The bronze age and the Celtic world - Universal History Library

8o THE BRONZE AGE AND THE CELTIC WORLD
into these isles the Goidelic or Gaelic dialects. This opinion has recently been restated
by M. Loth.5° This view has been well answered by Rice Holmes/' and his arguments
are as valid to-day as when they were written. We are forced to admit that we are
in total ignorance of the language spoken by the Beaker-folk.
It was at one time believed that they introduced into this country the knowledge
of bronze, and graphic pictures were drawn of the way in which, with their superior
weapons, they conquered the stone-using aborigines. Few, however, of their graves,
either here or in Jutland, contain objects of metal, and those which have been met
with seem to conform more to south-western than to Central European types.'" It
must not, however, be assumed too hastily that they were in complete ignorance of
metal, though they did not possess implements of that material on their arrival ; for,
as we have seen, the Tripolje people, in their period A, had used copper axes,
doubtless carried thither by ^gean traders, and the perforated axes, used in the Ukraine,
as in Jutland and Britain, seem as though copied from metal originals. It would be
more accurate to say that a tradition of the former use of metal may have lingered
among them, as of an article once possessed but long since lost.
5" Loth (1920) 259-288.
5" Holmes (1907) 195, 428-440.
5> Abercromby (1912) i. 54.