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ANCIENT BRITAIN
AND
THE INVASIONS OF
JULIUS CAESAR
BY
T. RICE HOLMES
HON. LITT.D. (DUBLIN)
AUTHOR OF ‘A HISTORY OF THE INDIAN MUTINY’
‘CAESAR’S CONQUEST OF GAUL,’ ETC.
‘There seems no human thought so primitive as to have
lost its bearing on our own thought, nor so ancient as to
have broken its connection with our own life’.--E. B. TYLOR.
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1907
HENRY FROWDE, M.A.
PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
LONDON, EDINBURGH
NEW YORK AND TORONTO
PREFACE
This book is in one sense a companion of my _Caesar’s Conquest of
Gaul_; and much that was written in the preface of that volume is
equally applicable here. The last three chapters of Part I, and
the later articles in Part II, are intended to do for Britain what
I formerly tried to do for Gaul; but whereas the main object was
then to illustrate the conquest, and the opening chapter was merely
introductory, my aim in these pages has been to tell the story of
man’s life in our island from the earliest times in detail. What
has been called ‘prehistory’ cannot be written without knowledge of
archaeology; but from the historical standpoint archaeological details
must be handled, not for their own sake, but only in so far as they
illustrate the development of culture. The two books are constructed
on the same principle: in this, as in the other, the second part is
devoted to questions which could not properly be discussed in narrative
or quasi-narrative chapters, though I am encouraged by the judgement
of expert critics, British, American, and Continental, of _Caesar’s
Conquest of Gaul_, to hope that general readers who are interested in
these matters may not find the articles which deal with them tedious.
Those on Stonehenge, Ictis, and the ethnology of Britain, although
they controvert certain opinions which are commonly accepted, will, I
hope, tend to place facts in their true light. Two articles deal with
well-worn themes,--the identity of the Portus Itius, and the place of
Caesar’s landing in Britain. These problems have been pronounced by
eminent scholars, including Mommsen, to be insoluble; nevertheless, I
venture to affirm that in both cases the inquiry has now been worked
out to demonstration. Critics who may be disposed to regard this claim
as arrogant or frivolous will, I trust, read the articles through
before passing judgement upon them. The questions would have been
settled long ago if any competent writer had bestowed upon them as much
care as has been expended in investigating Hannibal’s passage over the
Alps.
Books and articles on various branches of the study of ancient Britain
are practically innumerable; no other book, intended to treat it
comprehensively from the beginning to the Roman invasion of A.D. 43,
has, so far as I know, yet appeared.
I wish to express my gratitude to all who have in any way helped me. I
am indebted to Sir John Evans for figures 1-6, 8-11, 14, 15, and 18-29,
as well as for an opinion, most kindly given, in regard to certain
coins which are not mentioned in his _Coins of the Ancient Britons_; to
the Director of the British Museum for figures 30, 36-9, 41, 43, and
44; to the Society of Antiquaries for figures 7, 13, 16, 31, 35, and
40; to the Delegates of the Oxford University Press for figures 12 and
32-4; to Dr. Joseph Anderson for figure 17; and to Canon Greenwell for
a proof of a valuable and interesting article--‘Early Iron Age Burials
in Yorkshire’--which, I believe, is to appear in _Archaeologia_.
Captain Tizard, R.N., F.R.S., kindly answered various questions which
I asked him about tidal currents. Mr. E. J. Webb, Sir George Darwin,
Professor Postgate, Professor Haverfield, Mr. Clement Reid, F.R.S., Mr.
George Barrow, F.G.S., Captain J. Iron, Commander Richmond, R.N., and
Commander Boxer, R.N., gave me information, which, in every instance,
will be found, acknowledged either in footnotes of Part I, or in Part
II, on various points of detail.
It is vain to plead that work would have been better if circumstances
had been more favourable. But if any indulgence may be accorded to an
author who, except on holidays, can only find leisure for writing or
research after he has fulfilled the duties of an exacting profession,
and who, in order to gain time, has worked steadily throughout his
vacations for nearly thirty years, I am entitled to it.
11 DOURO PLACE, KENSINGTON, W.
_October 19, 1907_.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE iii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xv
PART I
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER II
THE PALAEOLITHIC AGE
Reasons for devoting a chapter to the Palaeolithic Age 13
Tertiary Man 13
The Ice Age 14
Continental Britain 19
The relation of palaeolithic man to the Ice Age 22
‘Eolithic’ man? 25
The environment of palaeolithic man in Britain 30
Whence did he come? 30
Chronological puzzles 31
Palaeolithic skeletons 33
Palaeolithic artists 35
Range of the palaeolithic hunters in Britain 35
Where their tools have been found 36
Inhabited caves 37
Cave implements and river-drift implements 38
Divers forms of tools 41
Palaeolithic workshops 42
Handles 44
Uses of tools 45
Culture of the palaeolithic inhabitants of Britain 45
Religion 49
Totemism 51
Was the domestication of animals a result of totemism? 55
Magic 57
Was there a ‘hiatus’ between the Palaeolithic and the
Neolithic Age? 59
CHAPTER III
THE NEOLITHIC AGE
The early neolithic immigrants 62
The origins of British civilization were neolithic 63
Geography of neolithic Britain 64
Who were the later neolithic invaders? 64
Evidence from dolmens 65
Relics of the neolithic population: their settlements 67
Flint mines and implement factories 69
Difficulty of determining age of stone implements 71
Indefiniteness of the prehistoric ‘Ages’ 72
Stone implements 73
The two main divisions of flint implements 73
How flint implements were made 73
Celts 75
Their uses 77
Chisels and gouges 77
Axes, axe-hammers, anvils, and mullers 78
Implements made of flakes 79
Javelin-heads and arrow-heads 80
Bone implements 82
Pygmy flints 82
Specialization of industries 83
A lost art 83
Dwellings 84
Food and cookery 88
Agriculture 89
Treatment of women 91
Duration of life 91
Clothing and ornaments 91
Trepanning 92
The _couvade_ 94
Hill-forts 95
Primitive writing 99
Sepulture: barrows and cairns 100
Inhumation and incineration 110
Human sacrifice 112
Traces (?) of cannibalism 113
Interment of animals 114
Religion 115
An alien invasion: period of transition 119
CHAPTER IV
THE BRONZE AGE AND THE VOYAGE OF PYTHEAS
A Copper Age preceded the Bronze Age in certain countries,
but has not been proved to have existed in Britain 121
Bronze implements used for many centuries in Europe before
the Iron Age 123
Where did the European bronze culture originate? 124
Origin and affinities of the bronze culture of Britain 126
Period of its commencement 126
Physical characters of the late neolithic and early
bronze-using invaders of Britain 127
Their social organization 128
Character and results of the invasions: the invaders poor
in bronze weapons 129
Evidence of finds as to the settlements of the invaders 129
Stone implements used long after the introduction of bronze 132
Hill-forts 132
Primitive metallurgy 139
Bronze implements:--celts 139
Sickles 144
The Arreton Down hoard 145
Halberds 145
Shields, swords, spears 145
Moulds 148
Decoration of weapons 149
Hoards 149
Pasturage 150
Agriculture 151
Signs of amelioration in the conditions of life 152
Dwellings 153
Lake-dwellings 153
Hut-circles 154
Inhabited camps 156
The Heathery Burn Cave 157
Dress 160
Pins and buttons 161
Weapons mounted with gold or amber 162
Ornaments 163
Distribution of wealth: sources of gold, ivory, and amber 167
Why was Wiltshire exceptionally rich in ornaments? 169
British trade and the spiral 170
Comparative backwardness of culture in Britain 171
The information obtainable from graves 172
Round barrows, cairns, and sepulchral circles 173
Chronology of the barrows 181
Cremation and inhumation 184
Sepulchral pottery 191
The ‘drums’ of Folkton Wold and their significance 199
Sepulchral evidence as to religion 200
Engraved stones 205
Sun-worship 207
Stone circles and other megalithic monuments 207
Stonehenge 213
The voyage of Pytheas 217
Ictis 221
‘Ultima Thule’ 224
Pytheas and the ethnology of Britain 227
The passing of the Bronze Age 230
CHAPTER V
THE EARLY IRON AGE
Iron probably introduced into Britain by Gallic invaders 231
The Belgae preceded by other Brythons, who began to arrive
about 400 B.C. 232
Ethnology of the invaders 234
The order in which the various tribes arrived unknown 235
‘Late Celtic’ art 236
Coral and enamel 237
Swords and scabbards 238
Mirrors 239
Brooches and pins 240
Ornaments 241
Woodwork 241
Pottery 242
The noblest creation of Late Celtic art 244
Imported objects of art 246
British ships and coracles 247
Trackways 247
Coinage 248
Iron currency bars 250
Mining 251
Agriculture 252
Dwellings of the rich 254
Towns 254
Hill-forts 255
Some permanently inhabited 257
Hunsbury 259
Inhabited caves; pit-dwellings; ‘Picts’ houses’; beehive
houses; and brochs 260
The Glastonbury marsh-village 263
Dress 264
Reading and writing 265
Inequalities in culture 266
Intertribal war and political development 268
Instances of female sovereignty: the condition of women 269
Political and social conditions of Britain and Gaul compared 270
Religion 271
Sepulchral usages 286
The Druids 289
Ties between Britons and Gauls 299
How the Britons were affected by Caesar’s campaigns in Gaul 300
CHAPTER VI
CAESAR’S FIRST INVASION OF BRITAIN
Caesar obliged to secure his rear before invading Britain 301
He contemplated invasion as early as 56 B.C. 301
Campaign against the Veneti necessary in order to secure
command of the Channel 303
Campaign against the Morini 305
Its failure leaves Caesar’s base not quite secure 305
Caesar determines to sail from the Portus Itius (Boulogne) 306
He attempts to obtain information about Britain from Gallic
traders 307
Gaius Volusenus sent to reconnoitre the opposite coast 308
Envoys from British tribes sent to Caesar to promise submission 308
He commissions Commius to return with them and gain over tribes 309
Volusenus’s voyage of reconnaissance 309
Kentishmen prepare for resistance 312
Certain clans of the Morini spontaneously promise to submit 312
Caesar’s expeditionary force 313
Sabinus and Cotta sent to punish the recalcitrant Morini and
the Menapii 314
Caesar’s voyage 314
His cavalry transports fail to put to sea in time 314
He anchors off the Dover cliffs 315
Late in the afternoon he sails on to Walmer--Deal 316
The landing vigorously resisted 316
Caesar’s victory indecisive owing to want of cavalry 317
The Romans encamp 317
British chiefs sue for peace 318
The cavalry transports dispersed by a gale 318
Caesar’s fleet partially wrecked 319
The British chiefs prepare to renew hostilities 320
Caesar labours to retrieve the disaster 320
The 7th legion surprised and attacked while cutting corn 321
Military operations suspended owing to bad weather 322
The Britons, attempting to rush Caesar’s camp, are defeated
with heavy loss 323
Caesar compelled by the approach of the equinox to return to Gaul 323
Causes of his partial failure 323
Two transports fail to make the Portus Itius: the troops whom
they carried attacked by the Morini 324
Punishment of the Morini and Menapii 324
Thanksgiving service at Rome for Caesar’s success 325
CHAPTER VII
CAESAR’S SECOND INVASION OF BRITAIN
Caesar builds a fleet for a second expedition 326
Mandubracius flees from Britain and takes refuge with Caesar 327
Caesar winters in Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum 327
His correspondence with Cicero 327
Cicero’s hopes and fears about the second British expedition 329
Caesar returns to Gaul 329
He is obliged to march to the country of the Treveri 330
Returning to the Portus Itius, he finds fleet and army assembled 331
He resolves to take Gallic chiefs of doubtful fidelity as
hostages to Britain 331
Dumnorix resolves not to go 332
The fleet weatherbound 332
The fate of Dumnorix 333
Caesar sets sail, leaving Labienus in charge of Gaul 333
The fleet drifts north-eastward out of its course 334
The landing-place, between Sandown Castle and Sandwich,
reached by rowing 335
Leaving the fleet at anchor in charge of a brigade, Caesar
marches against the Britons 335
forces the passage of the Stour near Canterbury 337
and storms a fort to which they had retreated 337
Next morning he sends three columns in pursuit 337
but is forced to recall them by news that many of his ships
had been wrecked 338
He beaches the ships, constructs a naval camp, and repairs damage 338
Results of the disaster 338
Caesar again marches towards Canterbury. Cassivellaunus
elected commander-in-chief of the Britons 339
The Romans harassed by British charioteers 340
Trebonius routs the Britons 341
The British infantry disperse 341
War-chariots _versus_ Roman troops 341
Caesar marches for the country of Cassivellaunus 343
whose chariots harass his cavalry 344
Caesar crosses the Thames 345
Cassivellaunus orders the kings of Kent to attack the naval camp 346
Caesar enters the country of the Trinovantes, who furnish
hostages and grain 346
Five of the confederate tribes submit 346
Attack on the naval camp repulsed 347
Caesar’s hurried journey to the coast and its significance 348
Cassivellaunus sues for peace 349
Caesar and his army return to Gaul 350
Caesar’s description of Britain 351
Review of Caesar’s invasions of Britain 352
CHAPTER VIII
THE RESULTS OF CAESAR’S INVASIONS OF BRITAIN
The importance of Caesar’s British expeditions underestimated
by his contemporaries and by historians 355
Development of British commerce 357
The British inscribed coinage and its historical value 358
The dynasties of Cassivellaunus and Commius 361
Tasciovanus 361
Epaticcus and Cunobeline 361
Cunobeline’s coins prove growth of Roman influence in Britain 362
His conquests 362
Flight of Dubnovellaunus and Tincommius (?), the son of
Commius, to Rome 363
The later adventures of Commius 364
His conquests in Britain 365
Tincommius, Verica, and Eppillus 365
Augustus contemplates an invasion of Britain 367
Why he abandoned his intention 367
Continued growth of Roman influence in Britain 368
Cessation of British coinage in certain districts which had
belonged to the sons of Commius 368
Relations of Cunobeline with Rome 369
His exiled son, Adminius, takes refuge with Caligula 369
Death of Cunobeline 370
Unpopularity of his dynasty intensified on the accession of his
sons, Caratacus and Togodumnus 370
Invasion of Britain by Aulus Plautius 371
Review of British history from 54 B.C. to A.D. 43 371
The Roman conquest and its results 372
Permanence in English history of prehistoric and Celtic elements 372
PART II
THE ETHNOLOGY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN.--
I. Introduction 375
II. The methods of anthropology 376
III. Eolithic man (?) 379
IV. Palaeolithic man 380
V. The Pygmies (?) 390
VI. Neolithic man 393
VII. The ‘Pictish Question’ 409
VIII. The Round-heads 424
IX. The Celts 444
X. Conclusion 455
THE NAMES ΠΡΕΤΑΝΙΚΑΙ ΝΗΣΟΙ, _BRITANNI_, AND _BRITANNIA_ 459
THE BIRTHDAY OF RELIGION 461
DUMBUCK, LANGBANK, DUNBUIE 463
INHUMATION AND CREMATION 465
SEPULCHRAL POTTERY 467
STONEHENGE 468
THE CASSITERIDES, ICTIS, AND THE BRITISH TRADE IN TIN.--
I. The Cassiterides 483
II. Ictis and the British trade in tin 499
DENE-HOLES 515
THE COAST BETWEEN CALAIS AND THE SOMME IN THE TIME OF CAESAR 517
THE CONFIGURATION OF THE COAST OF KENT IN THE TIME OF CAESAR 518
I. Between Ramsgate and Sandown Castle 519
II. Between Sandown Castle and Walmer Castle 521
III. The Goodwin Sands 525
IV. The South Foreland and the Dover Cliffs 528
V. Dover Harbour 530
VI. Between Dover and Sandgate 531
VII. Romney Marsh 532
PORTUS ITIUS.--
I. Review of the controversy 552
II. The data furnished by Caesar, Strabo, and Ptolemy 554
III. Caesar sailed from the Portus Itius on both his
expeditions 556
IV. The value of Caesar’s estimate of the distance between
the Portus Itius and Britain 557
V. The estuary of the Somme 558
VI. Ambleteuse 563
VII. Calais 565
VIII. Wissant 565
IX. Boulogne 585
THE PLACE OF CAESAR’S LANDING IN BRITAIN.--
I. Introduction 595
II. The data furnished by Caesar and other ancient writers 596
III. The day on which Caesar landed in 55 B.C. 600
IV. Did Caesar land at the same place in both his expeditions? 603
V. The various theories about Caesar’s place of landing 604
VI. The question of the tides 605
VII. The theory that Caesar landed at Pevensey 611
VIII. The theory that Caesar landed at Lympne or Hythe 622
IX. The theory that Caesar landed at Hurst 638
X. The theory that Caesar landed between Hurst and
Kennardington 639
XI. The theory that Caesar landed opposite Walmer and Deal 644
XII. The theory that Caesar landed at Richborough or Sandwich 662
THE CREDIBILITY OF CAESAR’S NARRATIVE OF HIS INVASIONS OF BRITAIN 666
THE DISEMBARKATION OF THE ROMANS IN 55 B.C. 673
THE SITE OF CAESAR’S CAMP IN 55, AND OF HIS NAVAL CAMP IN 54 B.C. 673
THE WAR-CHARIOTS OF THE BRITONS 674
THE OPERATIONS OF THE BRITONS DURING THE LAST FEW DAYS OF
CAESAR’S FIRST EXPEDITION 677
WHERE DID CAESAR ENCOUNTER THE BRITONS ON THE MORNING AFTER
HIS SECOND LANDING IN BRITAIN? 678
CAESAR’S EARLIER OPERATIONS IN 54 B.C. (_B. G._, v. 9-11) 685
CAESAR’S SECOND COMBAT WITH THE BRITONS IN 54 B.C. 688
THE COMBAT BETWEEN TREBONIUS AND THE BRITONS 692
WHERE DID CAESAR CROSS THE THAMES? 692
CAESAR’S PASSAGE OF THE THAMES 698
THE SITE OF CASSIVELLAUNUS’S STRONGHOLD 699
DID _LONDINIUM_ EXIST IN CAESAR’S TIME? 703
THE JULIAN CALENDAR AND THE CHRONOLOGY OF CAESAR’S INVASIONS
OF BRITAIN 706
TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES 735
ADDENDA 739
INDEX 743
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGURE PAGE
1 Harpoon-head (Kent’s Cavern) 43
2 Flint flake (Reculver) 43
3 ‘Tongue-shaped’ implement (Biddenham, Bedfordshire) 43
4 Oval implement (Dartford Heath) 43
5 Rough-hewn celt (Mildenhall, Suffolk) 75
6 Polished celt (Coton, Cambridgeshire) 75
7 Hafted celt (Solway Moss) 76
8 Chisel (Burwell, Cambridgeshire) 77
9 Double-edged axe-head (Hunmanby, Yorkshire) 78
10 Flint knife (Saffron Walden) 79
11 Curved blade (Fimber, Yorkshire) 80
12 Leaf-shaped arrow-head (Yorkshire Wolds) 81
13 Lozenge-shaped arrow-head (Yorkshire Wolds) 81
14 Triangular arrow-head (Amotherby, Yorkshire) 81
15 Barbed arrow-head (Rudstone) 81
16 Ground-plan of chambered barrow (Uley) 104
17 Horned cairn of Get 106
18 Flat bronze celt (East Riding of Yorkshire) 142
19 Flanged bronze celt (Norfolk) 142
20 Flanged bronze celt with stop-ridge (Northumberland) 142
21 Winged bronze celt (Dorchester, Oxfordshire) 143
22 Looped palstave (Brassington, Derbyshire) 143
23 Socketed celt (Kingston, Surrey) 143
24 Arreton Down blade 145
25 Bronze shield (Yetholm, Roxburghshire) 146
26 Leaf-shaped bronze sword (Battersea) 147
27 Bronze spear-head (Thames) 148
28 Jet button (Rudstone) 161
29 Bronze torque (Wedmore, Somersetshire) 164
30 Gold lunette (Llanllyfni, Carnarvonshire) 164
31 Amber necklace (Lake, Wiltshire) 166
32 Drinking-cup 192
33 Food-vessel 193
34 Cinerary urn (Goodmanham, Yorkshire Wolds) 193
35 Incense-cup (Bulford, Wiltshire) 194
36 Chalk ‘drum’ (Folkton Wold) 200
37 Bronze mirror (Trelan Bahow, Cornwall) 239
38 Brooch (Water Eaton, Oxfordshire) 240
39 Wooden bowl (Glastonbury) 242
40 Late Celtic urn (Shoebury, Essex), 243
41 Patterns on Late Celtic pottery (Glastonbury), 243
42 Late Celtic shield (Battersea) 245
43 Bronze open-work ring (Stanwick, N.R. Yorkshire) 265
44 Circle of interments (Aylesford) 287
MAPS
South-Eastern Britain 305
East Kent 313
Romney Marsh and Hythe harbour (illustrating theories of
their topography in 55-4 B.C.) 531
[The maps of South-Eastern Britain and East Kent, like all maps
of Ancient Britain, are inevitably inexact; but the errors are
unimportant. The Dover cliffs, for instance, have lost by erosion,
but one cannot say how much (see pages 528-30); nor is it possible to
indicate the exact nature of the slight change which the coast has
undergone between Sandown Castle and Walmer Castle (pages 521-5).
Again, I have not attempted to delineate the coast west of Pevensey or
west or north of Reculver precisely as it was in 55 B.C., because, even
if such an attempt had been successful, nothing would have been gained
for the purpose of this book. As far as possible, however, the maps
represent the conclusions reached in the article on the configuration
of the coast of Kent in the time of Caesar. The outline of Richborough
harbour and of the estuary between Thanet and the mainland is intended
to show approximately the high-water mark of spring tides. At low tide
the channel was very narrow (page 519).]
ANCIENT BRITAIN
AND
THE INVASIONS OF JULIUS CAESAR
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
When Caesar was about to sail on his first expedition to Britain, he
summoned the Gallic traders whose vessels used to ply between Gaul
and the Kentish coast, and tried to elicit from them information;
but, to quote his own words, ‘he could not find out either the extent
of the island, or what tribes dwelt therein, or their size, or their
method of fighting, or their manners and customs, or what harbours
were capable of accommodating a large flotilla.’ Even after he had
seen the country and its inhabitants with his observant eyes he was
not much better informed: all that he could learn about the aborigines
he summed up in a single sentence; and later writers, Greek, Italian,
and mediaeval--Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Augustus Caesar, Pomponius
Mela, Tacitus, Suetonius, Dion Cassius, Herodian, and the rest--added
very little to the knowledge which he had gathered. Yet the materials
which are now available for a description of prehistoric and pre-Roman
Britain, however limited their range, are so abundant that the
difficulty is to use them with discrimination and to fashion the
essential into a work of art. How have these materials been obtained?
When the general reader takes up a history, he accepts the narrative in
a spirit more or less sceptical. He knows that it has been composed,
either directly or at second hand, from written, perhaps also from
oral testimony; and he rarely troubles himself to inquire what the
evidence is, or with what diligence and acuteness it has been sifted.
But when he is invited to read an account of the evolution of culture
among people who recorded nothing and of whom nothing was recorded,
it is natural that he should insist upon peering into the writer’s
workshop that he may judge for himself what the materials are worth.
During many centuries, while the materials were most abundant, they
remained unused. Many of them were rifled by treasure-seekers, carted
away by builders, or destroyed by the plough. Even when the Renaissance
turned men’s minds to the study of the past, they had no thought
of any sources of information except the written documents which
they were only beginning to learn how to use. The Italian scholar,
Raymond de Marliano, the Dutch geographer, Abraham Ortels, made
futile guesses about topographical questions suggested by Caesar’s
_Commentaries_, but never dreamed that there was anything to be learned
of a people who had lived in Britain when the South Foreland and Cape
Grisnez were still undivided. Camden travelled over the length and
breadth of England, amassing stores of information, much of which he
did not know how to interpret, and built up geographical theories
upon place-names, which, in default of linguistic science, were of
necessity worthless. Even the great French scholars of the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries--Chifflet, Du Fresne, Scaliger, Sanson,
and d’Anville--although their geographical essays are still worth
reading, failed to determine the port from which Caesar had sailed
to Britain. Stukeley, who was one of the first to excavate barrows
and describe their contents and who made valuable observations of
some of our megalithic monuments, encumbered his folios with fanciful
speculations which only served to entertain his contemporaries and
to mislead posterity.[1] But these men had no access to the sources
which are now open to many who are intellectually their inferiors; and,
notwithstanding the smallness of their achievement, they did their work
as pioneers.
About the middle of the eighteenth century a spirit of antiquarian
curiosity was aroused in England. The Society of Antiquaries, which
had been founded in 1717, received in 1752 a charter from George the
Second; and in 1770 appeared the first number of their principal organ,
_Archaeologia_, which is still in course of publication. Many of the
earlier papers were crude and superficial, showing keen interest in
the things of the past, but naturally betraying ignorance of the
methods by which alone the significance of antiquarian discoveries
could be ascertained. Early in the nineteenth century, however, Sir
Richard Colt Hoare and his friend, William Cunnington, began to
excavate the barrows of Wiltshire; and with their labours the era
of scientific investigation may be said to have begun. Hoare had
in earlier life been an ardent fox-hunter; but, as he grew older,
he found that barrow-digging was a pastime more exciting still.
Craniology was at that time unborn; and Hoare omitted to measure
the numerous skeletons which he discovered or to utilize them for
the advancement of ethnology. Even the work that he professed to
do was often marred by a lack of thoroughness which, although it
was inevitable in a pioneer, irritated the critical spirit of later
explorers.[2] But with all its limitations the _Ancient History of
North and South Wiltshire_, the first volume of which appeared in
1812, was an important work. A few years earlier, John Frere had
recorded in _Archaeologia_[3] the discoveries of stone implements
which he had made at Hoxne in Suffolk. Such discoveries had of course
in innumerable instances passed unrecorded. In the British Isles, as
in many other lands, flint arrow-heads were regarded by the peasants
who found them as fairy-darts; while stone axes, which in Scotland,
Ireland, and Cornwall, are still deemed to possess medical virtues,
were said to have fallen from the sky.[4] In the time of Charles the
Second, however, Sir Robert Sibbald, greatly daring, affirmed that
the fairy-darts had been made by man;[5] and nearly a century before
the time of Frere an implement, which has since been assigned to the
Palaeolithic Age, had been found near Gray’s Inn Lane, and had been
vaguely described as ‘a British weapon’. But Frere saw that the tools
which he had collected were not to be ascribed even to the ‘painted
savages’ who had resisted the invasion of Caesar; and although even
he did not suspect their immeasurable antiquity, he declared that
they must have belonged to ‘a very remote period indeed’ and to ‘a
people who had not the use of metals’. In 1824 Dr. Buckland, who had
spent some years in exploring ossiferous caves, published an account
of his work in _Reliquiae Diluvianae_, a book which, by attributing
the phenomena that it recorded to an universal deluge, impelled
geological research in a wrong direction, and delayed for many years
the recognition of the truth that the earlier human occupants of
the caves had been contemporary with the mammoth and other extinct
animals. Soon afterwards MacEnery, whose example was followed by
Godwin Austen, examined Kent’s Cavern near Torquay, a task which was
systematically completed some five-and-twenty years ago by a committee
of the British Association. It was not, however, before the middle of
the nineteenth century that the knowledge of the Stone Ages began to be
built up on a sound foundation. From 1841 to 1860 Boucher de Perthes
was patiently exploring in the neighbourhood of Abbeville and Amiens
the gravels which the river Somme had deposited in the Pleistocene
Period, and collecting flints which were proved to have been shaped by
the hands of man. Lyell, Prestwich, John Evans, Lubbock, and Flower
visited the scene of his labours, and testified to the authenticity
of his discoveries; and after long controversy the most reluctant were
forced to admit that the human race had existed at a period infinitely
more remote than had hitherto been imagined. Similar discoveries
were soon made in England, in various European countries, in Africa,
Asia, and America. In our islands, as well as on the Continent, as
antiquarian zeal became more widely diffused, the need of organized
effort was felt; and, side by side with the leading academies--the
Society of Antiquaries, the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, the
Royal Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, the Royal
Irish Academy, the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, and the
Cambrian Archaeological Association--local societies were gradually
formed in every important provincial town. Accident from time to time
revealed objects for which no search had been made. Ploughmen guiding
their teams, navvies working upon roads or in railway-cuttings, miners
and quarrymen, labourers draining land, sportsmen groping after game
which they had shot, came upon antiquities of the nature of which
they were ignorant. Evans, in the intervals of leisure which he could
win from a busy life, indefatigably collected implements of stone,
bone, and bronze, systematized the discoveries of a host of minor
workers, and marshalled facts and deductions in volumes which have
become classical; and, not content with this, he supplemented the
labours of Akerman, Hawkins, Roach Smith, and others, and revealed
to his countrymen the origin, the varieties, and the geographical
distribution of the coins which their British ancestors had minted,
and the historical value of which he was the first to emphasize. His
son, who has lately become famous as the explorer of Crete, carried
his researches further afield, but often found time to grapple with
British problems; contributed to our knowledge of Stonehenge and
other megalithic circles; and by his discoveries at Aylesford in Kent
threw a beam of light upon the history of the Celtic Iron Age. Boyd
Dawkins explored the caves of Somersetshire, Derbyshire, and Wales.
Bateman, Thurnam, Davis, Warne, Greenwell, Mortimer, and Atkinson
of Danby continued in a more scientific spirit the labours of
Hoare,[6] and recorded the discoveries which they had made in numerous
barrows. General Pitt-Rivers brought the experience of a soldier,
the sagacity of a man of the world, and the genius which was his own
to the investigation of archaeological and anthropological problems;
demonstrated the value of thorough excavation[7] and of accurate
pictorial illustration; impressed upon the rising school of students
the need of precision in recording the circumstances of every find;
and by expending a considerable fortune in adding to knowledge set an
example of enlightened generosity. Sir Arthur Mitchell, in a series of
lectures[8] which have been described as a masterpiece of sceptical
irony, warned antiquaries, but in no didactic spirit, to think, and to
think again, before they drew conclusions from the records which the
spade had revealed. The Devonshire Association appointed committees to
examine the antiquities of their richly dowered county, and printed a
series of reports upon the megalithic monuments, the graves, and the
‘hut-circles’ of Dartmoor. John Abercromby traced from Great Britain
to the original seat of manufacture the sites where the so-called
drinking-cups, which accompanied so many British interments of the
earlier round barrows, have been found; while Romilly Allen, following
in the steps of Wollaston Franks, helped to elucidate the development
of the art of the Bronze Age and the Late Celtic Period. Professor
Gowland disclosed by excavation the origins of Stonehenge, and by
his metallurgical knowledge enabled us to understand the methods of
prehistoric miners. Charles Read made intelligible, even to casual
visitors, the collection of antiquities in the British Museum which
illustrates the culture of the Ages of Stone, Bronze, and Iron. Francis
Haverfield, scholar, archaeologist, and practical excavator, while
making himself the foremost authority on the history of Roman Britain,
incidentally enlarged the records of pre-Roman times. Joseph Anderson
carried on the work which Daniel Wilson had begun, and described
the successive stages of culture through which the inhabitants of
Scotland had passed from the earliest to the beginning of the historic
period. Coles, Christison, and Bryce added significant details to the
information which his lectures had given. But it would be tedious
to prolong the list of workers. Everywhere the success with which
the last resting-places of the dead had been made to tell their tale
stimulated antiquaries to search for fresh relics that might help them
to realize more fully how those dead had lived. Flint quarries and
workshops, where primitive tools were fabricated, hut-circles, Scottish
brochs, lake-dwellings, pits, and ‘earth-houses’ were explored; and, in
response to the exhortations of Pitt-Rivers, camps and other earthworks
were patiently excavated, although, for lack of funds, research of this
kind has not progressed very far. The exploration of the far-famed
marsh-village at Glastonbury is nearly complete; and the results which
have been obtained, collated with those that were yielded by the
examination of the camps of Cissbury, Lewes, Hod Hill, and Hunsbury,
have done much to dispel the old fancy that the ancient Briton was a
savage.
But perhaps no intelligent man ever progressed far in archaeological
study without discovering for himself this caution:--though the relics
of man’s handiwork, unlike his written history, cannot lie, their
meaning may in divers ways be misinterpreted. They will not yield it up
except to the trained and discerning eye.[9]
Meanwhile toilers in other fields were co-operating with the
archaeologists. Physical anthropology began to make strides. Since
Davis, Thurnam, and Rolleston described the skeletons which had
reposed in the long barrows and the round barrows of Wiltshire,
Gloucestershire, Yorkshire, and Northumberland, since Huxley wrote
his memoirs on the river-bed skulls of England and Ireland, greater
accuracy of method has been evolved, and Beddoe, Turner, Garson, and
Haddon have supplemented and corrected their predecessors’ work.
Geologists endeavoured to determine the configuration of the land
at the time when man first lived in Britain; and a definite result
was attained when borings made in implement-bearing beds showed the
relative chronology of the period during which palaeolithic hunters
had inhabited the eastern counties. Burial customs revealed by the
opening of barrows and cists, holes drilled in the stones of dolmens,
strange devices sculptured on graves and on rocks, suggested problems
as to the religious ideas of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, which
the archaeologist, the ethnographer, and the folklorist attempted to
solve. Philologists studied the Celtic languages, and succeeded in some
measure in deducing from place-names and other relics of the ancient
dialects information bearing upon the history of the invasions and the
distribution of the two great branches of the Celtic stock.
A great advance was made when the Comparative Method was brought to
bear upon the study of primitive culture. It was recognized that the
antiquities of our own island could not be adequately comprehended
without reference to those of other lands. For at every turn the
inquirer found himself arrested by obstinate questionings. Whence had
the immigrants of the Old and the New Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and
the Early Iron Age set out? Whence was the knowledge of bronze derived?
What was the starting-point of the culture of the Iron Age? What were
the first beginnings of Late Celtic Art? How was one to account for
the existence in remote countries of this or that British custom? The
British archaeologist who would intelligently ponder these questions
must take account of the work which has been done by Cartailhac, the
brothers Siret, Bertrand, Edouard Piette, Salomon Reinach, Montelius,
Sophus Müller, Arthur Evans, Ridgeway, Myres, and Flinders Petrie in
elucidating the antiquities of France, Spain, Italy, Central Europe,
Scandinavia, the Aegean Sea, North Africa, and Egypt; and the British
ethnologist cannot afford to be ignorant of what Broca, Hamy, de
Quatrefages, Salmon, Hervé, Manouvrier, Virchow, Ranke, and Sergi have
done for the ethnology of Europe. Pitt-Rivers saw that ethnography,
which informs us about the arts and crafts, the manners and customs of
surviving savage tribes, can give archaeology indispensable aid;[10]
and all who have compared the contents of the American Room and the
Ethnographical Gallery in the British Museum with what they have
seen in the Prehistoric Room will believe the Keeper when he assures
them that ‘in all probability the resemblance between the perishable
productions of the modern savage and those of prehistoric man, which
are now lost, was as great as that which undoubtedly exists in the
case of implements of stone and bone which have remained’:[11] but
in endeavouring to apply their knowledge to the elucidation of the
antiquities of a particular country they will not forget to be on their
guard. Nor may we neglect the facts which folk-lore societies have in
late years so diligently collected; but those who have learned from
the great works of Tylor how much of primitive custom still lingers
in the depths of modern civilization will become sceptical when they
are invited by less sober reasoners to trace the origin of this or
that surviving superstition to any one race or tribe or period of the
remote past; and readers who have accepted with enthusiastic admiration
the seductive theories of _The Golden Bough_ should weigh well the
criticism which Sir Alfred Lyall, qualified by intimacy with primitive
peoples as well as by a sceptical and cultivated intellect, has
published of that brilliant and truly epoch-making book.
When we have finished our survey of prehistoric times we shall find
that while we can still rely upon the aid of the archaeologist and
the anthropologist, other materials have been accumulating which
will enable us to read our classical texts with an insight that was
impossible for the old-fashioned historian. The texts themselves have
been purified and restored. Inscriptions have yielded new information
on matters of history, ethnology, and religion; and the vast labour
which has been expended by those who have striven to elucidate the
most interesting of all subjects cannot wholly fail to help us when
we inquire what the British Celts thought of man’s relation to the
universe. As one scholar after another has noted the significance of
dates recorded in Cicero’s correspondence, and compared them with the
relevant passages in the _Commentaries_ and other ancient writings,
chronological difficulties have gradually disappeared. Physical
geography and geology, supported partly by written documents, partly
by archaeological discoveries, have combined to reconstruct the map of
the coast on which Caesar landed. Astronomers and hydrographers have
perfected our knowledge of tidal streams, and thereby forged a key
which, for those who possess the indispensable knowledge of seamanship
and of ancient military history, can unlock the secrets of Caesar’s
voyages. Military experts and soldiers who have served in the field are
willing to help us to understand the story of his campaigns.
But after the student has digested all the information which he can
extract from books and manuscripts, from museums, from travel and
observation, perhaps from practical experience in digging, and, above
all, from those who combine learning with knowledge of the world, of
affairs, and of men, he will find that his materials are still, and
on certain points must always remain inadequate. Some branches of
research, indeed, are virtually complete. All, or nearly all, that
sepulchres and skulls and coins can teach us of Ancient Britain and
its inhabitants we know. Many more implements, weapons, ornaments, and
urns will be accumulated; but it may be doubted whether they will add
sensibly to that knowledge which is really worth having. But much still
remains to be learned. The geological record is still incomplete; and
one of our most accomplished field-geologists is hopefully looking
forward to a time when it may be possible to determine the uttermost
antiquity of man and to illuminate the dark era that intervened between
the Pleistocene Period and the apparent commencement of the Neolithic
Age.[12] His experience has enabled him to tell archaeologists that
in order to solve chronological problems, they cannot afford to
neglect even the shells which abound in many burial-mounds.[13] There
is room also for many labourers in excavating stone circles, camps,
and earthworks, and determining their age, in exploring habitations,
wherever they can be found, and learning what they can teach about
those who constructed them.[14] What has been already done in this
department has produced the most fruitful results: the speculations of
Dr. Guest, for instance, in regard to the so-called ‘Belgic ditches’,
have been stultified by pick and shovel.[15] But such work, which in
other civilized countries is an object of national concern, languishes
here for want of funds. No British Government can expect support from
the intelligence and the public spirit of its constituents in spending
money upon archaeological research, or has the courage to give them
a lead;[16] and where are the wealthy Englishmen who will follow the
example of their American cousins in endowing such work?
Nevertheless, enough is already known to justify an attempt to create
a synthetical work, the aim of which shall be to portray in each
successive stage and to trace the evolution of the culture--nay, in
some sort even to construct a history--of prehistoric Britain, and to
rewrite the history of the period which is illustrated by contemporary
records. Not only is the subject fascinating; it is an indispensable
introduction to the history of England. I have tried to bear ever in
mind the interdependence of all the sciences which can help to restore
the past, and to remember the warning, ‘Let him that thinketh he
standeth take heed lest he fall.’ It is easy to laugh at the guesses
of Camden and the theories of Stukeley; but they were only framing the
hypotheses which are as necessary for the progress of archaeology as
of other sciences; and certain theories which in our own day have been
acclaimed with enthusiasm, while serving their purpose like theirs,
will, like theirs, be found open to criticism.
But we need not exercise ourselves overmuch in the region of theory.
Though we must be content to remain ignorant of many things, the story
of Ancient Britain, gaining as it progresses firmness of outline and
fullness of detail, can be constructed upon a basis of fact.