The bronze age and the Celtic world - Universal History Library

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MANY INVASIONS 79
and had perhaps taken over from an earlier people, a t57pe of beaker, which had
been developed from the cord pottery of northern Europe, influenced by a few
imported specimens of the bell-beaker, which had come ultimately from Spain. Soon
the steppe-folk, passing through Galicia and southern Silesia, entered Bohemia, and
some, at any rate, of the Beaker-folk moved northwards. Lord Abercromby^ has
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shown how they left through the Elbe gap and passed northwards
between the valleys of the Weser and the Rhine. Some went further
north to Jutland, where we find them introducing the single grave
culture, characterised by the presence of beakers and those per-
forated stone axes, which we have met with before in the Tripolje
area.
Others passed into the low countries, where they occupied the
region lying between Utrecht and Gelderland in the south and
FIG. 7.
NORTHERN BEAKER. Drcuthe iu thc north.*' Thence some passed to this country. Lord
Abercromby beUeves that they crossed the channel at the narrowest
point, and passed westward and northward by land."** It seems more likely,
however, that though the crossing may actually have been made by the Straits of
Dover, the Beaker-folk coasted along the southern and eastern shores of Great
Britain, for maritime trafi&c was no new thing in these parts. Some, who landed
near the Moray Frith, seem to have been accompanied by a few pure Alpines,"^ whose
blood has left a marked effect on the present population of Aberdeenshire.*^ While
they settled in the upland regions of England and Scotland, especially on the open
downs and limestone hills, they penetrated very Uttle to the west, which was
dominated by the Prospectors. Few signs of their presence appear in Wales, and
none that can be depended upon in Ireland.*'
It has been thought by some that they spoke some form of Aryan or
Indo-European tongue, and it has been conjectured that it was they who introduced
44 Abercromby (1912) i. 16, 66 ; Crawford (1912) 1- 190.
45 Aberg (1916) map i.
4« Abercromby (1912) i. 67, 68.
47 Lowe (1902-1904).
48 Grey & Tocher (1900).
49 Crawford (1912) 1. 188, 189 ; Abercromby {1912) i. 38, 39.