The Bronze Age and the Celtic World

The cover image was created by the transcriber based on the original book cover and is placed in the public domain.
THE BRONZE AGE AND THE CELTIC WORLD
LONDON: BENN BROTHERS, LIMITED 8 BOUVERIE STREET, E.C.4 1922
PRINTED AND MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN BY HEADLEY BROTHERS, 18, DEVONSHIRE STREET, E.C.2; AND ASHFORD, KENT.
To the anonymous benefactors whose liberality made possible the delivery of these lectures this work is gratefully dedicated.

THE substance of the following pages was delivered in February last in a series of six lectures at The University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. In volume form the matter has been somewhat re-arranged and the latter part expanded.
So many attempts have been made during the last century and a quarter to locate the Aryan cradle and to trace the wanderings of the Wiros, that it may be considered presumptuous for the author to venture on a further suggestion. He can only plead that most of the previous attempts have been made by philologists, usually with little or no archæological experience, while the discoveries of the last quarter of a century have placed the inquirer to-day in a position which is vastly superior to that of most of his predecessors. The evolution and distribution of the leaf-shaped swords seem to provide a crucial test by which to gauge the value of previous suggestions.
The author has felt that it would be for the convenience of the reader if he reduced the footnotes at the bottom of the page to the smallest possible dimensions, while describing each work quoted very fully in the bibliography at the end of the volume. In many cases, where the subject matter does not form the basis of his argument and the fact is not in dispute, he has thought that it would be more useful to quote a recent and readily accessible volume, preferably in English, in which authorities are fully cited, than to include all the original authorities in the notes and bibliography. This applies specially to Chapter II, and to some extent to those immediately following.