked alveolar prognathism has been noted among the natives of
Algeria and Morocco, and I am told that it is not uncommonly met with
in Spain; it is also very marked in Portugal, though here it has been
attributed to a different cause. It is, however, of old standing in
that country, as it has been noted among the skulls from Mugem,[39]
which are believed to date from the close of the palæolithic age. A
similar feature has been noted in some of the skulls from the Algerian
dolmens.[40]
To the Cromagnon type, pure, it is difficult to ascribe any other
skulls besides those from Cromagnon, and those from Lafaye Bruniquel,
but some of the Cromagnon characters are well shown in some Barma
Grande skulls. The type is said to survive in the Dordogne and perhaps
near the western Pyrenees in North Spain at the present day.[41] The
Combe Capelle or Brünn type, is seen to have occurred on the whole more
to the north and east, and seems rather to focus in Central Europe and
the southern part of the North German plain. It was probably the latest
to arrive on the scene, for it is associated only with remains of late
Aurignac type, and has been more frequently found in the succeeding
Solutré period.
Thus we see that by the close of the period of Aurignac, about 11,000
/B.C./, we have three groups of long-headed men in Celtic lands, and
that, though they overlap, they are tending to obtain for themselves
definite areas of distribution.
During the closing years of the Aurignacian period the climate had been
getting milder and perhaps drier, and steppe conditions prevailed over
much of France and still more further east. Herds of horses arrived and
were hunted for food and the _saiga_, a kind of antelope, was found
as far south as the Dordogne, if not beyond, during the succeeding
Solutrean period. These Steppe conditions are more characteristic of
the latter period,[42] when France was invaded by a new people, not
given, as far as we know, to artistic efforts, but who were able to
fashion very skilfully made weapons of flint to aid them in chasing the
beasts of the steppe.[43] The fact that skulls of our third group the
Combe Capelle, are more common during this period and have only been
found during the later phases of the previous age, when, as we have
seen, steppe conditions were already approaching, leads us to suspect
that it is to this type of man that we must attribute the invasion of
Celtic lands which took place at this time. The Cromagnon men seem
to have retreated to the south-west and to have taken refuge in the
fastnesses of the Pyrenees,[44] while the invading hunters dominated
the southern part, at least, of the Celtic lands.
But towards 9,500 /B.C./ the climate began again to deteriorate, and
the steppe conditions passed gradually to those of tundra. The steppe
animals retreated to the east, towards South Russia and Turkestan,
and most of the men of Solutré, who hunted them for food, seem to
have followed in their wake. It seems doubtful whether the Solutrean
invasion reached Britain, though implements of this type are said to
have been found here,[45] and Proto-Solutrean stations are reported
as occurring in England.[46] It has been claimed recently that this
type reached the south of Sweden,[47] but this view is not generally
accepted in that country.[48]
On the departure of the Solutrean invaders the remnant of the
aborigines, who had fled to the mountains in the south-west, and
there developed their art to a much greater pitch of perfection, now
returned to France, and once again, as the men of La Madeleine, became
the dominant race in Celtic lands. It seems possible that some of
their comrades had fled north to Britain on the arrival of the men of
Solutré, and had survived there throughout this period, for, though no
industry has been found in the British Isles which can accurately be
described as that of La Madeleine,[49] in the strict French meaning of
that term, we do find traces of the culture of Aurignac, persisting
perhaps until still later times.
It must not be thought, however, that the Combe Capelle race never
reached these isles. Whether the culture of Solutré did so or not seems
uncertain, but some of the skeletons which have been found here have
been classed with the Combe Capelle group.[50] But, as we have seen,
this race was present in France, at any rate in some parts of that
country, for some little time before the arrival of the men with the
culture of Solutré.
The colder climate of the Magdalenian period has been shown to coincide
with the Bühl advance of the Alpine glaciers,[51] which reached its
maximum about 7,500 to 7,000 /B.C./ After that the climate slowly
improved, though the precipitation increased, and forests sprang up
on the hitherto open lands. As the tundra conditions in Celtic lands
gave way to forest, the reindeer migrated to the north and north-east,
while their place was taken by the red deer. As the forests developed
it became increasingly difficult for men to traverse great distances or
to intermingle as freely as they had done before. There was a tendency
for separate groups to develop in different regions; so that, when we
arrive at the next period, the Azilian, we find very different types of
people in various parts of Europe.
Even before the close of the Magdalenian period a fresh type had
arrived, apparently from the north, if we may judge from the skeleton
found at Chancelade in the Dordogne. This skeleton bears a close
resemblance to those of the modern Eskimos,[52] and since the
latter have retained a type of art reminiscent of certain phases of
Magdalenian culture,[53] we may suspect that Chancelade men, following
the departing reindeer, passed north-eastward to the tundra of Siberia.
It was between 7,000 and 6,500 /B.C./ that a fresh wave of Capsian
people from North Africa began to invade Spain,[54] into which
peninsula they introduced what is known as East Spanish Art.[55] By
degrees they pressed the Magdalenian Cromagnons to the Pyrenees,
where their culture declined to that which we know as Azilian.[56]
The invaders passed on through Celtic lands, bringing with them a
new culture, known as Tardenoisian,[57] and seem to have reached the
British Isles before 5000 /B.C./
These people seem to have been another variety of the same long-headed
race, which had developed into a distinct type in North Africa, and
had there, perhaps, mingled to a greater or lesser degree with the
descendants of the Grimaldi men, whom we met with at the beginning
of the period of Aurignac. If we may judge by those who seem to be
their descendants, they were of rather short, slight build, with long
narrow heads, brown skin, dark hair and eyes, the type which to-day
is known as the Mediterranean race.[58] It is possible that the
Grimaldi elements in their composition, and which are sometimes found
comparatively pure, may account for that small dark type, often showing
marked alveolar prognathism, which has been found in certain out of
the way regions, such as Apulia and Sardinia, and which are known to
some anthropologists as Iapygian,[59] and have been termed Ethiopic by
Ruggeri.[60]
This new population seems to have been peaceably inclined and made
no attempt to exterminate its predecessors, but settled down in the
lower lands and by the sea shore, while the Cromagnon men remained in
the mountain zones of the Pyrenees and the Dordogne, and the Combe
Capelle type survived in Central Europe and among the hills of Wales.
It seems almost certain that the newcomers were still hunters, quite
ignorant of agriculture and the domestication of animals; as some of
their settlements have been found by the sea shore and on the banks of
streams, it seems likely that they lived to a considerable extent on
fish and molluscs.
It would appear, then, that the type which we know as the Mediterranean
race, and which has given to Wales, Scotland and Ireland the majority
of their small brunette inhabitants, is made up of the descendants of
all the types of long-headed men--except the Chancelade variety--which
we meet with in the Celtic lands of western Europe during the upper
palæolithic period. That the Combe Capelle type survives on the
moorlands of Plynlimmon has been shown by Fleure: examples of an
africanoid type with alveolar prognathism are not uncommon in Wales and
in the poorer quarters of our big cities, and the Cromagnon type only
seems to be missing or at any rate relatively scarce. The main element,
however, which has gone to make up the Mediterranean race as we now
know it, seems to be that which entered Europe through Spain, with
Capsian culture, during the closing years of the Magdalenian period.
These people have left in the west, not only considerable vestiges of
their blood, but no small amount of their language, or to state the
matter more accurately the language of these people has left a marked
effect upon the tongues which succeeded it in the west. More than
twenty years ago Mr., now Sir John Morris Jones[61] pointed out that
“the syntax of Welsh and Irish differs in some important respects from
that of the languages belonging to the other branches of the Aryan
family,” and suggested that these points, in which too the neo-celtic
tongues differed from ancient Gaulish, were due to the influence of a
language which had been spoken in these lands before the introduction
of the Celtic tongue. He pointed out that many of these peculiarities,
which occur also sometimes when the English tongue is spoken by
Irishmen, were similar to the syntactical arrangements in force in the
language of ancient Egypt and among the Berber dialects spoken by the
natives of Algeria, the Kabyles, Shawiya and Tuaregs.
Now the Egyptians and other peoples of North Africa are considered
by all anthropologists as typical members of the Mediterranean race,
though the inhabitants of the western part seem, as we have seen, to
have incorporated no small amount of Grimaldi blood; it would seem then
that we may accept the suggestion of Sir John Morris Jones that the
syntax of Welsh and Irish is a legacy from the language spoken by these
Mediterranean invaders, who reached Spain about 7000 /B.C./ and formed
the bulk of the population of the British Isles about 5000 /B.C./
So far we have been dealing with the early inhabitants of the Celtic
lands of the west, but a word must be said of some fresh arrivals into
the Celtic cradle in Central Europe. It was during the Azilian period,
about 6000 /B.C./, that a new race appeared in Central Europe, coming
from the east. Of their earlier abode we know nothing positively,
but there are reasons for inferring that their line of approach was
by the Kopet Dagh and the Armenian highlands, and that they came
ultimately from the slopes of the Hindu Kush and the western side of
the Himalayan _massif_. This race, which is called the race of Ofnet,
from the skulls found in the caves of Ofnet, in Bavaria, had a broad
head, the outline of which as viewed from above consisted of two
segments of circles, the one forming the back of the head, the other
the front. The brow-ridges are slight, the nose short and straight,
the eye-sockets low and almost rectangular, the cheek-bones not very
prominent and the chin weak and undeveloped.[62] This race seems to
have met and mated with the remnants of the Combe Capelle race in the
Upper Danube basin, and the progeny of this union seems to have been a
type with a pear-shaped head as seen from above, with a rounded back,
indistinguishable from the type found later in the Swiss lake-dwellings
and in the mountains of Central Europe at the present day, and which is
known as the Alpine race.[63]
The Ofnet race seems to have spread westward into the Celtic lands,
either at this time or perhaps later, though probably in small numbers,
for a skull found at Grenelle, near Paris, under what are believed to
be neolithic surroundings, belongs to this type.[64] Other broad-headed
skulls of this or the Alpine type, dating from about 5000 /B.C./, or a
little earlier, have been found at Mugem on the banks of the Tagus,[65]
while others of this type of about the same date have been found in the
caves of Furfooz in Belgium.[66]
Whether any of this broad-headed Asiatic strain reached the British
Isles at so early a date is uncertain. No skulls of this type and
date have been discovered, but broad-headed types occur sporadically
in Wales, Ireland and the western islands of Scotland, which may
conceivably represent descendants of early Ofnet or Alpine immigrants.
Somewhat later, before 4000 /B.C./, fresh waves of broad-headed
immigrants seem to have arrived in Central Europe from the Armenian
highlands or the Anatolian plateau, bringing with them the knowledge
of grain, cultivated fruits and domestic animals, and the custom of
erecting pile-dwellings in marshes or lakes, and of grinding and
polishing axes of flint or other hard stone.[67] Such knowledge seems
to have reached even the west of Switzerland by 4000 /B.C./ and to
have spread later throughout the _massif central_ of France, which was
already peopled by men of the Alpine type.
But the art of polishing hard stone spread further than the people
who were responsible for its introduction, and during the next few
centuries this art had become well known throughout the Celtic lands of
the west; the need for more efficient tools to fight the encroaching
woodland must have encouraged this art. How far the elements of
agriculture had travelled with the art of grinding axes seems
uncertain, for few, if any, unquestionable neolithic dwelling sites of
this time within this area have been found or thoroughly explored.
The scanty evidence at our disposal seems to show, however, that the
people of the west were possessed of some domesticated animals, so that
the inhabitants of Celtic lands had passed from a purely hunting stage
before 3,000 /B.C./
There is one other culture, introduced into Europe perhaps by another
race, which I must not omit to mention, as it may have provided another
element, albeit a small one, in the early population of Celtic lands.
At Mullerup, in the peat moss of Maglemose, in the west of the island
of Zealand, there was found in 1900 an important dwelling site with a
very distinct culture, including harpoons and other implements of horn
and bone, which is known to Scandinavian archæologists as the Mullerup,
but to English-speaking students as the Maglemose culture.[68] More
recently, in 1917, another settlement, exhibiting what appears to be
the same culture, was discovered at Sværdborg, in the south of the same
island.[69]
No skulls or skeletons have been found associated with this culture,
and there has been much speculation as to the race which was
responsible for it. Owing to the presence of harpoons it was first
assumed that this culture was a direct derivation from the Azilian and
Magdalenian, though it has been pointed out that the Maglemose harpoons
are very different in form from the Azilian, and resemble more nearly
some found in eastern Russia.[70] Still the majority of authorities
treat this culture as of Azilian origin. Others, relying largely on
the resemblances of certain elements of culture to those found at some
very late Aurignacian sites in South Poland, believe the people and the
culture to have arrived from that region.[71] Recently I have suggested
another explanation.[72] Noticing the resemblance between the Magiemose
culture and a slightly later civilisation known as East Scandinavian or
Arctic, which has been found at several sites associated with skulls
of Mongoloid type, I have suggested that in the Maglemose people we
may perhaps see the first arrival in Europe of that Mongoloid race,
which now peoples a large part of the north-east of the continent.
My suggestion has not been well received in Scandinavian circles,
and M. Nordmann has submitted it to very searching though courteous
criticism.[73] While duly appreciating the value of all the evidence
he has cited, I am still of opinion that my view, though far from
proved, meets the existing evidence as well as, if not better than, its
rivals.
The importance of the Maglemose problem for our purpose lies in the
fact that certain sites in the British Isles have produced an industry
which has been claimed, and perhaps rightly, to be akin to that of
Mullerup and Sværdborg. Certain discoveries in the caves at Oban and
on a raised beach on the island of Oronsay, are claimed to be of this
or of Azilian culture,[74] while other finds at Holderness are said to
resemble more closely still the Maglemose culture.[75] More recently
still Mr. O. G. S. Crawford has suggested that certain implements,
which he and I discovered last year at an early occupation site on
the Newbury Sewage outfall works at Thatcham, Berks., bear close
resemblances to some found at Sværdborg.[76]
It is too soon yet to appraise the value of these resemblances. Some
of these sites, notably those at Oronsay and Thatcham, appear on
some grounds to be somewhat later than the settlements at Mullerup
and Sværdborg. This does not, of course, disprove their cultural
connection. It is unwise, at present, to draw any positive conclusions
from such evidence, but we may note that it is possible that during
late Azilian times, or perhaps later still, fresh elements entered the
British Isles from the Baltic region, and that it is at least possible
that these elements may have been of the Mongoloid race.
People showing slight Mongoloid traits may be found sporadically
throughout Wales, though, as far as I can ascertain, this type has
not been noted as prevalent in any particular areas; how far it may
be noted in the west of Scotland or in Ireland I am uncertain. But we
cannot be sure that the introduction of this Mongoloid strain dates
from so early a time, as it is quite possible that the type may have
been introduced much later by the Vikings, who may perhaps sometimes
have carried Finns with them in their forays.
Though after the close of Azilian times the culture of Celtic lands
changed more than once and in more respects than one, we have at
present no reason for suspecting the introduction of fresh racial
elements before the beginning of the Bronze Age. The origin of
Campignian culture, which seems to have flourished over the northern
part of Celtic lands, in one form or another, from about 5000 to 3500
/B.C./, is still a matter of dispute, but it is doubtful whether the
solution of the problem is likely to introduce a fresh element into the
population of the Celtic lands.
The vast mass of the population of this area about 3000 /B.C./ were
the descendants of the long-headed populations of Europe and North
Africa in the upper palæolithic period. In some parts of the south the
Cromagnon type may have persisted, in a pure or mixed form, as did the
Combe Capelle type further north, while a modified form of the Grimaldi
type was found from Portugal to Wales, especially in fishing villages.
The prevailing type seems to have been that which came latest from
Africa, and which most truly deserves the name of the Mediterranean
race, though it may be well to realise that this term, as commonly
used, seems to include all the varieties before mentioned, as well as a
modified mixture of all these long-headed types.
In Central France, and to a less extent elsewhere, the Alpine type had
penetrated, though it is doubtful whether it had, as yet, reached the
British Isles. And we must realise that it is just possible that some
Mongoloid peoples, from the Baltic and ultimately from Siberia, may
have made a few settlements in this country, though their numbers are
not likely to have been great.[77]
Such then, as far as our evidence extends at present, seems to have
been the population of Celtic lands in the true neolithic age, when
people lived in small, self-contained communities, and outside
commodities were rarely met with, and then only bartered from tribe to
tribe. As we shall see, the next thousand years or so were to introduce
fresh elements.
/Chapter III/
EARLY TRADE WITH CELTIC LANDS
Until the close of the stone age the movements of people had been
by means of gradual drifting. During the palæolithic age, when the
population supported itself by hunting, the people wandered over
considerable areas in search of game, and the inhabitants of different
regions frequently met and mingled with one another. As the forest
conditions arose during the close of the Magdalenian period these
wanderings were restricted in scope, and with the gradual introduction
of domesticated animals and the practice of agriculture during the
neolithic age, more settled communities arose. Thus the different
types mixed less with one another, and the communities became more
specialised, both in type and culture, as their wanderings diminished.
A new method of intermixture was, however, soon to arise, as the
practice of commerce developed. It is possible that even during the
palæolithic age, tribes who lived in a region where flint or other
suitable material was abundant, or who had become skilled in the
fashioning of some advanced type of implement, sometimes bartered their
spare products for other commodities. Such operations, if they did
exist, must have been very limited in extent, and confined to bartering
between neighbouring tribes.