The Mycenæan civilisation in the Ægean was of the Bronze Age, and Prof. Flinders Petrie places its flourishing period at about 1400 B.C.[46] Bronze continued in use in Greece until the time of the Dorian invasion, B.C. 800. In dealing with the local centres of the bronze industry, Prof. Boyd Dawkins[47] recognises three distinct local centres in Europe. (1) The Uralian, or Eastern—Russia. (2) The Danubian, or Northern and Central—Scandinavia, Hungary. (3) The Mediterranean, or Southern—Greece, Italy, France, Switzerland. Dr. Oscar Montelius[48] gives the following tentative dates for the duration of the Bronze Age in these areas:— [45] Petrie’s _Hist. of Egypt_, vol. i., p. 31. Article on “The Age of Bronze in Egypt,” in _L’Anthropologie_ for January, 1890, translated in the _Smithsonian Report_ for 1890, p. 499. [46] _Jour. of Hellenic Studies_, vol. xii., p. 203. [47] _Early Man in Britain_, p. 414. [48] _Matériaux pour l’histoire primitive de l’homme_, pp. 108-113. _The Caucasus._—The Massagete were, according to Herodotus, still using bronze in the sixth century B.C. _Greece._—Bronze Age civilisation of Mycenæ, 1400 to 1000 B.C. _Italy._—Terramare of Bronze Age, twelfth century B.C. Iron introduced in ninth or eighth century B.C. _Scandinavia and Germany._—Bronze Age begun in fifteenth century B.C., and ended in fifth century B.C. Worsaae[49] places the beginning of the Bronze Age in Scandinavia five centuries later than Montelius, _i.e._ 1000 B.C. Dr. Naue[50] dates the Bronze Age in Upper Bavaria from 1400 B.C. to 900 B.C. [49] _The Industrial Arts of Denmark_, p. 41. [50] Dr. Arthur Evans’ review of Dr. Julius Naue’s _Die Bronzezeit in Obayern_ in the _Academy_ for April 27th, 1895. As regards Great Britain, there is no reason for supposing that the Brythonic Celts of the Early Iron Age arrived in this country much before B.C. 300, which date would terminate the Bronze Age, at all events in southern England. The date of the beginning of the Bronze Age in Britain can only be surmised. If, as we hope to be able to prove, much of the art of that period here can be traced to a Mycenæan origin there is no reason why the Bronze Age in Britain should not have commenced shortly after the spiral motive patterns were transferred from ancient Egypt to the Ægean, say, about 1400 B.C., and thence to Hungary, Scandinavia, and other parts of Europe. It is not impossible, nay, it is even probable, that the Bronze Age may have lasted a thousand years in Britain, beginning B.C. 1300, and ending B.C. 300. CHAPTER II PAGAN CELTIC ART IN THE BRONZE AGE GENERAL NATURE OF THE MATERIALS AVAILABLE FOR THE STUDY OF THE ART OF THE BRONZE AGE IN BRITAIN, AND THE DECORATIVE MOTIVES EMPLOYED