The Etrushan Influence.
The designs of the metal work of the Prehistoric Iron age in Britain are not to be looked upon as being the spontaneous development of those of the Bronze age, but to have been derived from abroad. The flowing lines, the flamboyants, and the various combinations of the spiral, unknown in Britain before, were introduced from France and Germany, through which countries they may be traced as far as Greece and Italy. In Mr. Franks' opinion they have been derived from the south,[1] and are to be looked upon as marking the influence of the Etruskans and Greeks upon the regions north of the Alps. Two distinct influences were at work in Britain in the Prehistoric Iron age, of which the one is far older than the other. Certain articles, such as the gold cap found in the bog at Devil's Bit, County Tipperary (Fig. 157), are ornamented with designs which may be traced through France and Germany to Hallstadt, and ultimately into ancient Etruria. The same may be said of the gold armour discovered at Mold (Figs. 159, 160). These two may be taken as the types of a large class of articles, which testify to the far-extending influence of the Etruskans, which we shall define in the next chapter. In all probability the overland trade with Etruria was the first which brought the art of the Mediterranean to the shores of Britain and Ireland (see Map, Fig. 168).
The Influence of Ancient Greece.
Ancient Greece also exercised an influence on Prehistoric Britain, but only after the decline of the Etruskan
- ↑ Congr. Int. Archéol. Préhist., Brussels vol., 1872, p. 516.
