CHAP, x.] FRANCE IN THE BRONZE AGE. 379 



excepting 3 a, and 4 a and c of the fourth column, are 

 characteristic of the Bronze age in Britain. The pottery 

 is very generally ornamented with a pattern rudely im- 

 pressed with a cord or twisted thong, or with the point 

 of a stick. 



France in the Bronze Age. 



The new and higher civilisation introduced into Britain 

 by the Celtic invaders gradually found its way into every 

 part of the country, and the Neolithic manners and 

 customs, such as the habit of burying the dead in caves 

 or in large chambered tombs, became obsolete ; the prac- 

 tice of inhumation, formerly invariable, was to a large 

 extent supplanted by that of cremation, although both 

 were carried on in the Bronze age simultaneously, as in 

 Greece and ancient Italy. Before this new civilisation 

 can be satisfactorily analysed, it will be necessary to 

 examine the condition of France, Germany, and Scandi- 

 navia during the Bronze age, and to see how it is related 

 to that of the Mediterranean peoples. 



The numerous discoveries made in France and Swit- 

 zerland during the last thirty years, recently collected 

 together by M. Chantre, 1 prove that the divisions of the 

 Bronze age, north of the Alps and west of the Ehine, are 

 similar to those which we have noted in Britain. They 

 are as follow : 



I. Transition de FAge de la Pierre &, TAge du Bronze : 



phase ce*bennienne = Epoque Morgienne of de 



Mortillet. 

 II. Age du Bronze proprement dit : 



phase rhodanienne = Epoque Larnaudienne of de 



Mortillet. 



1 L'Age du Bronze, 3 vols. 4to, 1 vol. folio. Paris, 1877. 



