Page:VCH Northamptonshire 1.djvu/202

 A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE same Celtic race ; hence the term Late Celtic, in opposition to the bronze-using people known as Early Celtic. This period is not so widely known as it deserves to be. Historians who have already embodied the results of the archeology of the Palasolithic, Neolithic and Bronze ages in their work have not at present made use of the discoveries belonging to this period. We have now traced the remains of Prehistoric man in North- amptonshire from his first appearance in the Nene valley while yet this country formed part of the continent, having as his contemporaries the mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, through the suc- cessive periods of the Neolithic and Bronze ages after it had become an island, down to the Late Celtic period (characterized by the use of iron) during which the camp at Hunsbury was constructed and occu- pied, as perhaps some of the other camps in the county may prove to be. It will be seen that if Northamptonshire has not contributed much to the general stock of knowledge relating to the Neolithic and the Bronze ages, it has yielded its share towards our knowledge of the Britons who occupied this part of the country prior to the Roman occupation. 156