Chapter IX: Greek Lands and the Basis of Chronology (1)

We have seen in the last chapter that different types of leaf-shaped swords have been disseminated throughout various quarters of Europe, and we have found reason for believing that in Celtic lands at least their appearance signified a hostile invasion. If, as may well be the case, the same is true of other parts of Europe, we are dealing with a series of invasions, all starting from somewhere within the Celtic cradle, and affecting almost every part of the continent. Our purpose in this work is not so much to record evidence as to interpret it, to restore the main features of early history rather than to describe archæological remains. Now the backbone of history is chronology, and we cannot interpret our evidence satisfactorily unless we can place it in its true chronological setting. In discussing the seven types of swords an endeavour was made to arrange them in an orderly sequence, and thus to set up a relative chronology. In this chapter a positive system of dating will be attempted.

It is clear that it is to the south-east that we must first look for help, for in Greek lands documentary evidence reaches back some centuries further than it does elsewhere in Europe, and is preceded by an immense mass of tradition, much of which clearly belongs more to legend than to myth. These legends, moreover, have received intensive study, and their contents have been brought into line with archæological data.[353] Further than this we have the two swords found in Egypt, one of them engraved with a monarch’s name, so that a study of these south-eastern specimens should enable us to obtain one point, at least, in our system of dates.

Now it has been pointed out by Sir William Ridgeway[354] that certain people, whom he calls “Achæans,” entered Greece from the north, bringing with them certain elements of culture, which can best be matched in the Danube basin. These, according to the traditions preserved in the Iliad, were the immediate ancestors of the heroes of the Trojan War. Recently Dr. Wace,[355] who has made a careful study of the pre-Hellenic remains of the mainland of Greece, especially of the pottery, has pointed out that there is but one break in the ceramic evolution of that region, the introduction of geometric ware. This is, he believes, best explained by equating it with the Dorian invasion, which took place some generations after the siege of Troy. Dr. Wace has certainly made out a strong case, and we must accept his view that no invasion, in the strict sense of the term, preceded that of the Dorians; but while he would have us scrap the “Achæan” hypothesis in its entirety, we must, I think, consider awhile before dismissing all the evidence that Sir William Ridgeway has accumulated.

Much of Ridgeway’s archæological evidence is Hallstatt in type and, apparently at least, Hallstatt in date, and may well equate better with the Dorian than the “Achæan” movement, but the legends are not to be lightly swept aside, and we have the swords, which are admittedly pre-geometric, and so pre-Dorian, and may well antedate also the Trojan War. There is also the introduction into southern Greece of a type of palace, which seems to have developed in a more northerly clime.[356] We have, therefore, evidence for some intrusive elements entering Greek lands from the Danube basin, bringing with them swords of Central European type, a new type of domestic architecture, and, we may well believe, certain deities and beliefs of more northern origin,[357] yet the continuity of the ceramic culture shows that there had been no general displacement of the population.

Before attempting to decide between these conflicting views, it may be wise to consider the term “Achæan.” By this I mean only those people, who are the subject of Sir William Ridgeway’s hypothesis, and who organised the attack upon Priam’s Troy. They may, for all we know, be a people or merely a class, and their connection with the Achæans of the Peloponnese, discussed by Herodotus,[358] may be very remote. It seems clear, in fact, that the term as used by Herodotus connoted something very different from what the term meant to Homer, and what it signifies in the pages of Ridgeway.

Now the presence of these leaf-shaped swords in pre-Dorian Greece seems to postulate the presence of intruders from the Danube basin; the paucity of their number, all the more striking when we consider the extent of the excavations carried out in Greek lands, seems to indicate that these intruders were few. These swords had been, as we have seen, invented by the Nordic steppe-folk in Central Europe, and may sometimes have been used by their Alpine subjects. But for a few strangers to intrude into a foreign land needs on their part considerable courage and the spirit of adventure, features which we have found characteristic of the Nordic steppe-folk, and conspicuously lacking among the Alpines. We may, therefore, take it for granted that these intruders, who introduced the leaf-shaped swords into Greek lands, were of Nordic type and temperament.

The heroes of the Trojan War, as Ridgeway has pointed out, were newcomers to the land.[359] In most cases their grandfathers are mentioned, seldom a great-grandfather, unless it is to state that he was a god. Sometimes even the grandfather was a deity, as in the case of Polypoites, but usually when this is so we have reason for believing that the hero, like Nestor, the grandson of Poseidon, was an old man. The earliest ancestor was sometimes Zeus, but usually the pedigree is not actually traced to the divine forefather. In a large number of cases, especially of the minor heroes, they are said to be of the stock of Ares. Dr. Hall has suggested that Ares and his mistress Hera were the chief deities of these northern invaders.[360]

We hear very little in the Iliad of these first human ancestors of the “Achæans,” nor has later Greek legend much more to say about most of them. We have, however, various stories of heroes, arriving alone like Theseus, Perseus, Herakles, and Peleus, or perhaps accompanied by one friend like Amphitryon, at some Greek city. The hero is well received by the king of the city, and often relieves him of some difficulty, whether it be the repulse of a hostile attack, as in the case of Theseus and the Pallantids, or Amphitryon and the Telebœans, the punishment of robbers, such as Periphates, Sinis, Sciron, Cercyon or Damastes, or the slaying of wild beasts like the Cromyon sow, the Marathon bull, the Cadmeian fox, or the various monsters slain by Herakles. The king honours the visitor, the princess, like Ariadne, Comœtho or Polymela, falls in love with him, then some unfortunate accident occurs, as was the case with Ægeus, Acrisius, and Eurytion, and the king is slain. The hero then ascends the throne, marries the princess, and, as the fairy tales say, they lived happily ever after. Such is the almost universal burden of Greek legend, as it is of the _märchen_, which grew up in the northern forests.

It has been usual to interpret the stories of these heroes as referring to invading peoples, and to believe that the name of the chief only has survived, whereas the memory of the people has perished. That such was often the case is likely, but when dealing with the first “Achæan” intruders we must guard ourselves against taking this for granted. Dr. Wace’s arguments are all against the arrival of a fresh people at this time, for there is no introduction of new styles of pottery; on the other hand, there is nothing in his evidence antagonistic to the view that a few northern heroes, coming unaccompanied by men-at-arms, succeeded in making themselves masters of the cities of pre-Hellenic Greece. It is possible that in this case, as in many others, nineteenth century scholarship has been too clever and too critical, and that the legends as they have come down to us are nearer to the truth than the amendments which have been suggested.[361]

We shall be able to judge better if we look at the actions of Nordics in later times. At the downfall of the Roman empire it was not unusual for quite small bands of Nordics to become masters of even large territories; some of the Norsemen made themselves, single-handed, kings of the cities in South Russia. Later Rollo, with but a handful of men, became Duke of Normandy and defied the power of the Carolingian monarch; later still small groups of Normans conquered Sicily, and set up their rule in many places in the Mediterranean region. Lastly, how often have Englishmen, sometimes quite alone, gained great influence in large communities of aliens, and been in a position to make themselves kings had they not preferred to annex the community to the British Empire? Thus has much of the Empire been built up. But by far the best parallel is the case of the first Rajah of Sarawak.

When such events have taken place in historical times, even in our own day, we cannot consider it as impossible that wandering Nordic heroes from the Danube basin, accompanied perhaps by a faithful henchman, should have found it possible to establish themselves as kings over the trading cities of Mycenean Greece.

But let us glance for a moment at these trading cities and their inhabitants. The original people of the Greek mainland, like the bulk of the present population, seem to have been of that eastern Alpine or Dinaric type, scarcely distinguishable from the bulk of the population of Asia Minor. These are tall dark people, with small but broad heads, which are very high and somewhat conical at the top, though sometimes the excessively flattened occiput gives the impression that the head has been sliced from the top of the forehead to the back of the neck. As far as one can judge from the available evidence, these were the only inhabitants of the bulk of the peninsula, until coastal settlements were made by the Cretans, some in the second Middle Minoan period, but most of them at the beginning of the Late Minoan.[362]

The original inhabitants of Crete seem to have been typical members of the Mediterranean race, but during Early Minoan times we find a few broad-headed people arriving in the east of the island, and gradually spreading over the eastern half.[363] It has been taken for granted, quite naturally, that this broad-headed infusion came from Asia Minor, the population of which at that time must have been exclusively broad-headed. But about the time that these broad-heads appear in Crete we find evidence in the island of the development of the copper mines at Gournia,[364] and of the accumulation of gold ornaments, such as the treasure of Mochlos.[365] There are also signs of the existence of an oversea commerce and of a trade in olive oil with Egypt.[366]

This leads us to wonder whether these broad-heads belonged to wanderers from Anatolia, or whether it is not more probable that here we have evidence of the arrival of the Prospectors, who seem always to be the organisers of oversea trade and of mining operations. We must remember too, that by 2800 /B.C./, not long after the beginning of the Early Minoan period, the Sumerians were trading in the Mediterranean, and knew, if they had not already settled in, Crete.[367]

These are details of which we cannot speak with certainty at present, but all the isolated data available are best explained by believing that the great activities of the trade in the Ægean and especially in Crete were organised by and were in the hands of Prospectors, who had come originally, though not necessarily directly, from the Persian Gulf, and who were employing the Mediterranean aborigines as mariners, miners and craftsmen. When in Middle and Late Minoan times these Cretans made settlements on the mainland, in the Argolid, in Bœotia, and at Pylos, settlements which are recorded in the legends of Danaus, Cadmus and Neleus, we can well believe that, while some of their subjects were of the Mediterranean race, and others, perhaps, drawn from the Alpine aborigines of the mainland, the rulers were in all cases Prospectors.

Professor Ure[368] has recently shown us that in Greek lands, as well as in renaissance Italy, we find two types of rulers, who may be described as Kings and Tyrants. The king is a military chief, of aristocratic bearing and origin, and one more often interested in the territory than in the city. The tyrant, on the other hand, is essentially a merchant or a business man, his outlook bourgeois, and he rules over a city and its trading connections, rather than over a wide expanse of land. In Greece, Ure believes, the introduction of metal currency caused the earlier kings to be replaced by these tyrants or merchant princes. He has supported his thesis by a vast mass of evidence, which we need not repeat here, but in his conclusions I think we may see the supplanting of the Nordic lord by the Prospector, as times became more settled and trade, rather than fighting, became the more important occupation.

Many of Ure’s arguments would apply equally to the Minoan age, when piracy had been put down and oversea trade was booming. The rise of the Greek tyrants was due, he thinks, to the rise of a coinage, just as the modern plutocrat has risen to power on the development of paper currency; the Minoan tyrant, comes to the front as metal, an easily portable and exchangeable commodity, succeeds flint or obsidian. It was into these trading cities, each governed by a Prospector tyrant, that I believe these Nordic “Achæan” adventurers to have arrived from the Danube basin with their leaf-shaped swords.

Now there are two classes of men, both of them wielding large powers over others, whose characters have been sharply contrasted by many writers. The kingly type is found in noblemen, at any rate of the old school, mediæval knights, landed proprietors and officers of the army and navy; the same traditions hold good in the upper ranks, at least, of the civil service and among the professional classes. The relations between these lords and the people committed to their charge, whether subjects, tenants or employés, are usually good, and friction rarely arises unless the subject class is of an alien race. These kings or lords have usually been able to retain for generations the respect of their subjects, often to inspire very great love and devotion.

On the other hand the leader, whose claim to his position rests only upon wealth or the power to create wealth, is often even extravagantly generous, and has usually ingratiating manners, which are in sharp distinction from the _hauteur_ which is more characteristic of the lord; yet he rarely makes himself loved or even liked by those dependent on him, even though his actions be kind and his judgments just. This contrast has furnished a theme to many writers, and has been ably summarised by Ure,[369] who quotes in support pregnant passages from the works of H. G. Wells[370] and William James.[371] Such differences, Ure thinks, distinguished the king from the tyrant, and the same contrast, I would suggest, held good between the “Achæan” heroes and the rulers of the Minoan cities.

We have seen reason for believing that the population of the Minoan cities of Greece consisted of Mediterraneans and perhaps some few Alpines, under the rule of a Prospector tyrant. The latter’s rule was possibly just, he made money for his city, but most of all for himself, and, in spite of occasional fits of lavish generosity, he would not have been popular. He was engaged in exploiting the proletariat, and they were fully conscious of the fact. Though his manner was outwardly ingratiating, he was distrusted by his subjects, who felt that they were but pawns in his game. Thus the sword swayed over his head as over that of Damocles, held only by a slender thread; revolutions or rumours of revolutions were of constant occurrence, and the tyrant, intent on money making, had little leisure or inclination, even if he had the capacity, for maintaining order or of inspiring loyalty in the hearts of his subjects.

We can well imagine that the arrival in such a community of one or two northern barbarians, rough and rude, but strong and honest, would have been like a breath of fresh air entering a stuffy room. The tyrant would have welcomed a man who could put down highwaymen or lead his mercenaries to battle. He would, perhaps, have made him chief of his police or generalissimo of the town forces, and, as the hero restored law and order and kept the populace quiet, he would have promised him much reward, including perhaps his daughter’s hand. All would have gone well until the tyrant, with the instinct of the Prospector to make a bargain and to get something for nothing, endeavoured, like Laomedon of Troy, to cheat his Nordic ally or to offer him a base substitute for promises made.

The Nordic, as incapable of understanding such double-dealing as of thus acting himself, would quite naturally have been incensed. We can picture him accusing the tyrant of dishonesty and ejecting him from his palace, when he would have fallen a speedy victim to the anger of his subjects. The hero would have placed himself upon the vacant throne with the help and goodwill of the people, who had admired his strength, courage and fair dealing. Lastly, he would, perhaps, have married the daughter of his predecessor, not so much from romantic motives as to establish more completely his right to the throne, for, despite what has been written to the contrary, some form of matrilinear succession seems to have obtained in Minoan Greece.[372]

The Greek legends referring to the early heroes are full of such details, and the above imaginary sketch may be taken as a composite picture of the kind of events which took place, in all probability, in many a city of pre-Hellenic Greece, as the leaf-shaped swords first made their appearance.

We have, hitherto, taken it for granted that these “Achæan” intruders were Nordic, and our reasons have been mainly the presence of the swords, the northern character of their palaces and the fact that such enterprises are in keeping with the subsequent behaviour of Nordic adventurers. But the identification, perhaps, requires further proof. The Nordics as we know were tall, fair and long-headed; how does this agree with what we know of the “Achæan” heroes and their forbears?

The whole tenour of the legends, attributing to them deeds requiring strength and endurance, certainly suggests that the heroes were considered in later days to have been above the average in stature. That they were fair-haired has been taken for granted by many writers.[373] It has been suggested, however, that the fact that Menelaus was called fair, signifies that he was in this respect an exception to the rule, and that the others were as dark as the majority of modern Greeks. Moreover, it has been pointed out that ξανθὀς may only mean brown, and that Menelaus had brown hair.[374]

The first argument certainly carries some weight, and does seem to imply that there was something exceptional in Menelaus’ fair hair. But the Atreidæ, according to fifth century legend, were Pelopids, and this is hinted, though not expressly stated, in the Iliad. Now other legends bring Pelops from Phrygia, though, of course, this may only signify that he was a Phrygian, who left the Briges before their departure for Asia. But the Pelopidæ, in their customs, differed from the other “Achæans.” Later legend attributes to them a type of endogamy, interpreted afterwards as incest, infant sacrifice, and cannibalistic habits. Æschylus[375] looks upon these customs as crimes, and attributes them to a curse upon the House of Tantalus. I think, however, we may see in the Pelopids, and perhaps in other groups of _op_ peoples, some non-Nordic type, most probably Alpines of some kind, who had accompanied the “Achæan” heroes southwards. That one of these should be fair-haired would be unusual, though by no means impossible if he had had a Nordic ancestress. If ξανθὀς ever meant brown it must have meant light brown or auburn, and its force would be equally as great as if it meant flaxen; the Mediterraneans and eastern Alpines never have light brown hair; it is not uncommon among Nordics.

Lastly we may take the case of the Thracians, who, as we have seen, were almost certainly the stock from which the “Achæans” were derived. According to Ridgeway[376] some of these were fair and some dark, that is to say a fair Nordic strain had entered a land peopled with dark Alpines, and the result was a red-haired strain (πυρρὀς), as is often the case when fair and dark strains have mixed.[377]

We have no right to expect from Homer, or any other Greek writer, an account of the head-form of the “Achæan” heroes. Nevertheless we find in the Iliad a word which gives us some indication on this point.[378] It is noticeable that all the people mentioned by name are captains of hosts, or members of the nobility; the Iliad only records the doings of the “Achæan” heroes. One exception only is there to this rule. At one moment the host, composed no doubt of Alpines and Mediterraneans, thinks of revolting. Their leader is a mob-orator, fond of arguing as is the way with Alpines, and we can have little doubt as to the racial affinities of Thersites. If we had any, one epithet used of him would satisfy us, for his head is described as φοξὀς. The exact meaning of this term has been a matter of dispute, but it is usually rendered “tapering to a point,” and the expression φοξὁς ἔην κεφαλἠν means that he “had a sugar-loaf head.” What better description could we have of the ordinary head-form of the eastern Alpine inhabitants of the Balkan peninsula and Anatolia? If this had been the usual type of head of the “Achæan” heroes, the epithet would not have been used as distinctive of the rebellious soldier; it can only have been so used to imply how different he was in this respect from the noble “Achæan.” This seems to me to indicate, exceptionally clearly, that the Homeric heroes were long-headed.

Thus the heroes are found to be tall, fair and long-headed, and so possessing the three chief physical characteristics of the Nordic race. The resemblances between their mental characters and those of the Vikings have often been noted before and need not be repeated.[379]

It will be remembered that I have suggested that the Nordic “Achæans” were an offshoot of the body, who as Thracians and Phrygians moved eastward into Thrace and Asia Minor. I have also suggested that they came to the south down the Vardar valley. Usually they have been brought straight from Thrace, which is, of course, possible, but Ridgeway, on the other hand, brings them from Epirus, and points out that they held in veneration the Zeus of Dodona.[380] If their arrival was, as I have suggested, in small bands or by ones and twos, there is no reason to postulate that they all arrived by the same route; all that matters is that they should have come eventually from the Danube basin. As I have already mentioned, some of the Homeric heroes were Zeus-born, and may have come _via_ Epirus, while others, the majority, were of the stock of Ares. Now Ares was the god of the Thracians, or of some group of people inhabiting Thrace.[381] It would seem then that some, probably most, of the “Achæans” came from the Thraco-Phrygian stock, though whether they started on their way from Thrace, or left the main body before it had reached that country, is a matter of relatively small importance. When the archæology of Macedonia and Thrace is better understood, we shall doubtless be able to clear up this point.

It is unfortunately not possible to date these swords with precision from their associations, as there are difficulties in ascertaining the exact position in which they were found, or in identifying the potsherds and other objects found with them. They are believed to date from the third Late Minoan period, that is to say, sometime after 1400 or 1350 /B.C./ It is here that our Egyptian evidence helps us.

We learn from the Egyptian records that[382] in the fifth year of Merneptah, 1220 /B.C./, the Delta was attacked by Meryey, king of the Libyans, who brought with him a host of Tehenu, who had been living in the country behind Alexandria. He had also numerous oversea allies, pirates and traders, who came in search of loot. These were the Sherden, Shekelesh, Teresh and the Ekwesh. If the three first have been rightly identified, they were the people of Sardinia and Sicily and the Tyrsenians, who we know later as the Etruscans; whether these identifications are correct has been much disputed, but it is significant that all three represent areas or peoples which we have already identified with Prospector activities. On the fourth the Ekwesh, there is more general agreement, and I believe all authorities unite in seeing in this name the word “Achæan.” If this be so, our Nordic intruders, who had made themselves lords of the trading cities in Greece, had taken to the sea, like their fellows in the Baltic, and were, with Prospector allies, attacking and plundering the rich lands of the Delta.

It is to this expedition that I attribute the two swords already described, as indeed was suggested some years ago by Professor Peet.[383] One is unquestionably of Type D, the type which has been most commonly found in Greek lands, while the other seems, as far as can be judged from its damaged hilt, to be also of the same type. The latter is engraved with the name of Seti II., who reigned from 1209 to 1205 /B.C./, and so cannot be later than the latter date. It is probable that it was a _souvenir_ of the raid of 1220 /B.C./, upon which Seti placed his name some ten to fifteen years later.

Thus Type D was in use in 1220 /B.C./, and must have developed earlier, for we must allow some years to have elapsed since the “Achæans” left the Danube basin for Greek lands, a few more before many of them had established themselves as kings, and a further interval before they can have organised a piratical expedition on a sufficiently extensive scale to threaten the safety of Egypt. Fifteen years would be the shortest possible time for such a succession of events, thirty years more likely. So we may consider that some of these intruders left the Danube basin about 1250 /B.C./ Now it must have been about this time, or rather earlier, that the Briges, from the north of Macedonia, crossed the Hellespont into Asia Minor, where they became known as Phrygians. This movement appears to have been one of a succession of similar raids, which carried the Thraco-Phrygian people from the Danube basin eastwards. It seems probable that our “Achæan” intruders were part of this body, who, instead of moving on to the east, had passed southwards in search of adventure.

Type G, as we have seen, has been found at the famous cemetery at Hallstatt, in some of the older graves. This cemetery is believed to date, at the earliest, from 900 /B.C./, but iron was found in most of the graves, and the bronze swords were few in number, and from graves in which no iron was found. We may safely conclude that these swords belong to the very beginning of this period, and had been in use for some time previously.

It is always a difficult matter to determine how long a given type of implement or weapon remained in use. Besides this we must allow for overlapping, that is to say for the period during which a type still survived in use after its successor, which was doubtless in many ways its superior, had been designed. I am inclined to believe that about twenty-five years is sufficient to allow for this overlap, though possibly on rare occasions an obsolete weapon may have been preserved longer, especially as a trophy or memento.

If we allow a period of one hundred years between the introduction of one type and the first use of its successor, we shall be able to fit the two ascertained dates, and this period seems on the whole reasonable. Types A and B are, however, scarce in Central Europe, though Type B seems, in a modified form, to have persisted longer in the Baltic region. I propose, therefore, to reduce the hundred years to fifty in each of these cases.

Such a chronological scheme is, of necessity, provisional, and must be susceptible of modification as further synchronisms are worked out, but on the evidence at present available, I am inclined to think that it is not far from the truth, and that any amendments which may have to be made in the future will scarcely exceed fifty years either way. This scheme is for Central Europe only, and may be true also for Italy and Greece. Various modifications may, however, have to be made in applying it to more distant regions, especially in the north and west, such as Brittany, the British Isles and the Scandinavian countries.

Type A Transitional 1500-1425
Type B Semi-circular 1450-1375
Type C Oval 1400-1275
Type D Mycenæ, Fucino 1300-1175
Type E Wilburton 1200-1075
Type F Proto-Hallstatt, Dowris 1100- 975
Type G Hallstatt 1000- 875

/Chapter X/

THE IRON SWORD

We have seen that every type of sword, from Type A to Type E, has been found in the Hungarian plain, though Type B is not common there. On the other hand, Types F and G are entirely absent. It is unreasonable to suppose that, while the people of the mountain zone were developing more useful types of swords, the men of the plain were continuing for some centuries to use swords of Type E. Even were this the case we should expect to find that the swords of this type were vastly more numerous than those previously in use. But we have seen that only ten have been recorded for Hungary, whereas we have nineteen of Type D. There remain only two possibilities: either the people left the plain uninhabited, or they had found some weapon more useful than the bronze sword.

It is true, as we have seen, that steppe-lands may be deserted in times of excessive drought, and there is some reason for believing that such a dry period occurred somewhere about this time, for it was in 1350 or 1300 /B.C./ that we must place the Aramean invasion from the Arabian steppe, which was such a serious menace to Shalmaneser I.[384] But this drought, even could we be sure that it affected a small upland steppe like that of Hungary, occurred somewhat too early for our purpose. There is also the alternative theory that too heavy a rainfall in the mountain regions might have made life unpleasant.[385] But this would have left a more marked effect upon the mountain zone than on the plain. There may, indeed, have been an exodus, in fact, we shall find reason for believing that this was so, but it is unlikely that the rich Hungarian plain was left long uninhabited. There remains the alternative explanation, the discovery of a new weapon, and I hope to give reasons for believing that this is the true solution, and that the new weapon was the iron sword.

Some years ago M. Chantre investigated a large series of tombs in the basin of the Koban, just north of the Caucasus mountains. Here he found a culture, closely resembling in many details the remains found in the cemetery at Hallstatt. The earlier weapons were of bronze, but in most cases the swords, while retaining hilts of that metal, had blades of iron or steel.[386] It has been much disputed which of these two cemeteries, Hallstatt and the Koban, is the earlier, but I hope to show that the Koban graves must antedate those in Austria.

M. Chantre extended his investigations to the other side of the mountains, and on the southern slope of the Caucasus found evidence of the culture of a humble, mountain folk, with rude pots, but, what is important for our purpose, he found in these graves spear-heads and small objects of iron.[387]

Now Professor Gowland has told us that “In Western Asia there are two important districts where iron ores are of very extensive occurrence, and in which remains of early iron manufacture are found.” He adds, “from a metallurgical point of view, deduced from the extent and character of the ancient remains, there are strong reasons for believing that the first-mentioned region was the first in which the metal was regularly produced.” This first-mentioned region he describes as “on the south-east of the Euxine (ancient Paphlagonia and Pontus) extending from the modern Yeshil Irmak to Batum, and comprising a series of mountain ranges, not far from the coast, along the lower slopes and foot hills of which the iron deposits are scattered.”[388] The graves with the iron spear-heads described by Chantre are just at the north-eastern end of this region, while in the south-western lived later the Chalybes, who were renowned workers in iron in the sixth century.[389]

Chantre has shown that the two cultures which he described were existing at the same time, for the graves of one people sometimes contained objects belonging to the culture of the other;[390] not only, then, did the cultures synchronise, but the peoples had come into contact. There is no reason for believing that the Koban folk, militarist though they were, had conquered their humble neighbours. That the reverse had taken place is unthinkable. The evidence suggests that the contact had been peaceful, that trade relations had been established, and perhaps the Koban folk, who appear to have been new-comers in this region, may have taken wives from their neighbours. All this points to the fact that it was in the Koban region that the steppe-folk first learned the use of iron, and that they carried the knowledge of it thence to the Danube basin, rather than that the reverse process took place.

But, it may be asked, how can we be sure that our Koban people are the steppe-folk, who have been the heroes of the last few chapters? Their culture closely resembles that of Hallstatt, which is but a development of the later bronze age culture of Central Europe, and even their earlier graves clearly belong to the same series. This is so obvious that Rostovtzeff is content merely to state that they had come from the west.[391]

It may be well, however, to submit more precise proofs of this origin. During the later bronze age a certain type of pin had been used in Hungary, possibly, as some think, as a hair-pin, but used more probably, as Lissauer has suggested, to fasten the _chlamys_, _toga_ or plaid, which these steppe-folk appear to have worn. These pins are known to the Germans as _Rudernadln_[392] and to the French as _épingles à raquette_.[393] Lissauer recognises five types, which we will distinguish by the letter A to E. A developes into B, and this again into alternative forms, C and E. A also developes by stages, which are at present missing, into D.

Now Types A and B have been found in North Italy, Switzerland, Wurtemberg and on the Rhine. They have also been found in Hungary, at Tökés, Gata, Versecz and Butta. Two have been found in Bohemia, at Noutonic and Krendorf, and one at Gaya in Moravia. Thus these two types are fairly well distributed over both halves of the Celtic cradle. Type D has been found at Andrasfalva in Hungary, and at Alt-Bydzow in Bohemia. Besides these several have been found further afield, one at Dexheim in Rhenish Hesse, one at Greisheim in Hesse-Darmstadt and one at Fritzen in East Prussia. Lastly several have been found in the Koban graves,[394] and these are larger and more developed than the others.

This evidence seems to show us that this type of pin was at first well distributed throughout the Celtic cradle, and that the dimensions of the head increased in Hungary and Bohemia. About the time that this later form was in use some kind of exodus took place to various distant places. That one of these expeditions passed to the east, in the direction of south Russia, is clear from the occurrence of this type, in its most developed form, in the Koban graveyards. We can well believe that these emigrants left the Celtic cradle by the Moravian gate, and passed along the more or less open spaces at the northern foot of the Carpathians, to which reference has already been made, and so into the plain of Russia and finally to the foot of the Caucasus. The journey would have been made on horseback, and need not have occupied many weeks so there is no need to expect much evidence from objects lost _en route_; but, as they must have crossed Podolia on their way to the Koban, it seems probable that it was these emigrants who left at Zavadyntse the sword which was mentioned in a previous chapter, as this is the only example of a Central European sword recorded from the eastern plain. The Podolian sword was of Type E, and this gives us a clue to the date, and will enable us to put together in their proper order these various items of evidence.

The evidence which I have cited in the foregoing pages can best be explained by believing that about 1150 /B.C./ some of the steppe-folk from the Hungarian plain departed, probably through the Moravian gate, to seek fresh pastures. While some may have gone northwards, the majority passed along the open sandy heaths of Galicia, across Podolia, where a sword was lost at Zavadyntse, and so on to the grassy plains by the banks of the Koban river. Here they settled for a time, and during their wanderings some came into contact with the humble iron-using people on the southern slopes of the Caucasus. Whether they approached these people to trade or to acquire some commodity in which they themselves were lacking, or whether they sought them to obtain their daughters for wives, we know not; all we can be sure is that some intercourse took place. It seems clear, too, that it was from their humble neighbours that the Koban-folk learned of the existence of iron or steel, and how to work that metal. It was not small knives they needed, but better blades for their trusty swords. Thus, I believe, the use of iron was first learned by the peoples of Europe.

This discovery must have been made by 1100 /B.C./ at the latest probably some years earlier. The Koban-folk realised that steel blades were far superior to those of bronze, and doubtless were anxious to show off their new acquisition before the old folks at home. They may, too, have remembered that the stone from which their neighbours extracted the metal was plentiful in some parts of the old country. Whatever the cause, I believe that some of them returned to Hungary with their new discovery, before bronze swords of Type F had been evolved or at any rate had come into general use.

Iron ore, which could easily be worked by primitive methods, occurs in Transylvania, at Gyalar,[395] and it seems likely that it was in this neighbourhood that they first settled. It is also possible that about this time some of them occupied Thrace, for in early days Thracian swords had a great reputation.[396] By degrees they pushed up the Danube, at any rate as far as its junction with the Save. Before 1000 /B.C./ a large number of them advanced up the Morava and down the Vardar and soon afterwards entered Thessaly, whence they started on that series of conquests known as the return of the Heraclids, or the Dorian invasion of Greece.[397]

Many of these Koban-folk settled on the southern bank of the Danube and the Save, and in the hill country behind; various cemeteries of this time have been discovered in this region, the most famous of which is that at Glasinatz in Bosnia.[398] Others pushed up the Save, which runs through mountains of an easily worked iron ore; evidence of early workings have been found on the banks of the Mur in Styria and on the upper Drave in Carinthia.[399]

A little later, between 1000 and 900 /B.C./, some of these people passed over into Italy. They may have crossed the Adriatic, as did in all probability the men of the leaf-shaped sword, but it is tempting to think that they crossed the Predil pass and settled at Santa Lucia Tolmino, near the head waters of the Isonzo. Here a cemetery was found in 1885,[400] much of the grave furniture from which is, or was in 1914 in the Trieste Museum, while the remainder is in Vienna. More than 1000 graves were found and the cemetery must have been in existence for several centuries; but it is usually believed that the earliest graves date only from the eighth century. Others of the same party crossed the mountains into the rich Friuli plain and settled at Dernazacco, near Cividale,[401] and gradually spread thence over the Veneto.

We come across further evidence of their advance at Este,[402] and as they crossed the Po valley they destroyed the _terremare_, which had existed there since early in the bronze age and dispersed their inhabitants.[403] There is evidence that about this time some of the _terramara_-folk arrived in Etruria,[404] others are found settling in the neighbourhood of Taranto,[405] while Dr. Hooton has shown that there are strong reasons for believing that the earliest settlement on the Palatine Hill at Rome was due to these people.[406] The invaders seem to have occupied all the plain of Italy north-east of the Apeninnes, the area known later as Ombrice[407] or Etruria Circumpadana,[408] but the most important spots at which their remains have been found are in and around Bologna. From one of the best-known sites in that city their culture has been called that of Villanova.[409] That at one time they conquered Etruria has been suggested in chapter /IV./, and doubtless it was they who extended the Etruscan rule from the Alps to the south of Naples; but, as has already been explained, it would be a mistake to confuse them with the real Etruscans.

We have seen that in the mountain zone the pile-dwelling civilisation continued throughout the bronze age. This type of culture, introduced by the early Alpines from Asia Minor, was adopted in Central Europe by the Nordic intruders, who had made themselves lords over the Alpine peasants. That they were still retaining their race exclusiveness is clear from the fact that long and broad-headed skulls are still found side by side.[410] In the plain, however, where we have no evidence of Alpine settlement, all signs of pile-dwellings are absent.

It is a striking fact that with the arrival of iron swords into the mountain zone this pile-dwelling culture, which had existed from early neolithic days till the close of the bronze age, came suddenly to an end. This cannot be merely an accident, for the same thing occurred all over Central Europe.[411] It is also significant that some centuries later it was revived.[412] Some important revolution must have taken place to end so abruptly a custom which had lasted for thousands of years, and to end it with equal suddenness in all parts of the mountain zone. I can only account for it in one way, by supposing that the men of the plain, who had never occupied this type of dwelling, had swept over the mountain zone, carrying fire and the iron sword throughout the villages of their neighbours.

This I am inclined to think must have been the case, and such an invasion would account for the widespread exodus of people with the Type G swords, which we have found scattered over many areas in France, over parts of North Germany, and stretching even to Scandinavia and Finland, and which reached the British Isles, with much other culture belonging to the Swiss lake-dwellings, as Crawford has recently shown us.[413] These people with the Type G swords must have been refugees from the invasion of the iron sword people. Déchelette has given us a map showing their progress in France, and on the same map he indicates the progress of the iron sword men.[414] The latter followed the refugees in almost every direction, and it was only in the Seine valley that the exiles escaped pursuit. This is a point to which I shall have to refer in a later chapter.

/Chapter XI/

A RECAPITULATION

We are now in a position to interpret the meaning of the evolution and distribution of these leaf-shaped swords, though there are many details, which we would gladly know, but of which we must remain in ignorance, perhaps for ever. We can, however, form some general idea of the events which were taking place in Europe during the centuries under review, and it will, perhaps, make for lucidity if they are here recapitulated as a continuous story.

Since 4000 /B.C./ some Alpine people, coming originally from Asia Minor, had occupied the mountain zone, where they had erected their pile-dwellings and had cultivated their strips of cornlands. Meanwhile on the Russian steppes, east of the Dnieper, Nordic steppe-folk mounted on horses, were driving cattle from one pasture to another, sometimes dwelling in the open steppe, at others pasturing their beasts in the park-lands and woods to the north. Between these two peoples were the Tripolje-folk, living in pit-dwellings, cultivating the soil, and later on importing copper axes from Ægean traders.

About 3000 /B.C./, or perhaps rather earlier, a drought caused some of the steppe-folk to emigrate. It was perhaps at this time, though probably later, that some passed through the woodland to the middle Volga valley, where, mixing with communities of Mongoloid fishers, they developed the Fationovo culture and became ancestors of the red Finns.[415] Others in small numbers certainly advanced towards the Baltic, and passing along its southern shore, appeared later at Furfooz, in Belgium.[416] The majority of these moved slowly up the Rhine valley, whence some entered Switzerland from the north, and made themselves lords of the lake-dwelling villages. Other steppe-folk seem also to have entered Hungary, probably through the Moravian gate, and settled on the plain and the eastern foothills of the mountain zone.

Meanwhile the knowledge of copper had been introduced by traders, who had sailed up the Adriatic, and travelled inland from Fiume. This copper culture reached the Swiss lake-dwellings, and eventually passed down the Rhone as far as Lyons. It was followed by a bronze culture, which was imported from Italy and the western Mediterranean.

About 2250 /B.C./ another drought caused a dispersal of the steppe-folk on a greater scale. Some went east, into the remotest fastnesses of Turkestan, some perhaps as far as the head waters of the Yenesei and the region around Minutsinsk, while others passed on to the Iranian plateau. This last group we hear of about 2100 /B.C./ as Kassites, and a few centuries later they conquered Mesopotamia.

Those who went westward seem to have destroyed the Tripolje culture and driven off its people, unless, indeed, they had already been driven away by the drought. The bands of steppe-folk divided, some passing north of the Carpathians and some going south by the shores of the Euxine. This last group crossed the Danube, and skirting the Balkan mountains arrived at the east end of Thrace. Here they divided, one band passing to the west by the shores of the Ægean and then southwards to Thessaly, where they frightened the inhabitants, who termed them Centaurs. The other band crossed the Hellespont, destroyed Hissarlik II., and passed on into the Anatolian plain, where in due course they organised the native Alpine population into the Hittite empire.

It is not so easy to follow the group which passed north of the Carpathians, but they seem to have followed the line of sandy heaths across Galicia into Silesia, then some, probably, entered Hungary through the Moravian gate, while others pushed into Bohemia. These last found there people who were either refugees from the Tripolje area or folk closely allied to them. These people, who had been accustomed to a type of cord vase, had found in Bohemia bell-beakers, which had arrived there via Italy from Spain. From a combination of both types of ware they had evolved the northern beaker. When the Nordic steppe-folk arrived from Silesia these Beaker-folk left, and passed northwards between the Rhine and the Weser, some going to Jutland and some to Holland. A few of the latter found a refuge in Great Britain.

In Central Europe, in the district we have called the Celtic cradle, we find two cultures growing up, one consisting of Alpine peasants under Nordic lords, which prevailed in the mountain zone; the other, more truly Nordic, and still pastoral and perhaps nomadic, was limited to the Hungarian plain. After a short interval of interruption, trading was resumed with their Italian neighbours by way of Fiume.

It is about this time that the Nordic steppe-folk of Hungary demanded larger and larger daggers, until at length the earliest leaf-shaped sword was evolved about 1500 /B.C./ During the following years a few adventurers passed into the Friuli and the Venetian lands, perhaps to trade, or perhaps to settle. Others, few in number, seem to have visited the amber coast of the Baltic, and one, at least, died there and was buried in Schleswig-Holstein. About 1450 /B.C./ Type B was evolved and spread over the mountain zone. It was carried by traders or invaders towards the Baltic, especially to Denmark. Since this type is found in considerable numbers in the north, and there continued its own local development for many years, we must admit that these swords were not taken there by mere adventurers, but by invaders, few in number, perhaps, who had gone north to Denmark, and perhaps further still, and settled, perhaps as a governing class, among the people they found there.

From 1400 to 1300 /B.C./, while Type C was dominant, there appears to have been little movement. The exodus of fifty years earlier had perhaps given ample elbow room to those who were left behind. But soon after 1300 /B.C./ we find two movements, more or less simultaneous, but going in opposite directions.

The first of these movements seems to have started from the valley of the Save, perhaps over the Predil pass into the Friuli, but more probably, as Peet[417] has suggested, through Bosnia and Herzegovina, and across the Adriatic into Italy. If the latter course were taken, the invaders landed not far from Ascoli Piceno, and most of them passed up the valley of the Trento, by the pass through which the Via Salaria afterwards ran, to the valley of the Velino. Here they settled in that fold of the Apennines between lakes Trasimene and Fucino, through which run, in opposite directions, the Velino and the upper waters of the Tiber. This band of invaders must have been a relatively small one, as the area they occupied is not extensive and was very sharply defined.

The other movement went to the east, and was probably that great emigration from Europe to Asia of which dim recollections survived among the Greeks, and which took the Briges into Asia Minor, where they became Phrygians.[418] It also carried to Thrace some, at any rate, of its red-haired people.[419] It was probably some stragglers from this group who passed southwards, like knight-errants destroying monsters and punishing evil doers, and who eventually became kings over the towns of Mycenean Greece. These were known later as Achæans, and may possibly have included also stragglers from the group which had passed over to Italy.

It was between 1200 and 1175 /B.C./ that the next movement began, and this was mainly to the west and north. Some of these invaders left the Danube basin, crossed the Rhine, and passing through the Belfort gap, entered France, and over-ran the greater part of that country. Until the swords of this type have been catalogued and mapped, it will be impossible to trace their line of advance, or to determine how far they went. Some of these seem to have passed either down the Rhine or up the east of France, for they crossed over to Britain, landing for the most part in the Thames and by the Wash, or else at some intermediate points. They seem to have settled in the east of England, and subsequently in Wessex, but later waves of them evidently set out for Ireland, crossing Wales by the upper Severn valley and the Bala cleft. A considerable number of these seem to have settled in Ireland.