Note on the Hallstatt Period in Ireland
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Note on the Hallstatt Period in Ireland By E. C. R. ARMSTRONG, F.S.A., Local Secretary for Ireland [Read 23rd March 1922] ON page 86 of the 2nd edition (1912) of the late J. R. Allen's Celtic Art is the statement, ' Of the smaller Hallstatt sword with an iron blade and a bronze handle, having antennae-like projec- tions at the top, one specimen from the Thames is to be seen in the British Museum, and there are about half a dozen others in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin.' Dechelette {Manuel, ii, 2nd part, page 737 and note 3) repeated this on Allen's authority. But no swords of this type have, I believe, been discovered in Ireland. As no examples have been exhibited with the Academy's collection it is difficult to account for the mistake. There sometimes appears to be a tendency to attribute to Ireland an undue wealth in Early Iron Age types, possibly owing to a reliance on vague statements, such as that made at the hearing of the Broighter Gold Ornaments case, as to Ireland's richness in Danubian types. The typical objects, known to me, imported into Ireland in Hallstatt times or locally imitated from Hallstatt types, consist of some twenty-four bronze swords with trapezium-ended tangs, one specimen of the great Hallstatt iron sword, seven winged sword-chapes, seven bucket-shaped cauldrons, and between fifteen and twenty riveted vessels, including one of iron, a fragment of a gold cup, a gold band and some ribbons of gold, two flesh hooks, and two shields. Among doubtful objects are nine cheek- pieces for horse-bits, two iron spear-heads, and, more doubtful still, two bracelets and four brooches. The principal Hallstatt types not found in Ireland are bronze razors, cordoned buckets, horseshoe-handled swords, swan-necked pins, various kinds of bracelets, brooches, and pendants, glazed and coloured pottery. The Continental Hallstatt period appears to correspond in Ireland to the last phase of the Bronze Age (Montelius's fifth period), the true Iron Age not beginning until the La Tene epoch. If it should be thought that the exotic objects or copies are too numerous and well distributed to be due to importation, it may be urged that a number of Early Iron Age types (including HALLSTATT PERIOD IN IRELAND 205 a Hallstatt iron sword) have been found in Scandinavia, as well as a number of Roman objects, yet no Hallstatt or Roman invasion of Scandinavia is suggested. In England the evidence for a Hallstatt period has of late years considerably increased, and Mr. O. G. S. Crawford,1 in a paper of much interest, has brought forward evidence in support of the view that towards the close of the Bronze Age, about 800-700 B.C, the British Islands were invaded by the first wave of Celtic-speaking peoples, the Goidels or Q-Celts, who introduced the Hallstatt culture into the islands. The division of the Celts into Q and P with two corresponding invasions was the theory popularized by the late Sir John Rhys. But it has been subjected to annihilating criticism by both Zimmer2 and Meyer.3 From their researches it appears that no Goidel ever set his foot on British soil save from a vessel that had put out from Ireland, the traces of Goidelic speech in certain parts of Britain being due to settlements of Irish Goidels in historic times. MacNeill4 has also condemned the Q and P theory as unsound, pointing out that though the Irish Celts retained Q in their language where the British Celts replaced it by P, no such differ- ence has been shown to have existed between the language of the Western Celts and that of the Belgic Celts on the Continent ; the spread of such a linguistic change might possibly have been arrested by so considerable a barrier as the Irish Sea, but it was hardly likely to have been prevented by the waters of the Seine and the Marne. Professor O. J. Bergin informs me that there is not enough Old Gaulish material extant to solve the problem of the early distribution of the Q- and P-Celts, or the date of the change from Q to P. Most of the very scanty remains of continental Celtic have P, but there are a few words such as Sequana, Sequani, and on the Coligny Calendar occurs Equos, Equi. There is no evidence to show that the word Kassiteros is Celtic : it occurs in no known Celtic language. It is found in Greek from Homer's time and in Sanskrit; but in neither does it look like a native word. The received opinion of orientalists is that it is derived from some nation situated between Greece and India, perhaps the Elamites.5 The view that Ireland was not colonized by the Celts until the 1 Antiquaries Journal, ii. pp. 17-35. * Abhand. der Konigl. Preuss. Akademie der Wisscnschaften, 191 2 {Auf ivelchem Wege iamen die Goidelen vom Kontinent nach Irland?). 3 Cymmrodorion Society, 189J-6, pp. f f-86. 4 Phases of Irish History, 1919, p. 46. 5 Pokorny, Zeitschrift fur Celtische Philologie, ix. p. 164. 206 THE ANTIQUARIES JOURNAL Late Celtic period demands consideration. Characteristic Early Iron Age antiquities are not numerous in Ireland. Many typical forms are lacking. The complete absence of the later Hallstatt horseshoe-shaped swords points against a settlement. Even the La Tene invasion seems, on archaeological grounds, to be not previous to the Second La Tene period ; for no Early La Tene brooches or swords have been found. Late Celtic antiquities are not numerous in Ireland, and though some are of considerable beauty, none is early in form. Another argument against an early Celtic invasion is to be found in the number of social survivals of a non-Celtic character, which can be traced in Tditi B6 Cualnge and related sagas.1 If the Goidels had reached Ireland in 800 or 700 B.C. it seems unlikely that such survivals would have existed up to the beginning of the first century A. D., the accepted dating for the shaping of these tales. In England it appears that so numerous are the Hallstatt remains that they must be accounted for by an invasion. But it seems unlikely that the invaders were Goidels. Is it necessary for them to have spoken a Celtic language ? M. Camille Jullian,2 if I interpret him aright, would place the earliest home of the Celtic-speaking peoples on the shores of the Baltic, from whence, about 530 B.C, they spread over Western and Central Europe, the previous population of these parts being Ligurians, a people not differing more from the Celts than the later Gauls differed from the Franks and Romans. If this view could be accepted it would indicate that the Hallstatt civilization, at least in its earliest phases, was not Celtic ; therefore it would permit a Hallstatt invasion of England, removing the difficulty of the absence there of Q-Celts ; while it would suit the Irish evidence admirably. For judging from the scanty available physical remains, taken together with Irish literary sources, the Irish population was broadly divided into two types, a short, dark, long-headed group of Mediterranean affinities, and a long-headed, fair, tall people of Nordic type, the first being the pre-Celtic, and the latter the Celtic, portion of the population. Also this would agree with Reinach's suggestion, made many years ago, that an invading Northern people were the destroyers of the splendid bronze and gold civilization of the pre-Celts.3 Perhaps one might even go a step farther and suggest that the wonderful revival of art in the Christian period culminating in 1 See Zimmer, Sitzungs&erichte der KontgJ. Preuss. Akademic der Wissenschaften, ix, pp. 174-227. 2 H'utolre de la Gaule, pp. 229, 148. 3 Revue celtique, xxi, p. 172. HALLSTATT PERIOD IN IRELAND 207 the eighth century, with its magnificent jewelled shrines and illuminated manuscripts, was due to the reassertion of the artistic genius of the old artificers in bronze and gold—the pre-Celtic people. DISCUSSION Mr. CRAWFORD had attempted, in a paper on the Hallstatt period in England (Journal, January 1922), to equate an archaeological period with a philological event. He had followed Sir John Rhys, but was prepared to withdraw the Goidelic invasion, and look for another name to distinguish an invasion of Britain for which there was archaeological evidence. One thing was certain, that the settlers at All Cannings Cross, near Devizes, were invaders who arrived not long before 500 B. C. and certainly not after that date, nor was it likely that they were without predecessors. The pottery with finger-tip ornament was not found in England associated with any other ware besides that decorated with haematite. A racial problem was involved, and as archaeology could not reveal the language of the new-comers, it must be left in the hands of philologists. Mr. REGINALD SMITH said the subject was a topical one, and in view of recent surprising developments in England it was rash to dogmatize or to pin one's faith to any one of the current theories with regard to the Celtic movement to the west of Europe. At Hallstatt itself there was a surprising blend of funeral rites, and authorities had not yet reached agreement as to the nationality or language of those who cremated and those who buried their dead unburnt, in that or any similar burial ground. The PRESIDENT said it was unsettling to have the opinions of the late Sir John Rhys refuted by more than one contemporary philologist, and a fresh start would have to be made, but he was not sanguine in view of the widely divergent views and methods of philology and archaeology.