Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/468

440 finding their way in the Iron age as far as the shores of the Baltic. The Greek influence is proved also in the same regions by the distribution of Greek coins and their imitations, and some of the painted vases found in Germany may have been imported from Greece. The Iron age in those countries began several centuries before the Christian era. It appears, however, from the evidence brought together by Worsaae, Engelhardt, and others, that iron was not used in Scandinavia until about the beginning of the Christian era.

This overlap of the Bronze age in Scandinavia with the Prehistoric Iron age in Germany will go far to explain the beauty and fine workmanship of the Scandinavian implements, weapons, and ornaments of Bronze. The higher designs were probably derived from the Etruskans and the Greeks, and are some of them identical with those characteristic of the Iron age in Germany, France, and Britain. Other articles, such as the repoussé shields, sword-belts, and golden cups, were probably imported from Etruria. Thus we see that the Iron age in Scandinavia is very nearly the equivalent of the beginning of the Historic age in Britain, and we have proof of the overlap of History and Prehistoric Archæology.

Iron was introduced into Scandinavia by the Germanic tribes who conquered the previous inhabitants, about the beginning of the Christian era, and the civilisation which they introduced has been maintained