THE METHODS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH. 603 



of iron. This problem as it presents itself in Britain, is one of tlie 

 great puzzles of early arclueology, for it means a great deal more than 

 the mere introduction of iron for the cutting of weapons and tools; it 

 means the introduction of au entirely new style of ornament, a style 

 of ornament apparently quite indigenous, consisting of the most grace- 

 ful scrolls, known as trumpet scrolls, of endless variety and taste. 

 Alongside of this we lu.ve the most wonderful skill in inetallurgy. 

 Nothing can exceed the delicate manipulation with which the old 

 artificers fashioned the objects of manifold shape, and of entirely new 

 designs — bone trappings, shields, helmets, swords and dagger sheaths, 

 spoons, mirrors, etc., and the dexterous way in which they ornamented 

 them with enamel, which they were, apparently, the first to discover 

 and to apply. These objects have occurred in the gretest number in 

 Great Britain, and in Ireland; but they have also been found in Bel- 

 gium, in eastern France, and in certain parts of Switzerland, such as 

 La Teue, etc., and it would seem, therefore, that they reached us by 

 some migration down the Bliine. One important fact about this art 

 is, that we know its relative date. We know that it was living when 

 the Komans conquered Britain. The remains of the early Boman con- 

 (pierors are found mixed with objects of this date in the hill forts of 

 Dorsetshire, etc., and the descriptions of Cfesar apply to this chariot- 

 eering people. Not only so, but it survived the Koman Gonqnest in 

 that part of these islands untouched by the Eoman Conquest — namely, 

 in Ireland. The art of Ireland, until it was displaced and sophisti- 

 cated by the Norsemen, was a mere development and growth of this 

 art, and it is found abundantly displayed in the ornaments illustrated 

 by Westwood in his work on Irish MSS. How long it has flourished 

 here before the Eoman Conquest, and at what date it displaced the art 

 of the Bronze people we do not know. As I have said, this same art is 

 found in the Ehine Valley, and in Switzerland; it is not found in Den- 

 mark and Germany, where the objects of the Iron age have an entirely 

 different history. Nor, again, is it found in western France, nor in 

 Spain, and the only avenue, therefore, by which it can have reached 

 Britain is that suggested by my very acute friend, Mr. Arthur Evans, 

 namely, the valley of the Ehine. In his original and suggestive mem- 

 oir on this subject, he traces this art to Switzerland. There it seems 

 to have incubated and developed itself in contact with the art of the 

 Etruscans, with which at some points it has some analogy; but as a 

 whole its inspiration is not Etruscan, but it goes back further to that 

 primitive Mediterranean art which, for lack of a better name, we call 

 Mykenean — the art of the Homeric poems. It is in the Mykenean 

 objects that Ave find the same scrolls and the same dexterous manipula- 

 tion of metal, and the use also of enamel. The distinction, of course, is 

 that the use of iron has meanwhile been introduced. This, however, 

 was only for cutting objects j the ornaments, the sword sheaths, the 



