INTRODUCTION OF THE USE OF IRON INTO BRITAIN BY THE BRYTHONIC CELTS, CIRCA B.C. 300 In a previous chapter we pointed out the difference between the Q and the P Celts, the former being Goidels in the Bronze Age, and the latter Brythons in the Iron Age, when they first arrived in Britain. We will now proceed to consider the nature of the culture introduced with the use of iron into this country from Gaul by the Belgic or Brythonic Celts. NATURE OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH HAVE LED TO THE FINDS OF OBJECTS OF THE EARLY IRON AGE IN GREAT BRITAIN A great variety of circumstances have led to the discovery of objects of the Early Iron Age. Where they have not been buried at any great depth beneath the surface of the ground, the plough[91] has frequently been the means of bringing them to light. The making of roads[92] and railways,[93] drainage of land for agricultural purposes,[94] military fortifications,[95] quarrying[96] and mining,[97] have also had their share in helping the archæologist. A considerable number of antiquities which have found their way into the beds of rivers have been recovered in the course of dredging operations for the improvement of inland navigation[98] and building of bridge foundations.[99] Tumuli,[100] camps,[101] caves,[102] sites of towns[103] and villages,[104] crannogs,[105] etc., have yielded a plentiful harvest to the scientific explorer. In some cases the denudation of the wind[106] or the erosion of the sea[107] has removed the covering of sand by which the traces of the ancient inhabitants have been concealed for centuries. The rabbit,[108] although the enemy of the farmer, sometimes becomes the friend of the antiquary by throwing up priceless relics of the past out of his burrow. Lastly, pure accident[109] is now and then the agent by which the position of a long-forgotten hiding-place for valuables is made known. [91] As at Polden Hill, Somersetshire. [92] As at Birdlip, Gloucestershire. [93] As at cuttings near Bedford and between Denbigh and Corwen. [94] As at Westhall, Suffolk. [95] As at Mount Batten, near Plymouth. [96] As at Hamdon Hill, Somersetshire. [97] As at Hunsbury, near Northampton. [98] As in deepening the Shannon, Thames, and Witham. [99] As at Kirkby Thore, on the Eden, Westmoreland. [100] As at Arras, Yorkshire. [101] As at Mount Caburn, near Lewes. [102] As at Settle, Yorkshire; Deepdale, Derbyshire; and Kent’s Cavern near Torquay. [103] As at Great Chesters and Silchester. [104] As at Glastonbury, Somersetshire. [105] As at Lisnacroghera, Co. Antrim; Strokestown, Co. Roscommon; and Lochlee, Ayrshire. [106] As on the Culbin Sands, Elginshire, where in 1827 a sportsman having lost his gunflint, found a splendid Late-Celtic bronze armlet, whilst seeking for another flint on the site of a Neolithic settlement covered with blown sand, except where denuded by the wind.