The bronze age and the Celtic world - Universal History Library

Chapter IX
GREEK LANDS AND THE BASIS OF CHRONOLOGY
WE have seen in the last chapter that different types of leaf-shaped swords
have been disseminated throughout various quarters of Europe, and we
have found reason for believing that in Celtic lands at least their appearance
signified a hostile invasion. If, as may well be the case, the same is true of other parts
of Europe, we are deahng with a series of invasions, all starting from somewhere
within the Celtic cradle, and affecting almost every part of the continent. Our purpose
in this work is not so much to record evidence as to interpret it, to restore the main
features of early history rather than to describe archaeological remains. Now the
backbone of history is chronology, and we cannot interpret our evidence satisfactorily
unless we can place it in its true chronological setting. In discussing the seven types
of swords an endeavour was made to arrange them in an orderly sequence, and thus
to set up a relative chronology. In this chapter a positive system of dating will be
attempted.
It is clear that it is to the south-east that we must first look for help, for in
Greek lands documentary evidence reaches back some centuries further than it does
elsewhere in Europe, and is preceded by an immense mass of tradition, much of which
clearly belongs more to legend than to myth. These legends, moreover, have received
intensive study, and their contents have been brought into line with archaeological
data.' Further than this we have the two swords found in Egypt, one of them engraved
with a monarch's name, so that a study of these south-eastern specimens should enable
us to obtain one point, at least, in our system of dates.
Now it has been pointed out by Sir William Ridgeway' that certain people, whom
he calls " Achaeans," entered Greece from the north, bringing with them certain
' Dorpfeld (1902) ; Dussaud (1910 and 1914) ; Leaf (1912 and 1915). ' Ridgeway (1901).
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