Chapter 8 THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE LEAF-SHAPED SWORDS.

WE have seen how the leaf-shaped sword was evolved from the ogival dagger in the plain of Hungary, and passed through a series of forms until it reached the Hallstatt type, which gave way to the iron sword. We must now consider the distribution of each type, which presents certain peculiarities which are very instructive, and then consider how it was that leaf-shaped swords, of one type or other, became dispersed throughout the greater part of Europe, and reached, in some cases, beyond the confines of that continent.

Let us first deal with Type A, the distribution of which was summarised in the last chapter. A very fine example of this type is in the Museum of Arch?ology and Ethnology at Cambridge; nothing is known, unfortunately, of its provenance beyond the fact that it came from Hungary. Another, almost identical, is in the National Museum at Buda-Pest, and has been figured more than once,[272] but the published illustrations are not very accurate, and in Plate VII. I give one taken from a drawing made from the original for this work. In this case, too, the exact site is unknown. The third Hungarian specimen, a photograph of which is in existence, was sold in London on 25th June, 1891. It was the property of the late Dr. S. Egger, of Vienna, and the catalogue states that it had been dredged from the Danube near Buda-Pest.[273] These are the only examples which I have met with which have been found in Hungary, and I have been unable so far to trace the present ownership of Dr. Egger's specimen.

Much more recently a very similar specimen, but with some slight differences in the decoration, was found in the Friuli. It was dug up in 1909 by Antonio Tommassin, near Castions di Strada, in the district of Palmanova, in the province of Udine, at a place called Selve, at the depth of about one metre. It is, or was, in the Museum at Cividale.[274] Another, very unlike the others in decoration, and varying somewhat in outline, was found in the neighbourhood of Treviso, north of Venice, and is now in the Treviso Museum.[275]

Lastly we have one found in a grave somewhere in Schleswig-Holstein. Splieth, who has recorded it, does not state exactly where it was found, nor in what collection it was deposited at the time he was writing.[276] He compares it with the second Hungarian specimen, but in reality it more closely resembles that in the Museum at Cividale.

All these specimens, except that from Treviso, resemble one another so closely that we may well believe that they were contemporary, and the products of the same region; the type must have continued in use for some little time in the Friuli, where it developed local variants like the Treviso specimen.

Type B is rare in Hungary, or at any rate very few specimens occur in the museums of that country. So far I have been able to find record of only one, and this has been much damaged. It was found in 1884 in a hoard at Orezi, in the county of Somogy.[277] A somewhat unusual form of this type is in the Vienna museum, but its provenance seems unknown. In Italy one has been found at Ascoli Piceno,[278] south of Ancona, and Naue figures another from an unknown site. He mentions a third, in his own collection, which is said to have come from Calabria, but as he does not figure it one cannot be certain that this belongs to Type B.[279] I can find no instances of the occurrence of this type in France, and though three specimens have been found in Britain which bear a superficial resemblance to it, a more careful inspection convinces me that they are local variants of a later type, perhaps C or D. This type does not appear to occur in southern Germany, but the swords of this region have not yet been catalogued with thoroughness. It has been found, however, in the Baltic region, and specimens have been recorded from Brandenburg, Pomerania and East Prussia.[280] A type closely resembling this occurs in Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark, but most of the specimens show certain local features, some of which, like the T-shaped finials, suggest a later date. In Schleswig-Holstein Splieth mentions four examples,[281] all isolated finds, which he dates considerably later than his example of Type A.

Type C, with the oval butt, is relatively common in Hungary. I have been able to trace at least eight specimens. Three of these are from unknown sites,[282] two from Kis-k?szey (Battina) in Baranza county,[283] one from Sajo-G?m?r,[284] one from Hajdu-b?sz?rmény in Hajdu county, which was found with a hoard containing three of Type D,[285] and one was dredged up out of the Danube at St. Margaret's island in Buda-Pest.[286] Two have been found in Lower Austria, one at Petronell,[287] east of Vienna and the other, which was found in a barrow with a skeleton, a long pin and two bracelets, at Winklarn.[288] One has also been figured by Dr. ?mid as having been found in Carniola, though its discovery is not described in the text.[289] In Italy one specimen has been found near Lake Trasimene,[290] a neighbourhood which has produced several examples of Type D, but this type does not seem to have been found in France, and only one very doubtful specimen is recorded for the British Isles. This type seems also to be rare or absent from Germany, except in the extreme north, for the only specimens which I can find recorded are from Mecklenburg and Brandenburg.[291] One or two have been recorded from Denmark.[292]

Type D, as we have seen, does not differ much from Type C. It is one of the commonest types found in Hungary, and I have been able to trace seventeen examples. Of these two are from unknown sites,[293] three from the Hajdu-b?sz?rmény hoard,[294] two from the hoard at Podhering in the county of Bereg,[295] two from Sajo-G?m?r in the county of G?m?r,[296] two from Munkacs in Upper Hungary,[297] one, found with two of Type E, at Rima-Szombat in the county of G?m?r,[298] one from Endrod in the county of Békés,[299] one, found with four others, from Magyarorszag,[300] one from Gross-Steffelsdorf near Sajo-G?m?r,[301] one, found with a sword of Type E, from near Plattensee or Lake Balaton,[302] and one from the Danube near Buda-Pest.[303]

One has been found at Bürkanow in Galicia,[304] one in Upper Austria, one near Linz,[305] five in Lower Austria, two at unknown sites, one at Mannersdorf,[306] one with a hoard including Type E swords at Wollersdorf,[307] and one in a wood near Wimpasting. One comes from Grübegg near Aussee in Styria,[308] and two from Carniola, one of which is from Mihovo near St. Barthelm?, and the other from an uncertain site.[309] Szombathy figures two fragments from a swallow-hole near St. Kanzian, not far from Trieste.[310]

In Italy the type is of common occurrence, but in a definitely restricted area. One has been found on the bank of the Chiano by the bridge of Frassineto near Arezzo and is in the Arezzo museum,[311] two near Lake Trasimene,[312] where a specimen of Type C was found, one of slightly aberrant form at Alerona, in the commune of Ficulle, near Orvieto, and which is now in the Prehistoric Museum at Rome,[313] and another, which also presents unusual features, in Rome itself.[314] Two specimens have been found at Lake Fucino,[315] and a third close by at Dintorni del Fucino,[316] one a little to the east at Sulmona,[317] and one rather further afield at Apulia.[318] Thus all these specimens, ten of Type D and one of Type C, have been found in a very restricted area, almost all of them lying in a valley or rather a fold of the Apennines between the lakes of Trasimene and Fucino. This distribution is of great importance for our thesis and will be referred to again in a later chapter.

This type has been found, though very rarely in France, and six specimens have been recorded in Britain, all from the mouth of the Thames, or from the south and east coasts. I can find no records of its occurrence in Germany or Denmark.

But if Type D occurs rarely if at all in the west and north, we find it not uncommonly in the south-east. Two swords of this type have been found at Mycen?, one by Schliemann[319] and the other by Tsountas,[320] one has occurred at Levadia in Boeotia, a few miles south of Orchomenos, while two more have been discovered in a grave at Muliana in Crete.[321] The upper half of a sword, which has probably been influenced by this type, though the butt and tang are different, comes from Cyprus, where it was rifled from a tomb some thirty years ago.[322] Lastly, we have records of two swords of this type from Egypt, both from the Delta.[323] One of these, found at Zag-a-zig, is certainly of this type, the other, found at Tell Firaun in the Delta, appears to be so also, but the butt seems to have been slightly damaged. This sword bears upon it the cartouch of Seti II., which seems to have been engraved upon it in or about 1205 B.C. These occurrences of Type D swords in the south-east are specially interesting, and will be referred to again, as they give us some basis on which to establish a chronological scheme. They may also help us to bring our arch?ological evidence into line with historical and legendary matter.

Type E is also common in Hungary, from which eleven specimens have been recorded. These usually attain to very great dimensions. One is from an unknown site,[324] three from Podhering, found with swords of Type D,[325] two from Rima-Szombat, also with swords of Type D,[326] one from Magyarorbzag,[327] one from Gyula-fehérvar in the county of Fejér,[328] one from the Schatze near Hajdu-b?sz?rmény,[329] one from Oreszka in the county of Zemplén,[330] and one, also found with swords of Type D, from near the Plattensee or Lake Balaton.[331] Three come from Bohemia, from Gross-Tschernitz, Siebenburgen and Wodnian;[332] one from Salza-Bach, near the Grübegg saw-mills in Styria,[333] and one from a hoard, which contained swords of Type D, found at Wollersdorf in Lower Austria.[334] One comes from Zuojuica in Herzegovina and one was found in a lake-dwelling at Auvernier on Lake Neuchatel.[335] The type also occurs in Germany, though, I believe, not plentifully. In Greece two specimens only have been discovered, in a hoard outside the city of Tiryns.[336]

None have been found in Italy, but in France they occur abundantly, and there are thirty-one specimens of this type in the museum at St. Germain-en-Laye. They occur more abundantly still in these islands; fifty-eight have been found in the Thames basin, fifteen in the Fens, many of these in the famous Wilburton hoard, while fourteen others come from other counties washed by the North Sea; from the rest of England and Wales only eleven have so far been noted. In Ireland this type has not been found, but there are a considerable number of swords, found in that island, which are intermediate between this type and Type F, and will be dealt with under that heading.

It seems likely that some swords of this type have been found in the Rhine Valley, but so far I have failed to find any recorded, while elsewhere in Germany, in Schleswig-Holstein and in Denmark, they seem to be absent. This type, as we have seen, is found mainly in the west, so that it is extremely interesting to find a single example from an eastern site. This was found at the village of Zavadyntse, near Gorodak, in the government of Podolia in South-west Russia.[337] The occurrence of this sword so far east is strange, but taken in conjunction with the distribution of a certain type of pin, with which I shall deal in a later chapter, it will help to provide an important link in the chain of our argument.

The most striking feature of the distribution of Type E is its sudden appearance in Celtic lands, and in very great numbers. Up to this date swords of these types have not been met with in the west, except a few instances of Type D. As we must allow for a certain amount of overlapping of successive types we may well believe that the few examples of swords of Type D, found in Celtic lands, arrived there during the time when Type E was the prevailing fashion.

Type F may be called the Proto-Hallstatt type. This has been found in France, though not very commonly, and as far as I have been able to test it mainly in the eastern departments, there are only two specimens of this type in the St. Germain's museum. It occurs more commonly in Switzerland, and it seems probable that it originated in that country, or at least in the mountain zone of Central Europe. From this centre it seems to have spread in various directions, though it is not possible at present to trace its distribution with precision. One has been found in Italy, at Povegliano, S.W. of Verona, which seems to have come from the mountains over the Brenner pass,[338] and one comes from Donja-Dolina in Bosnia.[339] It seems to occur occasionally in the mountain regions of Austria and south Germany, though I can find no evidence of its further extension northwards.

It is not uncommon in the British Isles; seven have been found in the Thames estuary, four come from the east coast of England, and two from Scotland; 110 have been found in Ireland, of which forty-two are in English collections and sixty-eight in the National Museum in Dublin. The Irish specimens seem, as we have seen, to be of a very early form, as in some features they closely resemble Type E.

The distribution of this type is somewhat curious, since it occurs plentifully in the British Isles and especially in Ireland, while it is rare or non-existent in the intervening regions. Since the British examples, especially those found in Ireland, appear to be early examples of the type, we may surmise that they belong to late waves of the movement which carried Type E over the west.

Type G, the Hallstatt type, is so called because a few specimens were found in the famous cemetery at this place.[340] It would be a mistake, however, to consider it as having evolved in that region or dispersed from that centre. It seems more probable that, like the previous type, it developed in the mountain zone, and the evidence available at present suggests for its centre the upper reaches of the Danube, between Ulm and Sigmaringen;[341] but detailed work on the spot is needed before this can be determined with accuracy. Déchelette says that this type is generally distributed throughout Central Europe,[342] and this is true if we confine that term to the mountain zone, for it does not occur in Hungary. It is relatively rare in North Germany, two occur in Schleswig-Holstein,[343] a few in Scandinavia,[344] and one in Finland.[345]

In France the greater number occur in Burgundy, in the valley of the Saone and down the Rhone Valley; also in the department of Lot on the upper waters of the Dordogne and in the departments of Indre and Cher. Several examples have been found in the Seine valley, in the neighbourhood of Paris,[346] a point to which I shall have to refer in a later chapter. In the British Isles nineteen have been found in the valley of the Thames below and including Reading, and six elsewhere near the east coast; twenty-four have been recorded from Ireland, of which twenty are in the National Museum in Dublin. This type is, then, found distributed fairly generally throughout the mountain zone of the Celtic cradle, and over many areas in Celtic lands, though it only occurs sparsely elsewhere. In the Mediterranean region it is entirely absent.[347]

I have dealt at some length with these distributions, for there is no better way of interpreting arch?ological evidence and making it disclose, in broad outline at least, its historical content. Unfortunately no accurate catalogue of the swords discovered in most countries is in existence, though owing to the smallness of their numbers the lists are fairly complete for Italy and Greece. It would not be a very great undertaking to make an equally complete illustrated catalogue for the area included in the former empire of Austro-Hungary. In other regions the numbers are greater, and little has been done to catalogue them. The formation of an illustrated card catalogue of all the metal objects of the bronze age in the museums and private collections in the British Isles is in progress, under the auspices of a research committee appointed by the British Association for the advancement of Science. The specimens deposited in English collections have, for the most part, been already included in this catalogue, and it is from this that the bulk of the statistical matter relating to the British Isles has been derived.

As we have seen in some earlier chapters, distribution of certain types of bronze implements may be taken as evidence of trade, and we have to consider whether it was some form of commerce which carried the leaf-shaped swords to Ireland, Finland, Podolia and Egypt, or whether this wide distribution betokens some other form of movement. Before the days of fairly large ships and highly organised industry it is not uncommon to find implements, whether of flint or obsidian, copper or bronze, carried from country to country, without apparently any general movement of the population. On the other hand, when pottery and heavier or more easily damaged goods pass from one centre to another, it usually betokens migration. We have seen how this was so when the beakers were carried from Bohemia towards Jutland and Britain. Of course Roman pottery was shipped extensively for trade purposes, as were red figure vases and other types of Greek ceramic wares. The same is true, though to a less extent, of Mycenean and some Minoan wares, for the ?gean traders exported oil and wine. But such export of pottery betokens a relatively high civilisation and a well-organised commerce. Under more primitive conditions we may, I think, postulate that where metal implements or small cult objects alone were carried, these are evidence only of trade, while when pottery is found, as it were, on the move, this indicates a movement of the potters, hence a migration of people. When pottery and weapons are both found moving together, especially if the weapons are of a more advanced type than those hitherto found in the land into which they are being introduced, we may suspect, if indeed we cannot be sure, that we are dealing with a hostile invasion and the arrival of conquerors.

FIG. 18.-DEVEREL-RIMBURY URNS.

It will be necessary for us, therefore, to determine whether these swords, which have penetrated nearly the whole of Europe except the Iberian peninsula, were carried by trade, by some other form of peaceful penetration, or by conquest. The great suddenness with which some of the types spread, apparently within the space of a few years, for there is little if any modification of form, from the central region to places many hundreds of miles distant, precludes the second of these alternatives, for peaceful penetration by land is a slow process, and we should expect progressive variation of type the farther we pass from the centre. It seems, on the face of it, unlikely that a people, especially a sporting and warlike people like our steppe-folk, would engage in a trade which would provide their neighbours with a weapon, superior to all others available, which they had produced for themselves after generations of experiment; nor is it likely that they would permit their Alpine subjects to do so, even if the fear of the unknown and the dislike of adventure had not been sufficient to prevent these home-loving people from setting out on so adventurous a task, involving, as it sometimes did, the passage across northern seas. Such a practice, then, seems at first sight unlikely, but if the other alternative, the hostile invasion, were true, we should expect to find evidence of the arrival of fresh people in the presence of new types of pottery and fresh burial customs.

If we examine the British evidence, we shall find reason to believe that the leaf-shaped swords arrived with a new culture and a fresh element in the population. In a recent paper Mr. O. G. S. Crawford has dealt with this subject, and pointed out that the leaf-shaped bronze swords of the Hallstatt period, our Type G, arrived with an invasion of people who came from Central Europe.[348] Crawford seems to include in this movement all bronze leaf-shaped swords of whatever type, but the evidence on which he depends is only applicable to Type G. It will be well, therefore, for the moment to postpone consideration of the arrival of the Type E swords.

FIG. 19.-URN OF TYPE 3.

Crawford has shown that not only did these swords arrive in considerable numbers, but with them came a number of other objects, such as razors, sickles, and other tools, which have been found at various occupied sites, such as Llyn Fawr, South Lodge Camp, and "Old England" at Brentford. Near the last-named site were found some skulls which Sir Arthur Keith[349] has pronounced to be typical Alpines of the Swiss lake-dwelling type. Now at most of the sites where this lake-dwelling culture has been found, there occurs also, as Crawford has shown, a type of pottery, which he calls "finger-tip ware," that is to say pottery ornamented with raised ribs of clay and finger-tip impressions. Now such pottery is found, it is true, in the neolithic age in this country, but it died out about the time of the arrival of the Beaker-folk, when cord-ornamented pottery came into fashion. On the other hand in Central Europe, and especially in the region where the mountain zone blends with the plain, such pottery remained in use continuously from the neolithic, through the bronze, to the early iron age.

That such pottery came to this country with a fresh people is clear from the foregoing evidence, and that they entered armed and by force is equally clear from the presence of the numerous swords of this date which have been found. That they came in considerable numbers and came to stay is also shown from the number of settlements, and from the later occurrence of this finger-tip ware at such sites as All Cannings Cross[350] in Wiltshire, where this culture lasted until well after 500 B.C.

Some of the best examples of this finger-tip pottery are the urns found in Wessex, which are called the Deverel-Rimbury type, and which are dated by Lord Abercromby[351] as lasting from 950 to 650 B.C. Crawford, following Déchelette, brings in his invasion about 800 B.C., or rather later, and, though we may find grounds for believing that their arrival may have been earlier it looks as though the finger-tip pottery of the Deverel-Rimbury type may have been here before the coming of the people with the Type G Swords. Be that as it may, we learn from Lord Abercromby that in the south of England several types of pottery preceded the Deverel-Rimbury type, the one immediately preceding it being his Type 3, which he believes to have been in use between 1150 and 950 B.C., if not earlier.[352] Many of these, such as those from Wiltshire, Nos. 373, 374 and 379, exhibit the characteristic ornament of this finger-tip ware. If Lord Abercromby's chronology is even approximately correct, and it is in these cases vouched for by a series of excellent synchronisms, the pottery characteristic of Central Europe had been introduced into the south of England some centuries before the arrival of the people who introduced the Type G swords. This leads us to suspect that the Type E swords were also brought by an invading people, fairly early in the Type E period, as a certain number of Type D swords have also occurred.

It is unnecessary to pursue this argument through other countries, or to point out that some of our cinerary urns are in shape exactly like the bronze buckets used in Central Europe at the dawn of the iron age. We shall have occasion to discuss the special conditions in other countries in later chapters. Here it will be sufficient to suggest that all the British evidence tends to show that the spread of these swords was accompanied by a movement of pottery and other elements of culture, that at Brentford by the existence of skulls and elsewhere by inference we may conclude that there was a corresponding movement of people, and that in the British Isles, at any rate, the presence of this considerable number of leaf-shaped swords betokens an invasion. There seems to be no sufficient reason for believing that the circumstances were materially different in the other regions in which these swords have been found.

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