110 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



in regard to the coming of the Bronze Age people as 

 applying to the Isle of Man : — 



" The tall, round or broad-headed Celts . . . 

 composing the van of the great Aryan army, ultimately 

 destined to rule the West, brought with them the know- 

 ledge 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 further 

 retreat was forbidden by the waters of the ocean."* 



It is natural to suppose that these invaders on first 

 establishing themselves spread over England and some 

 parts of Wales and Scotland before they came to the Isle 

 of Man, and, when they did arrive in the island, they were 

 probably in the later division of the Bronze Age, that 

 period of which bronze swords, palstaves, and socketed 

 celts such as have been met with here are characteristic 

 implements. 



The dwellings appear to have been similar to those of 

 the Neolithic folk — possibly larger and better built. It 

 may well be therefore that some of the groups of huts to 

 which we have referred as originating in Neolithic, con- 

 tinued in use in Bronze times. As we have stated there 

 is some evidence that those on the Meayll Hill were 

 occupied even far later. 



We have records also of crannoges, or pile-dwellings, 

 artificial islands formed of stones, tree-trunks, and smaller 

 stuff piled up, in a lake or morass, and kept in position by 

 stakes so as to make a platform upon which huts could be 

 built in a secure position, surrounded by water. Elsewhere 

 these lake-dwellings are mostly of Neolithic or Bronze 



* Early Man in Britain, p. 343. 



