The Bronze Age and the Celtic World

of Europe, in parts of Ireland, the west of Scotland, and the Isle of Man, in Wales, Cornwall and Brit

st instance by the spread of Roman culture and the Latin language as the empire increased its bounds, and

rabo, we shall find that languages of the Celtic type were spoken at that time throughout all Europe west of the Rhine and north of the Pyrenees and the southern slopes of

This is the mountain or Alpine zone of Central Europe, as far east, at least, as a line drawn from Cra

years ago. To do this we shall have to review the condition of these areas both from the standpoint of prehistoric arch?ology and physical anthropology, to see whet

d converted into a p or b. It has been thought by some that the qu peoples, spoken of usually as Goidels or Gaels, arrived first from the common Celtic home, and that the p peoples, called Brythons or Cymri, came later from th

LANDS AND THE

n-Celtic languages, such as Pictish, survived in this region until relatively late times, while it is well-known that a primitive non-Celtic tongue, the Basque, is still spoken in the fastnesses of the Pyrenees. It is important, therefore, if we are to have befo

d fair, while as we proceed we come across elements which are darker and shorter, until in Wales and the West Highlands we find the majority of the people are small br

he evidence of ancient authorities goes to show that 2,000 or 2,500 years ago the Celts were looked upon as a tall, fair people.[1] Here is another difficulty which mus

ave been thought by some to have entered the lands of the west. They cannot have been introduced from Spain or Italy, into which they were late entrants, but it has been suggested by some writers that they arrived from the north-east, from the Baltic region. It is true that there is some slight evidence that Celtic place-names have existed in this area, but the balance of evidence, as I shall hope to show, seems to prove that Celtic people arri