106 



DISCOVERY 



the daily Press, as the Celts, but it is an important factor 

 in the problem that in classical times the Celts were 

 described as tall, fair, and light or blue-eyed. Further, it 

 is known from the accounts of classical writers that the 

 Celtic language in the century immediately preceding the 

 Christian Era had a farwider distribution than it has to-day, 

 and was the language of all Europe west of the Rhine and 

 north of the Pyrenees and the southern slope of the 

 Alps, including the Alpine zone of Central Europe as far 

 as a line Agram-Cracow and, possibly, at one time 

 farther east. The Galatians of Asia Minor, to whom the 

 Epistle of St. Paul was addressed, were an offshoot of the 

 Celtic race. The problem, then, to which Mr. Peake has 

 addressed himself in the light of a ntliropo logical, archaeo- 

 logical, and pliilological evidence is the origin of these 

 peoples and the date of their intrusion into those areas 

 in which they were found some two thousand years ago. 

 Mr. Peake accepts the view that, on the evidence of our 

 classical authorities, the Celts were tall and fair and that 

 they are to be identified with what is now known as the 

 Nordic race. This race, with the broad-headed Alpine 

 and the dark, long-headed Mediterranean type, made up 

 the population of Europe at the dawn of the Neolithic 

 or later Stone Age Period. The Alpine race came into 

 Europe from Asia, while the Mediterranean race had 

 descended from one or possibly more of the types of man 

 of the last phase of the Paleolithic Age. The Nordic race 

 remains to be accounted for. Mr. Peake suggests a descent 

 from Solutrean Blan — the man who lived in the last period 

 but one of the full palaeolithic period, when climatic 

 conditions produced broad open plains, suited to the life 

 of nomad hunters — a mode of life very different from that 

 of the comparatively sedentary Aurignacian and Mag- 

 dalenian cave man who preceded and followed Solutrian 

 Man. At the beginning of the Magdalenian period a 

 change in climate is accompanied by the disappearance 

 of the Solutrians. Mr. Peake suggests that they with- 

 drew eastward, and on the steppes east of the Dnieper, 

 perhaps ranging as far as Turkestan, gave rise to the 

 culture of the Kurgans or burial momids of Southern 

 Russia — a culture of which in this connection the chief 

 interest is that it is that of a race of nomad hunters. 

 In these people Mr. Peake finds the beginnings of the 

 Nordic race, and interprets the somewhat puzzling archaeo- 

 logical evidence of this area and period as indicating a 

 series of expansions or migrations which led them to 

 overthrow neighbouring civilisations, such as that of 

 Tripolje in South Russia and Anau in Turkestan, and, 

 finally, about 2200 B.C., to occupy the Hungarian plain. 

 Another branch of this migratory movement reached 

 Mesopotamia and ultimately was responsible for the 

 Cassite domination in that area about 1700 B.C., and again 

 another brought about the destruction of the second of 

 the six cities found on the site of Hissarlik (Troy). 



Before turning to the later wanderings of this people, 

 it is desirable to indicate a little more in detail the kind 

 of evidence upon which Mr. Peake's inferences are based. 

 It is briefly that of tvpe and distribution. A particular 

 class of evidence is taken, as Mr. Peake has taken the 

 leaf-shaped sword of the Bronze Age, and the relation 



of the various types to one another is studied and classified 

 in a series of development. The distribution of the types 

 is then plotted on the map. This method of study, of 

 which the possibilities are only just beginning to be 

 appreciated, has already proved most fruitful. No better 

 example of its merit need be sought than the results it 

 has yielded to Mr. Peake. The chapter on the commerce 

 and trade routes of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages will 

 repay close attention from this point of view. In the 

 case of the leaf-shaped sword, so called from the shape 

 of the blade, which is classified into seven types, the 

 author is able to show that it developed from the Mediter- 

 ranean bronze dagger in the Hungarian plain, whence it 

 spread over the greater part of Europe. One of two found 

 in Egypt is engraved with the name of Seti II. thus giving 

 a definite date for its type. Treating it as the character- 

 istic weapon of the Nordics, Mr. Peake infers from its 

 distribution the wanderings of this race, dating them by 

 type, and shows how they advanced against the less 

 aggressive agricultural races, as, for instance, the Alpine 

 peoples of the Central European mountain zone, and 

 estabHshed themselves as overlords. These leaf-shaped 

 swords have been found in Greece, Italy, Central Europe, 

 the Baltic, Gaul, Britain, and Ireland. In each case I\'Ir. 

 Peake's theory of the intrusion of a wandering adventurous 

 element seems to fit in with what we know of the pre- 

 history and early liistory of these various parts of Europe, 

 and serves in some cases, as in Greece and Italy, to afford 

 valuable assistance in elucidating their special problems. 

 In the case of Britain, Mr. Peake concludes that the 

 course of events was rather different. An early infiltration 

 of these races was followed by a later and extensive 

 immigration. The association in this country of bronze 

 agricultural implements with a late type of leaf-shaped 

 sword, points, he thinks, to a wholesale exodus of over- 

 lords and subject population from Central Europe. This 

 exodus was probably caused by a later wave of Nordics 

 from the Hungarian plain who had acquired the use of 

 iron, possibly from the Caucasus. In any case, whatever 

 may have been the cause of the migration, the Nordics 

 would appear to have imposed their own language on the 

 population of Britain so effectually as practically to have 

 caused all but a few traces of the earlier tongue to 

 disappear. 



Mr. Peake's view thus agrees in the maiia with the con- 

 clusion of Sir John Rhys, at which he arrived on philo- 

 logical grounds, that the British Celts represent two 

 separate waves of migration from Central Europe. 



It has not been possible to deal with Mr. Peake's system 

 of dating, nor with his examination of the linguistic 

 evidence and of the Aryan problem, important as these 

 are in support of his argument, nor has it been possible 

 to do full justice to his handling of the innumerable 

 controversial questions ranging from earliest Palaeolithic 

 times down to the Iron Age, upon which he touches. As 

 an exposition of the broader problenis of prehistoric 

 archaeology, Mr. Peake's book stands alone. The Bronze 

 Age and the Celtic World is, indeed, a work upon which the 

 author is to be congratulated. 



E. N. Fall.^ize. 



