CHAP, x.] CELTIC INVASION OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 343 



of the time in the same way as the introduction of gun- 

 powder affected the warfare of the Middle Ages. 



The tall, round- or broad-headed Celts described in 

 the last chapter, composing the van of the great Aryan 

 army, ultimately destined to rule the west, brought 

 with them the knowledge of bronze into Britain, and 

 are proved to have conquered nearly every part of the 

 British Isles, by their tombs scattered over the face 

 of the country, alike in England, Scotland, Wales, and 

 Ireland. The conquered peoples survived probably in a 

 state of slavery, and were only preserved from absorption 

 in the west, where farther retreat was forbidden by the 

 waters of the ocean. They are proved, however, by the* 

 human skulls discovered in the Heathery Burn cave near 

 Durham, in association with bronze articles, to have been 

 living in north-eastern Yorkshire during the late Bronze 

 age ; during the time that the swords and spears, and 

 other articles mentioned in the following list, were in 

 use. Thus the Celtic conquest of Gaul was repeated in 

 Britain, with precisely the same ethnical results (see 

 Figs. 112, 113), the only difference being that the con- 

 quest of the one took place in the Neolithic age, while 

 the conquest of the other spread the civilisation of the 

 Bronze age over regions where it had hitherto been 

 unknown. 



The introduction of bronze into the other countries of 

 Europe is not marked by an invasion like that of Britain. 

 In Scandinavia the Neolithic inhabitants acquired the 

 bronze civilisation without any evidence of the appear- 

 ance of a new people, and in Switzerland and France the 

 Neolithic stage of culture passed away without any 

 break in the ethnical continuity. Nevertheless, for the 

 reasons given above, the new weapons would necessarily 



