Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/508

480 carried on trade as far as the Baltic and the North Sea, and Etruskan articles found their way into France and Switzerland in the Bronze age, and into Britain and Ireland in the Iron age. This continued until the irruption of the Gauls. Then the Greek trade arose, and Greek articles and coins found their way to the Baltic as early as the fifth century before Christ, and to our country in the Iron age, in the second century before Christ.

The Phœnicians may be assumed to have worked the tin mines of Cornwall before the arrival of the Massilian traders, since they knew of their existence in the time of Himilco, and since several names of places are probably of Phœnician origin. They must also have used bronze and glass in their trade, but their wares manufactured for the northern markets do not present any characters by which they can be known. The Etruskan influence appears to me to have been more powerfully felt north of the Alps than any other, and it was proably exercised quite as long, if not longer, than that of the Phœnicians.

When we reflect that the history of Gaul begins in the seventh, and that of Britain in the first century before Christ, and when we consider further that the civilisation of Egypt dates back to more than 4000 B.C., it must appear obvious that the historical overlap is very great. It is very probable that a large portion of northern Europe was in the Neolithic age while the scribes were compiling their records in the great cities on the banks of the Nile, and that the Neolithic civilisation lingered in remote regions while the voice of Perikles was heard in Athens, or the name of Hannibal was a terror in Italy.