Page:Prehistoric Britain.djvu/174

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166
PREHISTORIC BRITAIN

still carries, its surplus waters to Lake Bienne. The geographical position of the site, commanding the great highway between Constance and Geneva, and the vast preponderance of weapons of war among the relics found on it, unmistakably point to its having been a military station. Nor is there evidence a wanting to suggest that its end was a tragic catastrophe. The quantity of human bones, representing some thirty or forty individuals, with skulls said to have sword-cuts on their top; the number of abandoned swords, about half of which were unsheathed; the incongruous medley of relics found by M. E. Vouga at the bottom of the ancient river-bed, comprising swords, lances, axes, chains, razors, various wooden implements, fragments of a large vase, an entire wheel and other parts of a wagon, together with the bones of horses and oxen—all indicate that the onslaught was sudden and successful. The discovery of characteristic Roman remains, such as coins, tiles, pottery, bricks (one with the mark of the 21st legion, "Rapax"), on and around the site of La Tène leaves little doubt that the captors of the Oppidum were the Romans.

The La Tène culture, having its centre of development considerably to the west of Hallstatt, spread far and wide on the Continent, reaching Scandinavia on the north, the British Isles on the west and Bosnia on the east.

A mere glance at the Hallstatt and La Tène groups of antiquities shows that a gradual