Page:Prehistoric Britain.djvu/185

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LATE CELTIC
177

the British Isles, it may be observed that the industrial and art products of Hallstatt are somewhat more pronounced in France than in Britain, probably because the former was nearer their eastern sources of distribution. Since these influences first reached French soil there is no reason to suppose that the new developments they engendered suffered any break in continuity till the advent of the Romans. Many of the tumuli, especially in the Marne district, such as that of La Gorge Meillet and Berru, disclosing burials of chiefs clad in full armour and laid alongside of their horses and chariots, must be placed much earlier than the date of the Oppidum La Tène; and it is probably to an extension of this custom to Britain that the analogous interments in Yorkshire must be assigned. It was during the La Tène civilization that the iron industry first reached Denmark, so that the Hallstatt period was but feebly represented in Scandinavian lands. This is quite in keeping with the opinion that the bronze industry reached these shores by way of the lower Danube, Hungary, and the southern shore of the Baltic—a route little affected by the Hallstatt civilization.

The same remarks apply to the lake-dwellings of Western Switzerland, many of which were in the full Bronze Age, till their termination during the La Tène period. Thus, while the Bronze Age was flourishing in the north of Europe, other culture currents, emanating from Ægean islands and the mainland of