16
ing-hooks and javelin heads. Arrow-heads of bronze are found
in some parts, but they are scarce in Britain. Flint seems to
have been preferred for this purpose, and in fact continued to be
used into the Iron-age. These flint arrow-heads have come to
be regarded with much superstition in more modern times. In
Scotland they have long been used mounted as brooches, and
are regarded as a protection against witches.
In the later Bronze Age a short two-edged sword was intro-
duced, but the sword properly belongs to the Iron age, as do also
shields, helmets and other objects which continued to be made
in bronze after the introduction of iron.
THE EARLY IRON AGE.
Iron appears to have been brought into this country by the
later waves of immigration of the Celtic people, who gradually
arrived from the continent, bringing with them many advances
in civilization. At first iron was apparently regarded as a
rarity, being used only for the blades of knives and weapons, the
handles of which continued to be made of bronze.
The late Celtic races of this period first introduced the art
of making pottery on the wheel. The quality of the ware they
made resembles very closely the pottery of the Romano-British
period, and it is only to be distinguished from it by the shape,
and by the consideration of the objects with which it is
associated. The great feature of the art of this period is the
spiral, which appears so persistently in the decoration of Iron-
age objects. In later times this pattern developed into the
interlaced strap ornament so common on the sculptured stones
of Scotland and Ireland. Models of some of these monuments
will be seen in the Museum.
We have now arrived at the time of the Roman invasion,
when it is generally considered that the prehistoric period of
Britain ceases, but the records of those who wrote in these early
times are so incomplete and often so misleading, having been
written more with a view to flatter the vanity of emperors than
to record facts, that the work of the prehistoric archaeologist is