Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/497

] mouth, and found its way also through various Alpine passes, and by the Mediterranean into France. In both these countries the safety-pin brooch, and weapons and ornaments of Etruskan derivation, occur in the late Bronze and early Iron ages.

Hallstadt occupied a most important position on the right of Route I.; and from it a trade in salt from the salt mines must have been carried on both with the north and with the south. It was also a centre from which the Etruskan metal-work would be conveyed, on the one hand, up the Danube into the Valley of the Rhine, and, on the other, in the direction of Presburg, and into the Valley of the Elbe. The direction which this commerce took is proved by the numerous discoveries of Etruskan weapons, repoussé work in bronze and gold, and various designs, met with in those regions. The commerce found its way farther and farther north, until ultimately the Etruskan articles and patterns arrived in Britain. The dagger found in the river Witham is of the same design as a sword figured by Ramsauer from the cemetery at Hallstadt; the golden armour found at Mold (Figs. 159, 160) presents the same patterns as the metal-work found at Hallstadt, and in Etruskan tombs at Veii, Corneto, and Præneste. The