The bronze age and the Celtic world - Universal History Library

120 THE BRONZE AGE AND THE CELTIC WORLD
in Bohemia. Besides these several have been found further afield, one at Dexheim
in Rhenish Hesse, one at Greisheim in Hesse-Darmstadt and one at Fritzen in East
Prussia. Lastly several have been found in the Koban graves," and these are
larger and more developed than the others.
This evidence seems to show us that this type of pin
was at first well distributed throughout the Celtic cradle, and
that the dimensions of the head increased in Hungary and
Bohemia. About the time that this later form was in use
some kind of exodus took place to various distant places.
That one of these expeditions passed to the east, in the
direction of south Russia, is clear from the occurrence of this
type, in its most developed form, in the Koban graveyards.
We can well believe that these emigrants left the Celtic cradle
by the Moravian gate, and passed along the more or less open
spaces at the northern foot of the Carpathians, to which
reference has already been made, and so into the plain of
FIG. 21.
RACQUET PINS FROM KOBAN. Russla aud finally to the foot of the Caucasus. The journey
•' '^
would have been made on horseback, and need not have occupied many weeks so there
is no need to expect much evidence from objects lost en route ;
but, as they must have
crossed Podolia on their way to the Koban, it seems probable that it was these emigrants
who left at Zavadyntse the sword which was mentioned in a previous chapter, as this
is the only example of a Central European sword recorded from the eastern plain.
The Podolian sword was of Type E, and this gives us a clue to the date, and will enable
us to put together in their proper order these various items of evidence.
The evidence which I have cited in the foregoing pages can best be explained by
beheving that about 1150 B.C. some of the steppe-folk from the Hungarian plain departed,
probably through the Moravian gate, to seek fresh pastures. While some may have
gone northwards, the majority passed along the open sandy heaths of Gahcia, across
Podolia, where a sword was lost at Zavadyntse, and so on to the grassy plains by
the banks of the Koban river. Here they settled for a time, and during their wanderings
Lissauer (1904) 578-580 ; Chantre (1886) ii PI. xix. i, 2.