Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/348

320 the Celt-Iberi of Spain. An ethnological connection also between Aquitaine and Brittany (Armorica), may be inferred from the remark of Pliny, "Aquitania Armorica ante dicta;" considered an unaccountable blunder by Dr. Latham. The truth of Pliny's statement, however, is confirmed by Dr. Broca's map of the stature and complexion of the peoples of France, to be examined presently (Fig. 113). The Celts occupied the region from the Loire to the Seine, ranging as far to the east as Switzerland, and they were masters of the country extending from the frontiers of Aquitaine into the valley of the Rhone, being conterminous with the Celts of Spain. Thus the south-western districts of France and Spain were occupied by an Iberian population, represented now by the small dark Basques, while the Celtic peoples inhabited the region extending from the valley of the Seine, through central France, into the valley of the Rhone, and over the Eastern Pyrenees, into southern Spain.

This westward retrocession of the frontier of Iberia, from the Rhone to the Pyrenees, is a most important historical fact. It shows that before the days of Strabo the Iberic peoples were retreating under the pressure of invaders from the east. At the dawn of history they held a position in Europe far more important than in later times, but far less important than that which they occupied in the Neolithic age, when they have been proved, by the discoveries in sepulchral caves and tombs, to have lived as far to the north-east as the Rhine. In