The bronze age and the Celtic world - Universal History Library

THE FIRST INHABITANTS OF CELTIC LANDS 27
Isles which can accurately be described as that of La Madeleine/* in the strict French
meaning of that term, we do find traces of the culture of Aurignac, persisting perhaps
until stiU later times.
It must not be thought, however, that the Combe Capelle race never reached
these isles. Whether the culture of Solutre did so or not seems uncertain, but some of
the skeletons which have been found here have been classed with the Combe Capelle
group.« But, as we have seen, this race was present in France, at any rate in some parts
of that country, for some Uttle time before the arrival of the men with the culture of
Solutre.
The colder chmate of the Magdalenian period has been shown to coincide with
the Biihl advance of the Alpine glaciers,^" which reached its maximum about 7,500 to
7,000 B.C. After that the climate slowly improved, though the precipitation increased,
and forests sprang up on the hitherto open lands. As the tundra conditions in Celtic
lands gave way to forest, the reindeer migrated to the north and north-east, while their
place was taken by the red deer. As the forests developed it became increasingly difficult
for men to traverse great distances or to intermingle as freely as they had done before.
There was a tendency for separate groups to develop in different regions ; so that, when
we arrive at the next period, the Azilian, we find very different types of people in various
parts of Europe.
Even before the close of the Magdalenian period a fresh type had arrived, apparently
from the north, if we may judge from the skeleton found at Chancelade in the Dordogne.
This skeleton bears a close resemblance to those of the modern Eskimos,^' and since
the latter have retained a type of art reminiscent of certain phases of Magdalenian
culture,'* we may suspect that Chancelade men, following the departing reindeer, passed
north-eastward to the tundra of Siberia.
It was between 7,000 and 6,500 B.C. that a fresh wave of Capsian people from North
Africa began to invade Spain," into which peninsula they introduced what is known as
East Spanish Art.'* By degrees they pressed the Magdalenian Cromagnons to the
48 Burkitt (1921) 1. 232.
« Fleure (1920) 21-25.
5° Burkitt (1921) 1. 43.
5' Testut (1889) ; Clark (1920) 288-291.
5* Sollas (191 1) 348-350, where all authorities are cited.
33 Osborn (1918) 516-518.
54 Burkitt (1921) 1. 273-285.