Page:Prehistoric Britain.djvu/175

Rh transformation in the relative use of bronze and iron had taken place prior to the occupation of the Oppidum La Tène, i.e. some time during the first century The prevailing forms of the Bronze Age were still retained in iron in Hailstatt, while in La Tène they entirely disappeared. In Hailstatt the Bronze Age sword was replaced by a sword only the blade of which was made of iron, while in La Tène both blade and sheath were made of iron, there being only one bronze sheath, so far as known to me, in the whole of the La Tène collections. During the latter period the small bronze dagger, the pioneer weapon of the early Bronze Age in Western Europe, was no longer met with. The leaf-shaped bronze sword, with its flat tongue and rivetholes, gave place to a tanged iron blade, generally with parallel edges and blunt point. Even the great iron sword of Hallstatt had apparently disappeared from the armamentary of Western Europe. Shields and helmets of iron became then parts of military costume of the day. The superabundance of personal ornaments in the form of iron fibulæ, beads and bracelets of glass, the use of coral as a setting, and ultimately the invention of enamel, etc., show that amber and bronze had then become less necessary. In decorative art geometrical designs gave way to various symmetrical combinations of curves, spirals, involutes and figures of fantastic animals. But the greatest innovation of all was the appearance of the new metal, silver as well