THE ORIGIN OF THE SLAVS. 415 



were never completely supplanted, as evidenced by fields of cinerary 

 urns which never entireh' disappeared. The Germanic domination 

 of the Marcomans, begun Avith the present era and coinciding Avith 

 the introduction of burial tombs in rows, the prototype of our modern 

 cemeteries, was directed against the Gauls, the former Avarlike masters 

 of Bohemia, and had little effect on the indigenous cremationists, Avho 

 Avere j^eaceful tillers of the soil. 



Thus, as regards Bohemia, it is proved that crematory cemeteries 

 continued in use from the Hallstadtian epoch through the Tene 

 period and the Eoman period, coinciding Avith the Germanic domi- 

 nation, and even after the introduction of Christianity, cloAvn to the 

 ninth century ; therefore the peoples who established these ceme- 

 teries must have continued to live in Bohemia until after the intro- 

 duction of ChristianitA'. Noav the presence of the SlaA's in Bohemia 

 at the time of the Empire of the AA'ars is historicalh' established. 

 The natives Avhom Christianity found were SlaA^s; consequently, 

 the cremationists must be identical Avith the SlaA's, since in Bohemia, 

 outside of the Gauls and Germans, there never were any people other 

 than the Slavs. 



Farther north, betAAcen the Oder and Vistula and on the loAver 

 Vistula, the cremationists enjoyed a longer period of tranquillity, 

 being spared the Gallic invasions, and Avere therefore not dis- 

 turbed in their customs. We find their ancient sepulchers contain- 

 ing numerous urns persisting in use until the arrival of the Goths; 

 that is, to about the beginning of the present era. 



GERMANIC TOMBS IN ROWS ON THE VISTULA, MIXED WITH CINEEARY TOMBS AND 



OVERLAID BY THEM. 



It is evident that had the Gauls gone up the Vistula, iron Aveap- 

 ons would be found in the contemporaneous crematory and burial 

 toml)s, as on the Dniester. Avhither the Bastarni had gone, and 

 on the Danube. The real introducers of iron Aveapons on the Vistula, 

 as indeed on the entire eastern littoral of the Baltic, Avere the 

 Germans. 



The encased tombs on the loAver Vistula were first succeeded by 

 burial tombs in rows, Reihengraber, Avhich, as has been seen, also 

 spread in Bohemia after the arrival of the Marcomans. There is no 

 question about these Reihengraber being German. The Germans 

 had fibulse peculiar to themseh'es, and these fibulae, according to 

 Montelius. are met with in the Baltic proA^inces on the Vistula, in 

 the north and east of Germany, as also in Bohemia and on the Black 

 Sea, Avherever the Germans settled." They disappeared on the Vis- 



Les SlaA'es de Race, Bulletin, 1900, p. 77, 



