The bronze age and the Celtic world - Universal History Library

76 THE BRONZE AGE AND THE CELTIC WORLD
aristocracy. These separate, though perhaps federated, states ultimately coalesced
into the great empire of the Khatti or Hittites, who attacked and sacked Babylon
in 1746 B.C.3'
Whether or no any of these steppe-folk entered Hungary at this time is not
quite clear, for it would seem that some of the long skulls found at Laibach may be
of an earlier date. To these we will return later. It seems probable that the grassy
steppes of the Hungarian plain would tempt these wandering horsemen, and we can
scarcely beheve that they would have avoided such rich pastures, unless, indeed, they
were already occupied by their distant relatives, who were powerful enough to keep
them out. The balance of evidence seems, however, to suggest that, whether or no
any Nordic steppe-folk had arrived here earlier, some of these invaders from the
steppes must have entered the fertile plain of the middle Danube.
It has been pointed out by Minns,^* that " in the far west of Russia, between the
Carpathians and Kiev, we find in the neolithic period distinct traces of connection
with the coasts of the Baltic," also that there are found " northern types of axes and
amber." Zaborowski," also has drawn attention to the resemblance between some
of the contents of the kurgans and the culture by the shores of the Baltic. It was
for this reason that in igi6 I suggested^* that at a date prior to that we have been
discussing, perhaps about 3000 B.C., some of these steppe-folk had passed to the shores
of the Baltic, and were the long-headed men who are found occupying the lowlands
of Belgium" about that time. I have elaborated the argument since,^^ but it has not
met with the approval of some of the Swedish archaeologists.^' With the evidence
at present available it is not easy to make a conclusive case one way or the other, but,
as we have seen, the neolithic culture of this area resembles in some points that of the
Baltic, Nordic types appear in the Baltic region, in Belgium, in the Rhine basin and
pass thence to the Swiss lake-dwellings, while other long-headed types, which may
however have appeared later, are found in the west of Hungary and the eastern slopes
3" Hall (1913) 199. 35 Taylor (i88g) ii8, 119.
3» Minns (1913) 132. 3' Peake (1919) 201, 202.
33 Zaborowski (1895) 125. 37 Nordman (1922).
34 Peake (1916) 1. 163.