390 Notes on Objects of Late Celtic Character foimd in Wiltshire. 



— was ill this way remote from any considerable stations of the 

 ruling race. It is, therefore, not surprising that among the numbers 

 of fibulre found in the systematic excavation of the Romano-British 

 villages in Cranborne Chase by General Pitt-Eivers, as well as 

 amongst those found casually in other parts of the county, a larger 

 proportion than is usual in other districts should be found to possess 

 characteristics which are now generally regarded as pointing to 

 a Celtic origin. 



It is, indeed, only comparatively recently that the " Late Celtic " 

 or " Early Iron Age " has come to be generally recognized as a 

 distinct period of culture intervening between the end of the 

 Bronze Age and the beginning of the Eoman period in Britain. 

 On the Continent the period of transition from the Bronze to the 

 Iron Ages, when the former metal was gradually being discarded 

 for the latter in the manufacture of cutting implements, is marked 

 by what is known as the Hallstatt period of culture, named from 

 the site of extensive cemeteries of that time in the Austrian Tyrol. 

 Up to the present time, however, objects which can be identified 

 with this stage of civilization have been found very rarely in 

 Britain. The next stage, known as that of " La Tene," from the 

 well-known settlement on the Lake of Neuchatel, in Switzerland, 

 marking the period when, in Gaul and Switzerland, iron had com- 

 pletely established its ascendancy over bronze, is more largely 

 represented in this country. Of course the dates of these periods 

 can only be approximately fixed, but the best authorities are now 

 inclined to fix 1000 B.C. as the probable date of the end of the 

 Bronze Age south of the Alps, whereas, north of the Alps, the 

 transition (Hallstatt) period seems to have lasted from cir. 850 — 

 400 B.C., whilst the next period, that of La Tene, corresponding 

 with what is known as the Late Celtic period in Britain, extended 

 in Gaul and the surrounding countries from 400 to perhaps 100 

 or 50 B.C., when the Roman influence overwhelmed it on the 

 Continent. 



The introduction of iron into the south of Britain may, perhaps, 

 be put at about 350 or 300 B.C., and the period between this date 

 and the completion of the Roman conquest of Britain covers what 



