IRON AGE Definition.—Care must be taken, in discussing the period known as the early iron age of Europe, to distinguish between the first appearance of wrought iron in any locality and the be ginning of the local iron age. The period in question belongs to the history or prehistory of the European continent and islands; and with due qualifications for various countries, covers the thou sand years immediately preceding the birth of Christ. It normally follows the bronze age, when that metal (an alloy of copper and tin) was used not only for objects of luxury, as it is to-day, but also for household and agricultural implements ; but in most parts of Africa it seems to have succeeded the stone age, bronze being almost unknown there in prehistoric times. Egypt, however, is an exception to the rule in Africa, and has a chronological system which helps to establish the limits of the iron age in other coun tries.
Though the early iron age of Egypt did not begin till about Boo B.C. (between the 22nd and 25th dynas ties), when the metal was produced locally and passed into general use, there are many iron objects preserved from much earlier dates, and the question has been raised whether they were of me teoric or telluric origin—that is, whether made from metallic masses which reached this planet from space and contained a large percentage of nickel ; or from local iron ores reduced in some kind of furnace. A recent analysis of the lump found with copper im plements and a mirror of the 6th dynasty at Abydos (now in the British Museum) shows that no nickel is present in the rusted surface, and only minute traces of it in the black crystalline core, which contained also traces of phosphate, sulphur, carbon and a notable quantity of copper. The inference is that even at that early date (2700-2500 B.c.) iron was being obtained from the local ores by primitive metallurgical processes, and not from meteoric sources. The earliest known example in Egypt is the group of oxidized iron beads found by Wainwright at El Gerzeh, dated about 4000 B.C. ; and there is documentary evidence of the authenticity and early date of the iron tool found inside the great pyramid of Khufu at Gizeh, dating from the 4th dynasty (about 3100 B.c.) . Other early specimens are quoted by J. N. Friend, who gives evidence that hard rocks can be chiselled with soft metals, provided due perseverance and patience are exercised: this in view of the contention that the stone of the pyramids can not have been shaped without iron or steel tools. It should be observed that the earliest iron objects in Egypt and elsewhere are chiefly weapons and ornaments, not tools which had to wait for the iron age properly so called.
Biblical references to iron are of interest in connection with the view that the Philistines (1 Samuel, xvii. 5) were connected with Crete and found a refuge in Palestine when Crete lost command of the sea and gave way to the Myce naeans and Greeks of the Eastern Mediterranean. The iron chariots of Sisera in the days of the Judges gave the Canaanites an enor mous advantage over the Israelites (Joshua, xvii. 16; Judges i. 19) ; but Lebanon soon became an industrial centre, and David collected iron in abundance for Solomon's temple, which was, however, for ritual reasons, erected without the use of iron tools. From the time of Amos (middle of the 8th century, B.c.) iron was in general use amongst the Hebrews as well as the Syrians, and smelting furnaces were known to the later Hebrew writers. It may be added that the passage in 1 Samuel, xiii. 19—"Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords and spears"—is regarded by Cheyne and Black (Encyc. Bibl. under Samuel, Books, col. 4,275) as an incredible statement, and merely a later interpolation in the text.
Researches in Crete during the last 3o years have given a chronological standard only inferior to Egypt for dating the prehistoric finds of Europe; and it is generally admitted that the iron age began in the island about Iloo B.c. Iron was certainly known locally before that date, but was re garded as a precious metal, and in 1927 a cube of it was found by E. J. Forsdyke in a sealed tomb-deposit at Knossos dating from about I goo B.C. Another stage in its adoption is marked by mention of it in Homer, e.g. Iliad, xxiii., 834, the poem no doubt dating from the full iron age of Greece but referring to the period about 1200 B.C. It was given as an athletic prize, but clearly for the production of tools and implements rather than weapons. Both Crete and Greece are noticed in separate articles, and it is only in connection with the iron age of Central Europe that they are mentioned here, in order to fix the route and period of the intro duction of iron into Europe. The theory that the Achaeans (q.v.) brought the new culture from the Danube into the Bronze Age areas of Greece and the islands has not been widely accepted, but there is little doubt that the Dorian (q.v.) invasion played that role and put an end to the Mycenaean dominion, at least on the mainland. The Greeks called it the Return of the Heraclids or sons of Hercules, and dated the event about '104 B.e., approxi mately 8o years after the fall of Troy. That the newcomers were of alien race is indicated by their practice of cremation, the dead having been buried unburnt as a rule during the bronze age. Their civilization was evidently on a low level compared with that of the people they conquered; and the change from the Myce naean to the Geometric style of pottery was contemporary with, even if not due to, their arrival from the barbarian north about 105o B.C. Novel types of the sword and brooch are seen in late Mycenaean association, and specially striking are the brooches of spiral wire (as fig. 5) discovered at. Sparta, as these are obvi ously connected with those of the Hallstatt (q.v.) area and period in Central Europe. The name is derived from a salt-mining site in the Salzkammergut, Upper Austria, and the period marks the first appearance of the Celts or at least of peoples speaking the Celtic language.
Recent excavations have thus given precision to prehistoric chronology in an area for which no written documents exist, and link up the bringers of iron into Central Europe with personages in Greek history. Whether the Dorians were Celt in origin is a secondary question of terminology; but the Greek connection may be expected to throw light on the nationality and tongue of the Hallstatt invaders who are often credited with the introduction of iron.
With all due caution regarding the differ ences between Celtic blood-relationship and the use of the Celtic idiom, it is generally agreed that the Celts were located in Central Europe (the upper Rhine valley and the later Roman provinces of Rhaetia and Noricum) at the time when the use of iron spread from that very region, and they are known to have migrated in force to distant parts of Europe where their former presence can be traced in place-names and historical allusions. The Hallstatt culture may not have been Celtic at first, but in any case no people of Celtic speech can be traced on the map before the Hall statt period, though the language was closely allied to Latin and was apparently the last to break off from the Aryan stem. Phil ologists no longer allow a Celtic population (whether by blood or language) in Britain, for example, during the Bronze Age, and in sist that the Celtic connection cannot be earlier than the 7th century B.C. This agrees fairly well with recent archaeological evidence, but does not give an upper limit of date for the Celtic occupation of Central Europe.
The legendary home of iron is North-east Asia Minor where the Chalybes (mentioned by Aeschylus in the 6th century B.e.) once had a kind of monopoly; but about 200 miles to the south was Commagene (ubi ferrum nascitur, the birthplace of iron), which also has serious claims to priority. Prof. Gowland mentioned two important districts in Western Asia where iron ores are very extensive and remains of early iron manufacture are found; but he preferred the south east angle of the Black sea (ancient Paphlagonia and Pontus), which includes iron deposits along the slopes and foot-hills of mountains near the coast. At the north-eastern end of this area as well as north of the Caucasus, Ernest Chantre excavated cem eteries which yielded weapons and other iron objects closely allied to the Hallstatt products of Europe.
Though recognizing the prevailing uncertainty as to the begin nings of metallurgy, the late Jacques de Morgan was in favour of an oriental origin for iron, and thought that the art would have reached the Ligurians of Central Europe through some Conti nental trade-current as well as by way of the Mediterranean. "The Celts and the Dorians must have been the principal propa gators of the iron industry . . . it is generally agreed that the Celts came from the east by the valley of the Danube." Apart rom striking analogies in weapons and ornaments, in brooches and pottery found in Russian Armenia and the Hallstatt area of Europe, he insisted rather on the introduction of naturalism into the geometric art of the bronze age. Both in South-east Russia and in Persia products of the early Iron Age are characterized by representations of men and animals "of which both technique and style seem to derive entirely from the Geometric." This points to a development in situ of a civilization that was destined to spread to the Atlantic, and appeared suddenly in Central Europe as a new and independent creation. It is of interest to note in this connection Prof. J. L. Myres' theory that the Sigynnae, men tioned by Herodotus (v. 9) as living beyond the Danube and north of Thrace, may be identified with Strabo's Siginni of the Caucasus, and possibly the Sequani of the Jura, who extended later to the neighbourhood of Paris. The first two are said to have worn Median costume (trousers, like the Gaulish braccae, breeches), and to have driven shaggy ponies attached to carts. Herodotus adds that the Ligurians called the Sigynnae pedlars; and there is reason to associate a particular form of iron spear like the Gaulish gaesurn and the Roman pilum with these people. Their extensive wanderings might account for its occurrence even in Cyprus, and it may be recalled that the Galates who dominated Gaul in the early iron age had settlements as distant as Galatia in Asia Minor.
A new view of the Galates has been put forward by Dr. Jules Guiart, who distinguishes them from the three recognized human types of Western Europe—(i.) the tall, blond, long-headed (dolichocephalic) Nordics; (ii.) the short, dark, short-headed (brachycephalic) Celts of Central Europe, the Alpine race ; and (iii.) the short, dark, long-headed Mediterranean race. In his opinion the Galates (Galatians, Gaulois) were tall, blond and short-headed people who in i boo B.C. were still roaming over the steppes of South Russia and eventually passed westward to the north of the Hercynian forest (Taunus to Carpathians), settling for a time near the North sea coast west of the Elbe, whence they proceeded to occupy most of the northern half of France in the Hallstatt period, thrusting the native Celtic popu lation almost to Marseilles and the Auvergne (to judge by the physical characteristics of the modern departments). It should be added that Celts and Galates were regarded as distinct peoples by Bertrand, whose arguments were amplified by Piroutet in 1920 (L'Anthropologie, xxx., 51). The latter sees in the Marne in humations in trenches a Galatian population distinct from the true Celts, the latter being responsible for the barrows (grave mounds, tumuli) over cremated burials in East and North-east France, as well as in South Germany. There is, in his view, no authority for the Celts before the second stage of the Hallstatt period (say 700 B.e.). Their arrival is put much later by Schliz (Hoops, Reallexikon, under Rassenfragen), who regards the Flach graber (flat-graves, without barrows) of La Tene II. (about 400 B.c.) as the earliest traces of the Celts, who came from Gaul, the chief centre of brachycephaly in Western Europe ; but he is care ful to add that these Celts represent a blend of blond long-heads (Nordic) and dark short-heads (Alpine), and correspond to the classical description of the Celtic warrior : they are brachy cephalic blonds.
Whether lineally descended from it or not, the Hallstatt culture succeeds the bronze age of Central Europe; and, with Austria and South Germany as a centre, radi ates in several directions. Intercourse with the south was by this time active, and there was a close connection with the Bologna area, where early iron age finds are abundant and are grouped un der the name of Villanova (q.v.) (a suburb of Bologna). The con tact with Thrace and the Caucasus is not so clear as with Illyria and the neighbourhood of Venice or with Eastern Germany (the Lausitz or Lusatian area) ; but it was mainly westward that the new culture spread via Switzerland and the Vosges to Eastern France, and later to the Atlantic coast as well as to Spain and Britain. This last movement is attributed to the Celts, a mobile and a conquering people; but most authorities attribute the Hall statt culture of Central Europe to the Illyrians, who may have influenced the Germans on the north-east of what has been called the Celtic cradle. Hut-urns (sepulchral vessels of pottery made in the form of contemporary dwellings) are of frequent occur rence in Mecklenburg and near the mouth of the Vistula, and suggest some connection in the 7th century B.C. with Italy, though the type is also found from time to time in widely separated parts of South-eastern Europe, and in Italy (Alba Longa) is hardly later than 90o B.C.
The iron age of Italy forms part of the his tory of the peninsula, and need only be summarized here in con nection with Central Europe. The terramara (q.v.) culture, spreading from the lakes to the Apennines, really belongs to the bronze age; but this is attributed by some to the Italici, why were later responsible for the Villanova culture, with their head quarters at Bologna, and are also credited with the foundation of Rome in 753 B.C. Villanova is five miles east of Bologna, and the district contained ancient cemeteries named after their modern proprietors (Benacci and Arnoaldi) and the local Charterhouse (Certosa, one mile west of Bologna). The last dated from the Etruscan conquest (late 6th century), when the name was changed to Felsina, and there was a Gaulish period (under the Boii) before the Romans colonized it in 18g B.C. under the name of Bononia. The Etruscans (immigrants from Asia Minor) first came into contact with the Villanovans about 85o B.C. in Etruria and Latium, where they soon asserted their supremacy, and buried their dead unburnt in oriental style, using in succession the shaft, trench, corridor and chamber; whereas the early Villanovans practised cremation, which gradually gave way to inhumation as at Hall statt. Their civilization was of a high order, now fully represented at Bologna; and the bronzes at least were largely due to Greek traffic with the Etruscan coast. The pails (situlae) are conical (figs. 2, 2a) with lids and zones embossed with figure subjects representing contemporary life; and they have been regarded as the nearest approach to the shield of Achilles. An orientalizing tendency has been noticed in bronzes and other artistic products of Central Europe dating from the middle Hallstatt period (about 700-600 B.c.), contrasting with the earlier geometric and later classical styles (see HALLSTATT and VILLANOVANS).
In the Hallstatt period inhumation (bur ial of the dead unburnt) below a tumulus (grave-mound, barrow) was the rule in South Germany and in Eastern Gaul; and in the succeeding period (La Tene I.) the practice continued, with occa sional cremation, in districts profoundly affected by the Hall statt civilization. Old barrows re-used, or newly-constructed mounds of this period are found in Haute Marne, Burgundy, Franche-Comte, South Germany and South-west Bohemia. On the other hand, cemeteries without mounds, containing the unburnt body, are found on the outer fringe, in Gaul and Bohemia; and Dechelette concluded that barrows marked the original Celtic area in Europe, settled ever since the bronze age ; whereas the vast cemeteries without mounds, as in Champagne, North Bo hemia and Cisalpine Gaul, belonged to conquering tribes who originally came from the Celtic area. Dechelette considered the barrow area and the adjacent right bank of the Rhine as the primitive home of the Celts.
In a recent study of the upper Rhine population who burnt their dead and buried them in cemeteries called urn-fields without surface indications (unlike their bronze age predecessors of the Hiigelgraber, the Grave-mound or Barrow people), Georg Kraft traces some elements in their pottery and bronze types to the south-east, others to the north-east, others again to the indigenous population that became subject to these invaders. The most likely people seem to be Illyrians moving from east to west, and participating in the great migrations which account for the pass age of Thracians, Phrygians and Armenians into Asia Minor via the Bosporus and Dardanelles about 118o B.C.; the Dorian in vasion of Greece about no() B.C. ; the entry of certain Balkan peoples into Italy, and the western extension of the Lausitz (Lu satian) culture of Eastern Germany. It is still an open question whether the urn-field people were Illyrians or a blend of Illyrians, Celts and other races, but the invasion of South-west Germany at this time is generally accepted, and archaeologically it coincides with the beginnings of the Hallstatt culture, though grave-mounds are still found in the Giindlingen area and period (Hallstatt B) .
The urn-fields have yielded an unexpected variety of pottery and bronze, the most typical being urns with cylindrical neck and bulging body, and bronze armlets tapering at both ends, with spiral wire terminals. Schumacher dates the early urn-fields about 1200-1000 B.C. and regards the people as coming into South-west Germany from the south-east, much as the Ribbonware (Band keramik) folk had done centuries before. They spread northward down the Rhine to the Saar and Eifel, and betray in their house building and burial rites a close connection with the Italici of upper Italy; though this may be explained either by original con tiguity or by blood relationship. They were good agriculturists, living in imposing villages established in the most prolific areas. The later urn-fields (about i 000–Soo B.c.) mark the opening of the early iron age (Hallstatt A), when the indigenous popula tion was pressed northwards into the mountains and side valleys of the Rhine by invaders provided with a certain amount of iron and addicted to agriculture. The pottery is made without the wheel, and includes urns, bowls and platters apparently copied from metal patterns; of bronze are small cups with handles, long pins with globular heads, brooches made of twisted wire, and sets of pendants designed to jingle (fig. 5).
The leading authorities on the iron age of Germany allow two centuries of overlap with the bronze age, and begin the second stage about Boo B.c., Giindlingen near Frei burg (Baden) being the typical site for the 8th century (Hall statt B). The contemporary swords (figs. 6-8) were either of bronze in imitation of the late bronze age type, with exagger ated chapes (scabbard-ends) of winged form; or of iron, emanat ting from Noricum (the modern Styria and Carinthia, with parts of Austria, Bavaria and Salzburg—the chief European centre of the industry) and attaining huge proportions, with a two-edged blade for cutting and a broad point not suitable for thrusting.
The pottery urns (fig. 4) generally have a constricted neck and sharply out-turned lip, evidently an imported type ; but there is some doubt as to the funeral rite, and perhaps both cremation and inhumation were practised.
The next century (7th B.e.) , corresponding to Hallstatt C, saw certain changes in the material culture, and the typical sites are Salem (representing Wurttemberg and Baden) and Koberstadt (Langen near Darmstadt, for Odenwald and Taunus). The former is about six miles north of the Lake of Constance, which in antiq uity was known as Laces Venetus and was therefore presumably controlled by the Venetians. The burials were mostly unburnt, and besides long iron swords there was an abundance of brightly coloured pottery, with panels and zones including geometrical de signs, the urns having more open mouths and bulging shoulders than in the preceding century. Some of the burial mounds cer tainly contained unburnt skeletons. The Giindlingen and Salem groups have been traced across the upper Rhine and into Alsatia, entering France by the Burgundian gate and the Meurthe-Moselle valley; whereas the Koberstadt people kept more to the right bank of the Rhine, crossing later at Worms and Mainz. The Ger mans then lay to the north and Ligurians to the west, where they are noticed by Herodotus about 450 B.C., at any rate in the neigh bourhood of Marseilles. Rademacher points out that on either side of the Rhine between Mainz and Bonn, extending from the Saar to the Fulda and again to the Saale, Celtic graves of the 6th century contained skeletons, whereas further down the Rhine barrows were raised over the cremated remains. This period (Hallstatt D) is marked by a change to short, pointed swords, generally with forked or "horseshoe" pommels (fig. 9 ) ; and the scabbard of one well-known example shows a cavalry leader with a sword, but spears only in the hands of troopers and infantry. The helmet, shield and cuirass are almost unknown in the Hall statt area of Germany though common further east ; and it was on their occurrence in such places as Glasinac (a plateau in Bosnia) and in the Homeric poems that the late Sir William Ridgeway chiefly based his theory that the Achaeans were a Hallstatt people from the Danube, but ultimately of Celtic and Nordic origin. Many of the hill-forts in Central and Western Europe are now attributed to the Hallstatt people, who (like the Normans in England) kept down the countries they invaded by establishing fortified posts in strong positions. In the majority of cases they burnt their dead and used cinerary urns of pottery; but it is remarkable that at Hallstatt itself burnt and unburnt burials have been found in almost equal numbers, and it is usual to assign the cremated burials, which are the more richly furnished, to the dominant race of invaders, and the poorer graves with skeletons to their indigenous subjects. The cemetery was systematically excavated by Ramsauer between 1846 and 1863, and the bulk of the finds may be seen in Vienna.
The site owed its wealth and distinction to the salt mines which were exploited in the early iron age, but other methods of obtaining salt were practised in the same period. Brine-springs near Halle and in the valley of the Saale (Saxony) and near Marsal in the Seille Valley (Lorraine), for instance, were evaporated by running the liquid over heated pottery of the coarsest description (called briquetage) ; and a similar process was employed on the coasts of Belgium and Brittany. In Eng land salt mines do not seem to have been worked till Roman times, but the coastal Redhills of Essex which have yielded pottery of the early iron age, may be the debris of a process for extracting salt from sea-water; and Pliny (Nat. Hist. xxxi., 7) records such an industry in Gaul and Germany (see also Tacitus, Annals,
57).
The change in the main armament of the Hallstatt period may have been due to the growing influence of North Italy on the Alpine and sub-Alpine districts, but Greek influence manifests itself in the second half of the early iron age (La Tene period). It is clear that the leading "barbarians" (non-classical peoples) from the 5th century B.C. down to the Roman empire were Celts, or at least spoke a dialect or dialects of the Celtic language; and the new sword pattern may mark the advent or the emergence of the Celts, whose martial and artistic achievements are now generally recognized. The period extends from about 450 to 5o B.C. and derives its name from a famous Swiss site (La Tene, the Shallows) (q.v.) at the east end of Lake Neuchatel, which was occupied probably between 25o and ioo B.C. as a military post or arsenal ; but the richest and earliest finds of this Celtic culture are on the middle Rhine and in Eastern France (Champagne). In the 6th century these people are known to have been settled in the Rhone valley and round the lakes of Switzerland and North Italy, but their earlier home is unknown, and their conquests unrecorded till the sack of Rome in 390 B.C. A plausible view is that they were Nordic warriors from the Baltic, marching in command of Alpine soldiery through Europe from end to end in search of plunder, rich lands to settle on, and a share in the luxuries of Mediterranean life.
In the first phase of La Tene culture (La Tene I.) burials on either side of the upper Rhine were richly furnished, but those of La Tene II. are less pretentious, and cemeteries of flat or sur face graves (Flachgrdber) came into fashion, containing the un burnt body, though there were numerous exceptions to this rule. The spread of cremation in the third phase of La Tene is attrib uted to the growing influence and the southern extension of the Germanic peoples of Northern Europe, where cremation was indigenous. This is in agreement with the historical record, for about i oo B.C. Teutonic tribes broke through the Celtic frontier, which is placed by Dechelette for the 3rd and 4th centuries B.C. a little south-west of Leipzig (where Celtic inhumations met the German cremations). Before the German advance, the Celts had occupied the middle Rhine and South-west Germany, Bohemia, Moravia, part of Silesia and lower Austria, not to mention suc cessful expeditions to Italy, Greece and Asia Minor. In the period of La Tene, trade was almost as well organized as in Roman times, and the Rhone became the principal highway of commerce for Western Europe, Greek products being distributed through Mar seilles and the colonies in North-eastern Spain, in competition with Northern Italy which had enjoyed a monopoly in the Hall statt period.
In Central European unburnt burials of La Tene II. and III. are sometimes found cup-shaped pieces of electrum (gold with silver) called "little rainbow dishes" (Regenbogenschiisselchen), mostly in Bavaria and Wurttemberg, the German name probably being derived from the superstitious belief that they may be found where the rainbow meets the earth, many having been washed out of the earth by heavy rain. Another explanation is that the device on some of them was taken for a rainbow, though it is more like the rising sun. Any resemblance to the original types was soon lost, but the compara tive abundance of money in Gaul points to considerable trade and intertribal communication before the conquest of the coun try by Julius Caesar (5o B.c.) . In the south silver copies were made, with more or less dexterity, of coins struck at Marseilles and other Greek colonies on the coast or in North-eastern Spain; and on the Danube Celtic moneyers preferred the silver stater of Philip II. of Macedon to his gold stater (fig. 14), which served as a model in the centre and north of France as in Britain. The gold stater was a little heavier than the British sovereign or pound sterling; and Gaulish copies were subject to progressive deterior ation both in weight and artistic merit.
The oldest historical inhabitants of the Spanish peninsula were the Iberians, but there is a possibility of Ligurians in the north about 500 B.C., and Herodotus (484-425, B.c.) records that the westernmost Celts were neighbours of the Cynetes, who inhabited the south of Portugal. This agrees well enough with the archaeological evidence of a Celtic invasion, flanking the Pyrenees, early in the 6th century. The Celtiberian name testifies to a mixed population, and there is a marked absence of any early Hallstatt types, the earliest swords, for ex ample, being derivatives of the type with horse-shoe (antennae) pommel (fig. 9). Cremation was the funeral rite among the Celtic invaders, who reached the middle course of the Tagus and Guadiana; and the Hallstatt pottery in their graves is not associated with Greek wares, the influence of the Greek settle ments on the coast (Rhoda, Emporiae) not being felt till the period of La Tene, when the cultural development ran parallel to that of Gaul, but produced some peculiar local forms, especially brooches and weapons. Coinage began in the 3rd century B.C., Greek and Sicilian types being imitated, but the Carthaginians supervened (232-219) ; and the Roman conquest, which culmi nated in the fall of Numantia (1 33 B.c. ), may be considered the end of the Early Iron Age in the peninsula.
The occurrence of a few brooches (fig. r ;) of Certosa type (named of ter the Charterhouse outside Bologna) gives a limiting date for the Hallstatt cemetery and period, the site being within 4om. of Noreia, which gave its name to Noricum and is generally considered one of the earliest centres of iron-working in Europe. In Austria generally the bronze age culture gradually gave way to iron, and in late Hallstatt times there was a local revival in bronze-working, no doubt stimulated by trade with Northern Italy. Nearly all the local burials of that date were under grave-mounds (tumuli), and the dead were cre mated. In the succeeding period (La Tene) the polychrome pottery characteristic of the Hallstatt period disappears and gives place to wheel-made ware, the first proof of the potter's wheel in this area. The embossed bronzes show an orientalizing tend ency, and scrolls and palmettes indicate contact with Greek civilization. Italian influence did not, however, cease till the next stage (La Tene B), when the country became predominantly Celtic, and dependent on Western Europe. The Celts had ex tended their control to the Alpine area before they were finally incorporated in Roman provinces during the reign of Augustus. In the north-east they spread to Silesia and Western Galicia, and brought the culture of La Tene to East Germany and Poland, where Hallstatt survivals have been recognized but where the new civilization was firmly established only towards the end of the 2nd century B.C. Iron was then copiously used for weapons and ornaments ; and while cremation with cinerary urns was common in the south, the northern tribes (perhaps the original Burgundians) buried all that remained of the funeral pyre with out urns (Brandgrubengrdber), a custom that may have spread from the island of Bornholm.
the absence of a purely Roman period, the early iron age of Denmark runs on till the Migration period (5th century A.D.), and the date of its commencement falls in the 4th century B.C. when La Tene elements reached the Cimbric peninsula (Jutland). This phase is best represented in the moor (peat-bed) finds of Nydam and Thorsbjerg, including boats and iron weapons which were the predecessors of those brought to Britain by the Anglo-Saxons. Bronze swords of Hallstatt type found in Denmark cannot be taken as proof of a local iron age before La Tene, as
at one end of the amber trade-route across Europe and naturally received a larger share of southern metal-work in exchange for the amber of its coasts during the last centuries of its bronze age. Sweden, at least in the south, was at much the same stage of culture as Den mark, but the island of Gotland in the Baltic, as a trading centre, seems to have been somewhat.in advance of the mainland.
Iron Age in Norway.—Physical and economic conditions were different in Norway, where the bronze age is little more than a name and the early iron age is comparatively late. In deed there is little of the iron age till some of the best Roman products were introduced about A.D. I oo though it is generally assumed that Montelius' classification holds good. Another line has recently been taken by A. W. BrOgger of Oslo, who contends that in the pre-Roman period Norway had no bronze or iron for industrial or domestic purposes, and only became independent of foreign supplies about A.D. 35o when the Roman period elsewhere was drawing to a close, there being no period of Roman occupa tion in Norway, though the term is conveniently borrowed. Ac cording to this theory the stone age only came to an end with the general use of the iron axe, which enabled the population to clear the woodlands and bring something more than a coastal strip under cultivation. This was a turning-point as important as the introduction of domestic animals and agriculture; and after some tribal movements occasioned by the great migrations of the 4th and 5th centuries, the country entered on its later iron age, culminating in the splendid achievements and barbaric luxury of the Vikings. It is remarkable that there is hardly a trace of Celtic civilization in Norway—none of the characteristic weapons or artistic creations which were distributed over large areas of Europe in the last two or three centuries before Christ. Though cunning workers in metal themselves, the Celtic tribes, who were warriors first and last, did not communicate the craft to the Germans of the Continent or the related tribes of the Scandinavian peninsula. Norway owed its knowledge of iron and its first supply of weapons to the Romans, whose nearest depots were on the western frontier of Germany; but soon learnt the method of reducing its native ores, and with home-made imple ments turned eagerly to boat-building, an art which contributed largely to local prosperity in the Viking period.
In the second half of the bronze age it was the custom in Britain to burn the dead and erect funeral mounds of circular form (round barrows) over the ashes, with or without cinerary urns. Cemeteries of cremated remains in or under urns, without any superficial indications (urn-fields), have also been found, presumably late in the bronze age, though here and there containing objects of iron; and this association has led O. G. S. Crawford to attribute these graves to Celtic invaders, preferably of Goidelic (Gaelic) language and armed with the leaf-shaped sword of bronze (Antiquaries Journal, ii., 27). It should, how ever, be pointed out that according to philologists there are no traces of a Goidelic occupation of England, and the Gael only reached Scotland in the 5th century A.D. The very scarcity of iron objects in these urn-fields suggests their inclusion in the bronze age, as an iron age cannot be said to begin till the metal has passed into common use and is no longer an article of luxury. The varieties of the leaf-shaped sword referred to do not include the specific Hallstatt bronze sword, which has a spade-shaped prolongation of the hilt for a heavy pommel; and it is the latter type which characterizes the earliest Hallstatt phase abroad as well as in England : the inference is that other types are of the pure bronze age. All have been illustrated by Harold J. E. Peake who suspects that pottery with finger-tip ornament on raised bands was earlier than the bronze swords of Hallstatt type, and therefore contemporary with swords of the recognized bronze age patterns. Both pottery and swords represent in his opinion an earlier invasion from the Continent ; and the Hallstatt type of bronze sword was brought by people retreating before the sword of iron. In support of this he points out that the Sequani (dwellers on the Sequana, Seine), who belonged to the Q Celts (Goidelic), had bronze swords and were not disturbed by wield ers of the iron weapon, who apparently spoke a Brythonic lan guage (P Celts). He sees a corresponding association of sword pattern and dialect in Italy.
Till quite recently Britain has been denied a Hallstatt period, though in 1906 various Italian and Hallstatt types of brooches in the country were interpreted to mean at least commercial relations with Central Europe, and the argument was strengthened by the discovery of a cordoned bucket like fig. 3 (made in North Italy) at Brooklands, Surrey, in the following year. Brooches of La Tene I. type are common in certain parts of England (especially Wiltshire and neighbour ing counties), and that stage has been generally recognized as the beginning of the British iron age, but recent discoveries tend to demonstrate not only trade but occupation by people of Hall statt culture. Though most of the leaf-shaped swords must be referred to the bronze age, a few of the peculiar Hallstatt type have been found, and pottery is still better evidence of a new wave of population, for some distorted fragments found with a kiln at Eastbourne are not only of Hallstatt ware but were evi dently made on the spot, as wasters would not be imported. Earlier discoveries at Hengistbury Head, Hampshire, included fragments attributed to the same period but not so easily recog nizable; and these have been followed by a large number of typical fragments at All Cannings Farm near Devizes (Wilt shire), Scarborough (Yorkshire) and Park Brow near Worthing (Sussex). From these associations it may be possible to assign certain burials without mounds, in cinerary urns of cylindrical form with finger-nail impressions, to the first part of the early iron age, though it is not clear at what stage of the Hallstatt period these newcomers arrived, as the finds are at present few and sporadic. Unburnt burials of early La Tene date have been found (some with chariots) in Yorkshire, but more familiar are the urn-fields with cinerary urns of the pedestal type in South eastern England (as at Aylesford and Swarling in Kent, Welwyn in Hertfordshire, and on several sites in Essex) .
The artistic productions of this early iron age in Britain (as figs. 21-23) were at their best in the period between the in vasions of Julius Caesar and the conquest under Claudius (roughly 5o B.C.—A.D. 5o, known as La Tene IV.) ; but the sub ject is discussed elsewhere (under La Tene), and the examples given in the plate must here suffice. The coinage (fig. 15) was at first borrowed from Gaul, and later struck by the local tribes at Colchester, St. Albans, Silchester and other centres, the first inscriptions being in Roman characters. There had, however, been a currency here before coins were introduced, and in 1905 the iron bars adjusted to a certain weight standard, as Caesar relates, were recognized in a number of flat blades with roughly shaped handles (fig. 16) found chiefly in British earth-works and evidently conforming to a standard of 4,770 grains (3o9.7 grammes or about I'oz. avoirdupois), no less than six denom inations (fractions or multiples) being now recorded. They are almost confined to a square with its angles at Leominster, North ampton, Bridport and Portsmouth.
There are undoubted Hallstatt types in Ireland. E. C. R. Armstrong enumerated two dozen bronze swords with trapezium (or spade-shaped) pommels, one iron sword, seven winged chapes (end of sword-scabbards), seven pails (situlae) and other objects which, however, do not include bronze razors, cordoned buckets, swords with horse-shoe pommels (1aLe Hall statt), swan-necked pins or coloured pottery; but further ex cavation may fill some or all of these gaps, and the succeeding period of La Tene is better represented, though mostly in its later phases. The ancient Irish population seems to have con sisted of two main types : a short, dark, long-headed group of Mediterranean affinities (locally pre-Celtic), and a tall, fair, long-headed people of Nordic type, reprt,senting a Celtic in vasion a few centuries before Christ. The earliest traces of La Tene culture date about 30o B.C., and burials of the period seem to have been after cremation. Ireland is comparatively rich in stone monuments of La Tene character, from Turoe (Galway), Castlestrang (Roscommon) and Mullaghmast (Kildare) ; but on the other hand there are no coins or even a bar-currency of the period in the country. The artistic tendencies of the Celt may be seen in the local treatment of the brooch, sword-scabbards and enamel work, but only a few specimens can be dated by comparison with Continental types, and it was in Ireland that the Celtic artist took refuge and maintained the traditional style uninfluenced by the Roman empire which included the rest of Western Europe.
Dechelette, Manuel d'Archeologie, vol. Bibliography.-General.-J. Dechelette, Manuel d'Archeologie, vol. ii., parts 2, 3
; Jacques de Morgan, Prehistoric Man (1924) ; Maurice Piroutet, Contribution d l'etude des Celtes, (L'Anthropologie, xxix., xxx.) : J. Newton Friend, Iron in Antiquity (1926). Local.—Von Sacken, Das Grab f eld von Hallstatt (1868) ; Altertiimer unserer heid nischen Vorzeit, vol. v., arts. by Reinecke and Schumacher (191I) ; Karl, Schumacher, Siedelungs- and Kulturgeschichte der Rheinlands, I. Band, Die V orromische Zeit (1921) ; Rademacher, C., Niederrhein ische Hiigelgraberkultur, in Mannus, Erganzungsband iv., p. 112 ; Georg Kraft, Beitrage zur Kenntnis der Urnenfelderkultur in Sud deutschland, Bonner Jahrbiicher, 131, 154; J. L. Pie, Le Hradischt de Stradonitz (1906) ; P. Reinecke, La Tene-Denkmaler der Zone nord warts der Alpen (Festschrift des Centralmuseums zu Mainz, 1902) ; P. Vouga, La Tene (1923) ; D. Viollier, Les sepultures du second Age du Fer sur le plateau Suisse (1916) ; D. Randall-MacIver, Villanovans and Early Etruscans (1924) ; I. Undset, Das erste Au f treten des Eisens in Nord-Europa (1882) ; Sophus Muller, Nordische Altertumskunde, vol. ii. (1898) ; A. W. BrOgger, Kulturgeschichte des Norwegischen Al tertums (1926) . (Sir) John Evans, The Coins of the Ancient Britons (1864) , and Supplement (189o) ; T. Rice Holmes, Ancient Britain and Invasions of Julius Caesar (1907), Caesar's Conquest of Gaul, 2nd ed. (191I) ; British Museum Guide to Antiquities of the Early Iron Age, i925 (2nd ed.), from which the illustrations herewith are reproduced by permission; J. P. Bushe-Fox, Excavations at Hengistbury Head, Hants (Society of Antiquaries, 1915) ; Excavation of Urn-field at Swarling, Kent (Society of Antiquaries, 1925) ; Cyril Fox, Archaeology of the Cambridge Region (1923) ; A. Bulleid and H. St. G. Gray, The Glastonbury Lake Village vols. i., ii. (Glastonbury Antiquarian So ciety, 1911, 1917) ; Archaeologia (Society of Antiquaries of London), vol. lii. (Aylesford Cemetery).; idem. vol. lx. (i), (Early Iron Age burials in Yorks.) ; idem. vol. lxiii. (Welwyn, Herts) ; idem. vol. lxvii. (Lord Avebury's collection from Hallstatt) ; idem. vol. lxxvi. (Park Brow, Sussex) . Proceedings, Soc. Antiq. Lond. xx., 179; xxii., 338; xxvii., 91 (currency-bars) . (R. A. SM.)
