If we allow a period of one hundred years between the introduction of one type and the first use of its successor, we shall be able to fit the two ascertained dates, and this period seems on the whole reasonable. Types A and B are, however, scarce in Central Europe, though Type B seems, in a modified form, to have persisted longer in the Baltic region. I propose, therefore, to reduce the hundred years to fifty in each of these cases. Such a chronological scheme is, of necessity, provisional, and must be susceptible of modification as further synchronisms are worked out, but on the evidence at present available, I am inclined to think that it is not far from the truth, and that any amendments which may have to be made in the future will scarcely exceed fifty years either way. This scheme is for Central Europe only, and may be true also for Italy and Greece. Various modifications may, however, have to be made in applying it to more distant regions, especially in the north and west, such as Brittany, the British Isles and the Scandinavian countries. Type A Transitional 1500-1425 Type B Semi-circular 1450-1375 Type C Oval 1400-1275 Type D Mycenæ, Fucino 1300-1175 Type E Wilburton 1200-1075 Type F Proto-Hallstatt, Dowris 1100- 975 Type G Hallstatt 1000- 875 /Chapter X/ THE IRON SWORD We have seen that every type of sword, from Type A to Type E, has been found in the Hungarian plain, though Type B is not common there. On the other hand, Types F and G are entirely absent. It is unreasonable to suppose that, while the people of the mountain zone were developing more useful types of swords, the men of the plain were continuing for some centuries to use swords of Type E. Even were this the case we should expect to find that the swords of this type were vastly more numerous than those previously in use. But we have seen that only ten have been recorded for Hungary, whereas we have nineteen of Type D. There remain only two possibilities: either the people left the plain uninhabited, or they had found some weapon more useful than the bronze sword.