We have seen that the Tripolje people had departed from the Ukraine and Galicia, driven away by drought or by the invading steppe-folk. Traces of pottery, bearing some resemblances of that of the Tripolje culture, have been found in various places to the south, just those places where we find that our steppe-folk had settled. This suggests that the steppe-folk had conquered these people, and taken captive some of their women,[245] who in all primitive tribes are the potters.
If Keith is right that our Beaker-folk came from Galicia, we must suppose that on leaving the Ukraine they passed westward and entered Bohemia, for it is from this country, as Lord Abercromby has shown,[246] the northern beaker seems to have been derived.
But Leeds has lately suggested,[247] and this suggestion was also made some years ago by Sir Arthur Evans,[248] that the beaker developed originally in Spain. Leeds has published a map, showing that beakers of the earliest type are found most abundantly in Andalusia, and he traces their distribution thence throughout west Europe. One of his lines of migration carried them to north Italy, where it points to the Brenner Pass.
Now the Spanish and western beakers differ in many important respects from the northern type, though it is characteristic of both to be decorated with parallel and horizontal bands of ornament. Leeds thinks that the beaker developed in Spain from a type of pot, which he terms carinated, and which is found associated with megalithic monuments at such distant points as Denmark, the Isle of Arran, Guernsey and Brittany, the Pyrenees, Spain, Algeria, Taranto, Sicily and Malta. This type of pot is distinguished by having a hemispherical base, while the sides, half way up, have a knee or angle, above which they are concave.
Now it is of course possible that the bell-beaker of Spain may be derived from this carinated vase, though intermediate forms seem to be lacking. I am inclined to think, however, that this beaker has a double parentage, and has been influenced, too, by certain types of ware not uncommon at Hissarlik II., the form of which is best shown by a silver vase found in that city.[249]
However this may be, the bell-beaker, which has invariably a convex base, seems to have been evolved in Andalusia, and to have been carried, amongst other places, to North Italy, and thence northward to Bohemia, where it is localised in the western part of that province. Here another type of pottery, called cord vases, which had developed in the plain of North Germany, had been already introduced, and the northern type of beaker, which has a flat base, seems to have been derived from a combination of both types.
Some years ago Dr. O. Reche[250] described a people, very closely resembling the Beaker-folk, as inhabiting Silesia and especially Bohemia during the closing phases of the megalithic period in the Baltic, that is to say about the time we are considering. Into this population there intruded invaders of the Nordic type, exterminating the men but marrying the women and adopting their customs. These invaders entered Silesia in force, but only penetrated into Bohemia in small numbers.
This seems to point to the fact that some of our Tripolje people were, as we have seen before, occupying Silesia, while others had settled in Bohemia. Here they were using, and had perhaps taken over from an earlier people, a type of beaker, which had been developed from the cord pottery of northern Europe, influenced by a few imported specimens of the bell-beaker, which had come ultimately from Spain. Soon the steppe-folk, passing through Galicia and southern Silesia, entered Bohemia, and some, at any rate, of the Beaker-folk moved northwards. Lord Abercromby[251] has shown how they left through the Elbe gap and passed northwards between the valleys of the Weser and the Rhine. Some went further north to Jutland, where we find them introducing the single grave culture, characterised by the presence of beakers and those perforated stone axes, which we have met with before in the Tripolje area.
Others passed into the low countries, where they occupied the region 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
FIG. 14.
a. A SECTION NOT UNLIKE THAT
OF A SPEAR-HEAD.
b. A RHOMBOID SECTION WITH
CONCAVE SIDES.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Type G is the well-known Hallstatt type. In this the lines of the butt have become definitely concave, the tang is thinner and always without flanges, and terminates in a semi-hexagonal finial; the rivets, which are usually found attached to the tang, are much smaller. The blade is rather narrower than in most of the preceding types, but the widest part is characteristically two-thirds of the way down the blade. The parallel groove is close to the edge, and the edge ceases before reaching the butt, as in the case of Type F. The section is spindle-shaped, with a decided modification at the edge.
Some examples of Type G found in the west, especially in the British Isles, vary in some details from the specimens found in Hallstatt. This is especially the case with regard to the shape of the finial. But speaking generally this type must have survived for a long time with relatively little change, since it appears first in the oldest graves at Hallstatt, while it is believed to have remained in use in this country until the introduction of iron swords in the fifth century.
There are certain local variants of all or most of these types, and it would be an interesting task to trace these out in all their ramifications. To do so here would lead us too far away from the main lines of our thesis, nor would it be easy to draw correct deductions until drawings of all such swords found throughout Europe were available. Here I must content myself with tracing out the broad lines of the evolution of the leaf-shaped swords, and leave it to others to work out the local varieties.
WE have seen how the leaf-shaped sword was evolved from the ogival dagger in the plain of Hungary, and passed through a series of forms until it reached the Hallstatt type, which gave way to the iron sword. We must now consider the distribution of each type, which presents certain peculiarities which are very instructive, and then consider how it was that leaf-shaped swords, of one type or other, became dispersed throughout the greater part of Europe, and reached, in some cases, beyond the confines of that continent.
Let us first deal with Type A, the distribution of which was summarised in the last chapter. A very fine example of this type is in the Museum of Archæology and Ethnology at Cambridge; nothing is known, unfortunately, of its provenance beyond the fact that it came from Hungary. Another, almost identical, is in the National Museum at Buda-Pest, and has been figured more than once,[272] but the published illustrations are not very accurate, and in Plate VII. I give one taken from a drawing made from the original for this work. In this case, too, the exact site is unknown. The third Hungarian specimen, a photograph of which is in existence, was sold in London on 25th June, 1891. It was the property of the late Dr. S. Egger, of Vienna, and the catalogue states that it had been dredged from the Danube near Buda-Pest.[273] These are the only examples which I have met with which have been found in Hungary, and I have been unable so far to trace the present ownership of Dr. Egger’s specimen.
Much more recently a very similar specimen, but with some slight differences in the decoration, was found in the Friuli. It was dug up in 1909 by Antonio Tommassin, near Castions di Strada, in the district of Palmanova, in the province of Udine, at a place called Selve, at the depth of about one metre. It is, or was, in the Museum at Cividale.[274] Another, very unlike the others in decoration, and varying somewhat in outline, was found in the neighbourhood of Treviso, north of Venice, and is now in the Treviso Museum.[275]
Lastly we have one found in a grave somewhere in Schleswig-Holstein. Splieth, who has recorded it, does not state exactly where it was found, nor in what collection it was deposited at the time he was writing.[276] He compares it with the second Hungarian specimen, but in reality it more closely resembles that in the Museum at Cividale.
All these specimens, except that from Treviso, resemble one another so closely that we may well believe that they were contemporary, and the products of the same region; the type must have continued in use for some little time in the Friuli, where it developed local variants like the Treviso specimen.
Type B is rare in Hungary, or at any rate very few specimens occur in the museums of that country. So far I have been able to find record of only one, and this has been much damaged. It was found in 1884 in a hoard at Orezi, in the county of Somogy.[277] A somewhat unusual form of this type is in the Vienna museum, but its provenance seems unknown. In Italy one has been found at Ascoli Piceno,[278] south of Ancona, and Naue figures another from an unknown site. He mentions a third, in his own collection, which is said to have come from Calabria, but as he does not figure it one cannot be certain that this belongs to Type B.[279] I can find no instances of the occurrence of this type in France, and though three specimens have been found in Britain which bear a superficial resemblance to it, a more careful inspection convinces me that they are local variants of a later type, perhaps C or D. This type does not appear to occur in southern Germany, but the swords of this region have not yet been catalogued with thoroughness. It has been found, however, in the Baltic region, and specimens have been recorded from Brandenburg, Pomerania and East Prussia.[280] A type closely resembling this occurs in Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark, but most of the specimens show certain local features, some of which, like the T-shaped finials, suggest a later date. In Schleswig-Holstein Splieth mentions four examples,[281] all isolated finds, which he dates considerably later than his example of Type A.
Type C, with the oval butt, is relatively common in Hungary. I have been able to trace at least eight specimens. Three of these are from unknown sites,[282] two from Kis-köszey (Battina) in Baranza county,[283] one from Sajo-Gömör,[284] one from Hajdu-böszörmény in Hajdu county, which was found with a hoard containing three of Type D,[285] and one was dredged up out of the Danube at St. Margaret’s island in Buda-Pest.[286] Two have been found in Lower Austria, one at Petronell,[287] east of Vienna and the other, which was found in a barrow with a skeleton, a long pin and two bracelets, at Winklarn.[288] One has also been figured by Dr. Šmid as having been found in Carniola, though its discovery is not described in the text.[289] In Italy one specimen has been found near Lake Trasimene,[290] a neighbourhood which has produced several examples of Type D, but this type does not seem to have been found in France, and only one very doubtful specimen is recorded for the British Isles. This type seems also to be rare or absent from Germany, except in the extreme north, for the only specimens which I can find recorded are from Mecklenburg and Brandenburg.[291] One or two have been recorded from Denmark.[292]
Type D, as we have seen, does not differ much from Type C. It is one of the commonest types found in Hungary, and I have been able to trace seventeen examples. Of these two are from unknown sites,[293] three from the Hajdu-böszörmény hoard,[294] two from the hoard at Podhering in the county of Bereg,[295] two from Sajo-Gömör in the county of Gömör,[296] two from Munkacs in Upper Hungary,[297] one, found with two of Type E, at Rima-Szombat in the county of Gömör,[298] one from Endrod in the county of Békés,[299] one, found with four others, from Magyarorszag,[300] one from Gross-Steffelsdorf near Sajo-Gömör,[301] one, found with a sword of Type E, from near Plattensee or Lake Balaton,[302] and one from the Danube near Buda-Pest.[303]
One has been found at Bürkanow in Galicia,[304] one in Upper Austria, one near Linz,[305] five in Lower Austria, two at unknown sites, one at Mannersdorf,[306] one with a hoard including Type E swords at Wollersdorf,[307] and one in a wood near Wimpasting. One comes from Grübegg near Aussee in Styria,[308] and two from Carniola, one of which is from Mihovo near St. Barthelmä, and the other from an uncertain site.[309] Szombathy figures two fragments from a swallow-hole near St. Kanzian, not far from Trieste.[310]
In Italy the type is of common occurrence, but in a definitely restricted area. One has been found on the bank of the Chiano by the bridge of Frassineto near Arezzo and is in the Arezzo museum,[311] two near Lake Trasimene,[312] where a specimen of Type C was found, one of slightly aberrant form at Alerona, in the commune of Ficulle, near Orvieto, and which is now in the Prehistoric Museum at Rome,[313] and another, which also presents unusual features, in Rome itself.[314] Two specimens have been found at Lake Fucino,[315] and a third close by at Dintorni del Fucino,[316] one a little to the east at Sulmona,[317] and one rather further afield at Apulia.[318] Thus all these specimens, ten of Type D and one of Type C, have been found in a very restricted area, almost all of them lying in a valley or rather a fold of the Apennines between the lakes of Trasimene and Fucino. This distribution is of great importance for our thesis and will be referred to again in a later chapter.
This type has been found, though very rarely in France, and six specimens have been recorded in Britain, all from the mouth of the Thames, or from the south and east coasts. I can find no records of its occurrence in Germany or Denmark.
But if Type D occurs rarely if at all in the west and north, we find it not uncommonly in the south-east. Two swords of this type have been found at Mycenæ, one by Schliemann[319] and the other by Tsountas,[320] one has occurred at Levadia in Boeotia, a few miles south of Orchomenos, while two more have been discovered in a grave at Muliana in Crete.[321] The upper half of a sword, which has probably been influenced by this type, though the butt and tang are different, comes from Cyprus, where it was rifled from a tomb some thirty years ago.[322] Lastly, we have records of two swords of this type from Egypt, both from the Delta.[323] One of these, found at Zag-a-zig, is certainly of this type, the other, found at Tell Firaun in the Delta, appears to be so also, but the butt seems to have been slightly damaged. This sword bears upon it the cartouch of Seti II., which seems to have been engraved upon it in or about 1205 B.C. These occurrences of Type D swords in the south-east are specially interesting, and will be referred to again, as they give us some basis on which to establish a chronological scheme. They may also help us to bring our archæological evidence into line with historical and legendary matter.
Type E is also common in Hungary, from which eleven specimens have been recorded. These usually attain to very great dimensions. One is from an unknown site,[324] three from Podhering, found with swords of Type D,[325] two from Rima-Szombat, also with swords of Type D,[326] one from Magyarorbzag,[327] one from Gyula-fehérvar in the county of Fejér,[328] one from the Schatze near Hajdu-böszörmény,[329] one from Oreszka in the county of Zemplén,[330] and one, also found with swords of Type D, from near the Plattensee or Lake Balaton.[331] Three come from Bohemia, from Gross-Tschernitz, Siebenburgen and Wodnian;[332] one from Salza-Bach, near the Grübegg saw-mills in Styria,[333] and one from a hoard, which contained swords of Type D, found at Wollersdorf in Lower Austria.[334] One comes from Zuojuica in Herzegovina and one was found in a lake-dwelling at Auvernier on Lake Neuchâtel.[335] The type also occurs in Germany, though, I believe, not plentifully. In Greece two specimens only have been discovered, in a hoard outside the city of Tiryns.[336]
None have been found in Italy, but in France they occur abundantly, and there are thirty-one specimens of this type in the museum at St. Germain-en-Laye. They occur more abundantly still in these islands; fifty-eight have been found in the Thames basin, fifteen in the Fens, many of these in the famous Wilburton hoard, while fourteen others come from other counties washed by the North Sea; from the rest of England and Wales only eleven have so far been noted. In Ireland this type has not been found, but there are a considerable number of swords, found in that island, which are intermediate between this type and Type F, and will be dealt with under that heading.
It seems likely that some swords of this type have been found in the Rhine Valley, but so far I have failed to find any recorded, while elsewhere in Germany, in Schleswig-Holstein and in Denmark, they seem to be absent. This type, as we have seen, is found mainly in the west, so that it is extremely interesting to find a single example from an eastern site. This was found at the village of Zavadyntse, near Gorodak, in the government of Podolia in South-west Russia.[337] The occurrence of this sword so far east is strange, but taken in conjunction with the distribution of a certain type of pin, with which I shall deal in a later chapter, it will help to provide an important link in the chain of our argument.
The most striking feature of the distribution of Type E is its sudden appearance in Celtic lands, and in very great numbers. Up to this date swords of these types have not been met with in the west, except a few instances of Type D. As we must allow for a certain amount of overlapping of successive types we may well believe that the few examples of swords of Type D, found in Celtic lands, arrived there during the time when Type E was the prevailing fashion.
Type F may be called the Proto-Hallstatt type. This has been found in France, though not very commonly, and as far as I have been able to test it mainly in the eastern departments, there are only two specimens of this type in the St. Germain’s museum. It occurs more commonly in Switzerland, and it seems probable that it originated in that country, or at least in the mountain zone of Central Europe. From this centre it seems to have spread in various directions, though it is not possible at present to trace its distribution with precision. One has been found in Italy, at Povegliano, S.W. of Verona, which seems to have come from the mountains over the Brenner pass,[338] and one comes from Donja-Dolina in Bosnia.[339] It seems to occur occasionally in the mountain regions of Austria and south Germany, though I can find no evidence of its further extension northwards.
It is not uncommon in the British Isles; seven have been found in the Thames estuary, four come from the east coast of England, and two from Scotland; 110 have been found in Ireland, of which forty-two are in English collections and sixty-eight in the National Museum in Dublin. The Irish specimens seem, as we have seen, to be of a very early form, as in some features they closely resemble Type E.
The distribution of this type is somewhat curious, since it occurs plentifully in the British Isles and especially in Ireland, while it is rare or non-existent in the intervening regions. Since the British examples, especially those found in Ireland, appear to be early examples of the type, we may surmise that they belong to late waves of the movement which carried Type E over the west.
Type G, the Hallstatt type, is so called because a few specimens were found in the famous cemetery at this place.[340] It would be a mistake, however, to consider it as having evolved in that region or dispersed from that centre. It seems more probable that, like the previous type, it developed in the mountain zone, and the evidence available at present suggests for its centre the upper reaches of the Danube, between Ulm and Sigmaringen;[341] but detailed work on the spot is needed before this can be determined with accuracy. Déchelette says that this type is generally distributed throughout Central Europe,[342] and this is true if we confine that term to the mountain zone, for it does not occur in Hungary. It is relatively rare in North Germany, two occur in Schleswig-Holstein,[343] a few in Scandinavia,[344] and one in Finland.[345]
In France the greater number occur in Burgundy, in the valley of the Saone and down the Rhone Valley; also in the department of Lot on the upper waters of the Dordogne and in the departments of Indre and Cher. Several examples have been found in the Seine valley, in the neighbourhood of Paris,[346] a point to which I shall have to refer in a later chapter. In the British Isles nineteen have been found in the valley of the Thames below and including Reading, and six elsewhere near the east coast; twenty-four have been recorded from Ireland, of which twenty are in the National Museum in Dublin. This type is, then, found distributed fairly generally throughout the mountain zone of the Celtic cradle, and over many areas in Celtic lands, though it only occurs sparsely elsewhere. In the Mediterranean region it is entirely absent.[347]
I have dealt at some length with these distributions, for there is no better way of interpreting archæological evidence and making it disclose, in broad outline at least, its historical content. Unfortunately no accurate catalogue of the swords discovered in most countries is in existence, though owing to the smallness of their numbers the lists are fairly complete for Italy and Greece. It would not be a very great undertaking to make an equally complete illustrated catalogue for the area included in the former empire of Austro-Hungary. In other regions the numbers are greater, and little has been done to catalogue them. The formation of an illustrated card catalogue of all the metal objects of the bronze age in the museums and private collections in the British Isles is in progress, under the auspices of a research committee appointed by the British Association for the advancement of Science. The specimens deposited in English collections have, for the most part, been already included in this catalogue, and it is from this that the bulk of the statistical matter relating to the British Isles has been derived.
As we have seen in some earlier chapters, distribution of certain types of bronze implements may be taken as evidence of trade, and we have to consider whether it was some form of commerce which carried the leaf-shaped swords to Ireland, Finland, Podolia and Egypt, or whether this wide distribution betokens some other form of movement. Before the days of fairly large ships and highly organised industry it is not uncommon to find implements, whether of flint or obsidian, copper or bronze, carried from country to country, without apparently any general movement of the population. On the other hand, when pottery and heavier or more easily damaged goods pass from one centre to another, it usually betokens migration. We have seen how this was so when the beakers were carried from Bohemia towards Jutland and Britain. Of course Roman pottery was shipped extensively for trade purposes, as were red figure vases and other types of Greek ceramic wares. The same is true, though to a less extent, of Mycenean and some Minoan wares, for the Ægean traders exported oil and wine. But such export of pottery betokens a relatively high civilisation and a well-organised commerce. Under more primitive conditions we may, I think, postulate that where metal implements or small cult objects alone were carried, these are evidence only of trade, while when pottery is found, as it were, on the move, this indicates a movement of the potters, hence a migration of people. When pottery and weapons are both found moving together, especially if the weapons are of a more advanced type than those hitherto found in the land into which they are being introduced, we may suspect, if indeed we cannot be sure, that we are dealing with a hostile invasion and the arrival of conquerors.