Ill] 



AND HISTORIC TIMES 



315 



from southern lands, we might assume even without evidence 

 that the Gauls of the lower Danube had for several centuries 

 before Christ been importing horses of improved kinds from 

 Macedonia, Epirus, and Thessaly. But there is not wanting 

 evidence that for a good many centuries before our era the 

 Celts, who dwelt in what is now Styria 1 , had begun to ride on 

 horseback. At Strettweg, near Judenburg, in that province, a 

 cremation grave of the early Iron Age formed of large round 

 stones contained a remarkable series of objects, the most 



FIG. 90. The Lombard Horse. 



interesting of which was a small bronze waggon. The vehicle 

 is a simple platform on four wheels, each of which has eight 

 spokes. At each end are the heads of two animals : on the 

 middle of the car stands a woman, nude save for a girdle; 

 there are four figures of men on horseback, each of whom 

 carries a round shield with a central boss and wears a conical 

 cap. There are altogether thirteen figures on the waggon. In 

 this vehicle we have probably a model of the waggons on which 

 the Celtic tribes conveyed their women and children as they 



1 Kidgeway, Early Age of Greece, Vol. i. p. 428. 



