The bronze age and the Celtic world - Universal History Library

THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE LEAF-SHAPED SWORDS loi
suddenness with which some of the types spread, apparently within the space of a few
years, for there is httle if any modification of form, from the central region to places
many hundreds of miles distant, precludes the second of these alternatives, for peaceful
penetration by land is a slow process, and we should expect progressive variation of type
the farther we pass from the centre. It seems, on the face of it, unlikely that a people,
especially a sporting and warhke people Uke our steppe-folk, would engage in a trade
which would provide their neighbours with a weapon, superior to all others available,
which they had produced for themselves after generations of experiment ; nor is it
hkely that they would permit their Alpine subjects to do so, even if the fear of the
unknown and the dislike of adventure had not been sufficient to prevent these home-
loving people from setting out on so adventurous a task, involving, as it sometimes did,
the passage across northern seas. Such a practice, then, seems at first sight unhkely,
but if the other alternative, the hostile invasion, were true, we should expect to find
evidence of the arrival of fresh people in the presence of new types of pottery and fresh
burial customs.
If we examine the British evidence, we shall find reason to beheve that the
leaf-shaped swords arrived with a new culture and a fresh element in the population.
In a recent paper Mr. O. G. S. Crawford has dealt with this subject, and pointed out
that the leaf-shaped bronze swords of the Hallstatt period, our Type G, arrived with an
invasion of people who came from Central Europe.^'' Crawford seems to include in this
movement all bronze leaf-shaped swords of whatever type, but the evidence on which
he depends is only applicable to Type G. It will be well, therefore, for the moment
to postpone consideration of the arrival of the T5rpe E swords.
Crawford has shown that not only did these swords arrive in considerable numbers,
but with them came a number of other objects, such as razors, sickles, and other tools,
which have been found at various occupied sites, such as Llyn Fawr, South Lodge
Camp, and " Old England " at Brentford. Near the last-named site were found some
skulls which Sir Arthur Keith'^ has pronounced to be typical Alpines of the Swiss
lake-dwelling type. Now at most of the sites where this lake-dwelling culture has been
found, there occurs also, as Crawford has shown, a type of pottery, which he calls
77 Crawford (1922). 78 In a letter to Crawford ; no description has yet been published.
7a