lying between Utrecht and Gelderland in the south and Drenthe in
the north.[252] Thence some passed to this country. Lord Abercromby
believes that they crossed the channel at the narrowest point, and
passed westward and northward by land.[253] It seems more likely,
however, that though the crossing may actually have been made by the
Straits of Dover, the Beaker-folk coasted along the southern and
eastern shores of Great Britain, for maritime traffic was no new thing
in these parts. Some, who landed near the Moray Frith, seem to have
been accompanied by a few pure Alpines,[254] whose blood has left a
marked effect on the present population of Aberdeenshire.[255] While
they settled in the upland regions of England and Scotland, especially
on the open downs and limestone hills, they penetrated very little
to the west, which was dominated by the Prospectors. Few signs of
their presence appear in Wales, and none that can be depended upon in
Ireland.[256]
It has been thought by some that they spoke some form of Aryan or
Indo-European tongue, and it has been conjectured that it was they
who introduced into these isles the Goidelic or Gaelic dialects. This
opinion has recently been restated by M. Loth.[257] This view has been
well answered by Rice Holmes,[258] and his arguments are as valid
to-day as when they were written. We are forced to admit that we are in
total ignorance of the language spoken by the Beaker-folk.
It was at one time believed that they introduced into this country
the knowledge of bronze, and graphic pictures were drawn of the way
in which, with their superior weapons, they conquered the stone-using
aborigines. Few, however, of their graves, either here or in Jutland,
contain objects of metal, and those which have been met with seem to
conform more to south-western than to Central European types.[259] It
must not, however, be assumed too hastily that they were in complete
ignorance of metal, though they did not possess implements of that
material on their arrival; for, as we have seen, the Tripolje people,
in their period A, had used copper axes, doubtless carried thither by
Ægean traders, and the perforated axes, used in the Ukraine, as in
Jutland and Britain, seem as though copied from metal originals. It
would be more accurate to say that a tradition of the former use of
metal may have lingered among them, as of an article once possessed but
long since lost.
/Chapter VII/
THE EVOLUTION OF THE LEAF-SHAPED SWORD
We have seen that the Alpine people were the earliest inhabitants of
the mountain zone, west of the Hungarian plain, and that they had
arrived there at an early date, bringing with them from the east the
custom of living in pile-dwellings and the germs of agriculture.
Whether they were living also in Hungary seems uncertain, though it is
possible that they dwelt in the ring of mountain land that surrounds
the plain.
Nordic folk had arrived in both areas by 3000 /B.C./, coming, it has
been suggested, from the Russian steppes. It is also more than probable
that fresh invaders from the steppes arrived about 2200 /B.C./,
especially in the Hungarian plain. Thus, though the population of the
whole of the area, which we have termed the Celtic cradle, was to
some extent alike, there were considerable differences, both in the
proportion of racial elements and in the methods of life, between the
people of the mountain zone and the inhabitants of the plain.
Though members of both the Alpine and Nordic races inhabited the
mountain zone, and are found living together in the same villages,
they appear not to have intermarried, at any rate to any considerable
extent, for at a much later date we find skulls both of the long-headed
and the broad-headed types, but few if any which show evidence of mixed
ancestry.[260] The evidence obtained from the cemetery at Hallstatt,
which dates from 1000 years or more later, seems to point to the same
conclusion.[261]
Now the Alpine people, as we have seen, are thrifty, steady,
hard-working tillers of the soil, patient but lacking in the spirit
of adventure. The Nordics, on the other hand, are strong, active,
courageous and adventurous, devoted to the horse and accustomed on its
back to drive bands of cattle over the grassy steppes. If we may judge
from the views of many of their modern representatives, they despise
menial work, such as ploughing the land or digging the soil, just as
they prefer cattle and beef to sheep or mutton, and have a contempt for
fish-eaters and vegetarians. The Nordic also has a natural instinct for
governing and administration.
As I have shown elsewhere,[262] if two such peoples come into contact,
and settle down together, there can be but one result: the Nordic
becomes a lord and his people a privileged nobility, while the Alpine
becomes eventually a serf. With a strong racial exclusiveness, or, as
we call it to-day, colour prejudice, the Nordics decline to take wives
from the subject class, and, though irregular unions may in time take
place, marriage is strictly forbidden. In this we have the germs of
the caste system so well known in India. Similar objections to such
inter-marriages are a marked feature of the Briton throughout the
empire. This custom has given rise to the strict marriage regulations,
which existed until lately among all royal and many noble families
in Europe, and among the descendants of the Visigoths in Spain. The
marriage laws of Athens and Rome seem to imply a similar point of view.
Another steppe-folk, entering a mountain zone filled with an eastern
Alpine population, issued a similar edict, which they credited to their
tribal god.[263] Thus in the mountain zone Nordic and Alpine lived
together, apparently in harmony, as lord and serf, never intermarrying
and rarely, if ever, mating with one another.
In the plain, however, the Alpines seem to have been absent, or at any
rate few in number. Here we may well imagine the Nordics continued
their nomadic existence, driving their cattle from one pasture to
another. Thus the population tended to divide into two groups, the
people of the mountains and the people of the plain.
When the first group of Nordics arrived in this region, both they and
their Alpine predecessors were ignorant of metal, but a few centuries
later implements of copper began slowly to penetrate the whole area.
Perhaps these arrived from the east, up the Danube valley, either from
Hissarlik II. or from those Ægean merchants, who, as we have seen, were
trading for Transylvanian gold, or taking copper axes to the Tripolje
folk. Or it may be that other Ægean folk had by this time reached the
head of the Adriatic, and were making their way thence to the mines of
the Erz-gebirge and the amber coasts of the Baltic. It is probable that
both lines of trade began fairly early in the third millennium, and
the general course of the latter route can be traced in outline from
Fiume, along the eastern foothills of the mountain zone towards Linz,
where the Danube must have been crossed in dug-out canoes; thence it
continued through the Elbe gap, and on by various routes, indicated by
the distribution of flat celts, to the amber coast.[264]
One thing is clear, and that is that metal reached the mountain zone
from the east and not from the west. It was at one time believed that
when metal first appeared in the western Mediterranean, the Rhone
valley was the main line of approach into Central Europe.[265] This we
now know was not the case,[266] for that valley was thickly wooded, and
the inhabitants of most of it remained in a neolithic state until many
centuries after metal had become known in Switzerland.
After the destruction of Hissarlik II. communications from the east
seem to have ceased for a time; the irruption of the steppe-folk
appears to have interfered with trade, especially by land, over the
north Ægean and Euxine areas. Perhaps, too, after the arrival of fresh
hordes of steppe-folk into Hungary trade by the other route may also
have ceased for a time. There is some evidence that this was the case,
but in due course it was resumed, and was at any rate in full swing
again long before 1600 /B.C./, though, judging by the type of weapons
found, this trade was rather with Italy and the west than with the
Ægean and the eastern Mediterranean.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.
GROOVED ITALIAN DAGGER FROM CASTELLANO, NEAR RIPATRANSONE.]
We have seen in an earlier chapter that the people of the Mediterranean
had developed a type of dagger of a somewhat triangular form, made
first of all of copper and subsequently of bronze. This dagger, as we
have seen, frequently had concave sides, perhaps at first as the result
of constant grinding, and thus attained an ogival form. We have noted
also that the breadth of the butt diminished as the length of the blade
increased. Sometimes, especially in North Italy, the sides remained
straight, and grooves were cut in the blade parallel to the sides.
The object of these grooves, which were three, five or even more in
number, was not in the first instance a question of ornament, though
in time it became the _motif_ of an elaborate decoration. In the first
instance it had a severely practical value, for a dagger so grooved,
thrust into the body of an enemy, could be more readily extracted than
one of which the whole surface was smooth. This grooving began with the
straight-sided daggers, but was afterwards applied to those of ogival
form.
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--RIVETED DAGGER-HILT FROM FOSSOMBRONE.]
The people of the Mediterranean race were, as we have seen, rather
short and of slight build, and their daggers were relatively small.
They were not used very frequently, we may imagine, in open warfare,
but were more usually employed to stab an enemy in the back, a custom
not yet obsolete in some Mediterranean lands. The handle was of bronze,
often handsomely chased, and sometimes decorated with thin plates of
gold. Such handles were riveted on to the blades, and so long as the
butt of the latter was wide and the blade not too long, this method
of attachment proved satisfactory. But, as we have seen, the tendency
was for the butt to diminish in breadth and the blade to increase in
length, which suggests that open combat was becoming more fashionable
or more necessary, and that a greater reach was needed. The narrowing
of the area of attachment, and the lengthening of the blade, threw an
ever increasing strain on the riveted joint, which must have become
more and more ineffective. Still, the Mediterranean peoples up to the
last, except in the Ægean area, continued to use this long dirk, or
rapier, with riveted handle.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.
LEAF-SHAPED SWORD.]
But the trade with Hungary carried these daggers from Italy into
Central Europe, and the Nordic inhabitants, both of the plain and of
the mountains, were good customers. But being big men, with large
hands and accustomed to meet their foes face to face, they demanded
larger and larger daggers, and this demand was met, as such a demand
always is, by an adequate supply. Thus we find these weapons, closely
resembling those in use in the Mediterranean basin, especially in its
western half, becoming increasingly common in Hungary, and growing to
greater and greater dimensions. Plate IV. shows five daggers found in
Hungary: the two first can be matched both in Greece and Italy and
elsewhere in the Mediterranean region, the third in Italy only, the
fourth in the northern part of that peninsula, while the fifth is rare
outside Hungary, and I have only been able to find one parallel, from
Bondo in the Grisons.[267]
The increased size of the daggers, which in some cases had grown to
enormous proportions, as may be seen in Plate V., made the weakness
at the riveted joint more apparent. The Nordics, fighters above all
else, paid much attention to their weapons, and they set themselves to
discover some way to overcome this difficulty. This led, as we shall
see, to the evolution of the leaf-shaped sword.
During the bronze age there were several types of sword in use
in various parts of the Old World. We have seen how the typical
Mediterranean sword or long dirk developed by slow degrees in the west
from the triangular copper daggers of Crete. In the Ægean and in Greek
lands we find other types, which seem to be derived from swords of
Asiatic origin, and which had an independent development in Mesopotamia
or Egypt; some, too, may have been derived from the copper daggers of
Cyprus.
[Illustration: FIG. 11.
BRONZE HILT OF LEAF-SHAPED SWORD.]
But there is one type or group which stands apart from the others. In
many examples the blade narrows rapidly near the butt, then expands
slowly till it reaches its greatest breadth about two-thirds of the
way down the blade; then it narrows more rapidly, then very quickly to
the point. This gives a shape not unlike the leaf of the lanceolate
plantain, a form not uncommon in other leaves; hence the name
leaf-shaped sword. But many examples from this group, in other respects
indistinguishable from those described, have sides which are nearly
parallel, sometimes quite so. To these cases the term leaf-shaped is
not so applicable. But the name is hallowed by a long tradition, and so
it will be well to retain it for the whole group.
Leaf-shaped swords may be divided into two sub-groups: those with
bronze hilts or pommels, and those without. Owing to the beauty of
their decoration, the types with bronze hilts have hitherto received
the greatest amount of attention, and several archæologists have
devoted pages to describing them and tracing out their evolution.[268]
They are not, however, very common outside Hungary, and in all cases
are much rarer than the other types. The details of their form lead us
to believe that they are contemporary with some, in fact with most of
the other types, and the elaborate decoration present in most cases
shows us that they were an expensive and ornate form, used probably by
the greater chieftains, while the other types were the cheap and plain
weapons used either by the lesser nobles or by the rank and file.
The simpler type of sword has no bronze hilt, but in its place a long
tang, usually but not invariably with flanged edges, and shaped to fit
the hand. This tang is pierced by several rivet holes, in which the
rivets are sometimes found adhering, and these rivets were used to
secure on either side of the tang pieces of wood, bone or horn, which
with it formed the hilt. In some cases such swords have been found
with wood or horn still attached. These are obviously a cheaper form
of hilt, and it is not surprising that such swords are more commonly
found and more widely distributed than those with bronze hilts or
pommels, notwithstanding that the latter have been more eagerly sought
after by collectors.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.
TANG, WITH FLANGED EDGES, SHAPED TO FIT THE HAND.]
It is partly because these types, which are all included in the Type
II. of Naue,[269] are commoner and more widely distributed that I have
selected them for special study in preference to the more ornate forms,
but also for another reason. It has hitherto been usual to classify
swords mainly by the shapes of their blades or their sections; for
reasons which will become apparent as I proceed, I am proposing a new
classification, based upon the shape of the butt of the blade, the
portion, that is to say, which immediately adjoins the handle-shaped
tang.
Now if we examine a large number of swords of these types, we shall
find that these butts vary in form, some being convex and others
concave. In Plate VI. I have placed them in a series of seven, and it
would, perhaps, be possible to sub-divide them more minutely, and to
give several variants of most of the types. For reasons, which will,
I think, be apparent to anyone consulting the Plate, and which I give
more fully below, I believe Type A to be the earliest of the series;
Type G, on the other hand, occurs in the famous cemetery at Hallstatt,
in the Salzkammergut, and as iron swords and implements were found
in most of the graves there, we may consider these bronze swords as
belonging to the very last phase of the bronze age in Central Europe.
As the butts of the blades show a gradual transition from the form
usual in the daggers with riveted handles shown in Plate IV. to the
Hallstatt type, we may, I think, feel satisfied that we have placed our
series in strict chronological sequence.
[Illustration: FIG. 13.--CONVEX AND CONCAVE BUTTS.]
A glance at Type A, especially as seen in full length in Plate VII.,
shows us at once that it is a transitional form, and that it has
grown out of an ogival dagger, similar to those given on Plate V. The
butt is of the same shape, being a flattened semicircle, with the
horizontal radii considerably longer than the vertical. The upper part
of the blade, too, is of the same form, and the parallel incised lines
are survivals of the grooves already described. These show that the
prototype was of ogival shape. In two points only does it differ from
the ancestral form: the blade has been lengthened considerably, till
its form is of rather an unnatural shape, while at the other end a
tang, shaped to fit the hand, and with flanged edges, has been cast in
one piece with the blade. Here we have a leaf-shaped sword, it is true,
but with the greatest breadth relatively near to the butt, and the tang
flanged and with rivet holes to enable the wooden or horn sides to be
attached to form the hilt. The section is somewhat rhomboidal.
Now it has long been realised that swords of these types had been
evolved somewhere in the Danube basin, and it has been suggested that
this had taken place in the south Danubian region.[270] It becomes
important, therefore, to determine whereabouts in the Celtic cradle
these types originated. Details of the distribution of this and of
other types will be discussed in the next chapter; here it will be
sufficient to summarise. As far as I have been able to ascertain, six
specimens only of this type are known, and one of these is so unlike
the others that we must look upon it as a later variant. Of the five,
one was found in the Friuli, at the head of the Adriatic, one in a tomb
in Schleswig-Holstein, while the other three were found somewhere in
Hungary. Of these the exact sites at which two were found are unknown,
but the third is said to have been dredged out of the Danube near
Buda-Pest.[271]
We may, I think, conclude from this that it was in the plain of
Hungary, where the Nordic steppe-folk were living in relative purity,
still leading, perhaps, a nomadic life, that these swords were
developed. The origin seems to have been in the plain rather than in
the mountain zone, though subsequent types have been found frequently
in the latter. It is the Hungarian plain, then, we must consider as the
centre of dispersal, and, as far as possible, Hungarian rather than
other examples will be taken as the true types, of which others will be
considered as variants.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.
_a._ A SECTION NOT UNLIKE THAT OF A SPEAR-HEAD.
_b._ A RHOMBOID SECTION WITH CONCAVE SIDES.]
Now that the tang for the hilt had been cast in one piece with the
blade, and the attachment of the hilt no longer depended solely on the
row of rivets at the butt of the blade, there was no necessity for this
butt to be of so great a breadth. As a result we find in Type B the
butt has become approximately semi-circular, with the horizontal and
vertical radii equal. The flange on the sides of the tang remained,
though in some cases it became lighter and not so sharply modelled. The
blades of this type usually diminish gradually from below the butt to
the point, but occasionally we find a slight broadening of the blade
into the true leaf-shaped form. The numerous parallel grooves of Type
A disappear, and in their place appear a few, generally three, narrow
grooves, very close together, parallel to both sides of the blade, and
dividing it into three almost equal strips. Towards the butt these
grooves bend outwards to the edge, forming an almost perfect quadrant.
Sometimes these grooves are combined into one, and result in sharp
lines dividing the blade into three; in these cases the central third
is much thicker than the two sides, and the section is not unlike that
of a spear-head. Occasionally we find these parallel lines entirely
absent, and the blade sloping to a median ridge, thus forming in
section a rhomboid with concave sides; this variant is more common in
the north, and seems to be a later local development.
Types C and D are at first sight very much alike, but a close
examination of the critical part will explain the difference. We have
seen how in passing from Type A to Type B the horizontal radii diminish
until they equal the vertical; in Type C the vertical has increased
until it exceeds the horizontal, and an oval butt has developed.
The curves in this case seem to be nearly if not exactly those of
an ellipse. The flanges on the tang are still present, but tend to
disappear before reaching the point at which the butt passes into the
blade. The blades of this type sometimes retain their parallel sides,
but more often the breadth expands, usually about halfway between the
butt and the point. The lines of parallel grooving are tending to
disappear; they have been reduced as a rule to a single line on either
side, and although these are sometimes found in the same position as
in Type B, dividing the blade vertically into three equal strips, it
is more often the case that these lines have been moved nearer to the
edge, which in some cases they approach as close as fifty millimetres.
The blades in this type are relatively flat and thin, but the thickness
diminishes considerably outside the parallel lines. These lines, in
fact, are only indications of the place where the diminished thickness
begins abruptly. In other cases the section is spindle-shaped.
[Illustration: FIG. 15.
SPINDLE-SHAPED SECTION.]
Type D, as has been noted, closely resembles Type C, but the curves of
the oval, which were fairly true in Type C, have been much flattened.
In other respects it differs little from the more developed examples of
Type C. The spindle-shaped section appears to be more common.
In Type E the convexity of the butt has almost disappeared; the
tang and the butt blend more thoroughly, which makes the junction
a larger hollow curve than in the previous types. The sides of the
butt are almost if not quite straight, and the only trace of the
original convexity is to be found in the lower part of the butt, which
terminates in a beak or nose. The flanges of the tang are tending to
disappear, and in many cases are nothing but an irregular thickening
of the parts nearest to the outside. This type, as we shall see, is
widely distributed, and has developed many local variants, which can
readily be recognised but not easily described. The blade in this type,
especially in the west, usually displays the characteristic widening
two thirds of the way down the blade, which has given rise to the term
leaf-shaped sword. The lines parallel to the edge are always relatively
near to it, in most cases very near, and the blades are usually
flatter and narrower, though the spindle-shaped section still occurs.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.
THE CUTTING EDGE OF THE BLADE BEGINS AN INCH OR TWO BELOW THE BUTT.]
Type F is that described by Déchelette as Proto-Hallstatt, and in
many respects resembles Type G. The sides of the butt are straight or
slightly concave, and the head of the tang expands into a T-shaped
form. The flange has entirely disappeared and the rivet-holes in the
centre of the tang are frequently, though not invariably replaced by a
long slot. The conspicuous feature of this type and of Type G, though
it may occasionally be absent from Type F, is that the cutting edge
of the blade does not begin for an inch or two below the butt. The
illustrations will explain this better than any words can do, but the
point to note is that this portion, between the butt and the true edge
of the blade, has a blunt edge, and gives the impression that something
has been tied round it. It may be that at this spot leather bands
have been attached, like the sword-knots of the modern swords and the
leather loops of policemen’s batons; by holding this leather loop the
weapon is less likely to be snatched from the hand or lost.