designs known as
those of Late-Celtic Art. Iron appears to have been introduced into
Britain about 300 B.C., and the designs of Late-Celtic Art are here
represented best of all. Excellent specimens of Late-Celtic culture have
been found in Yorkshire and elsewhere, and important links with
continental developments have been discovered at Aylesford, Aesica,
Limavady, and other places. Into the development of this typical Gaulish
culture elements are believed to have entered by way of the important
commercial avenue of the Rhone valley from Massilia (Marseilles), from
Greece (_via_ Venetia), and possibly from Etruria. Prehistoric
archaeology affords abundant proofs that, in countries of Celtic speech,
metal-working in bronze, iron, and gold reached a remarkably high pitch
of perfection, and this is a clear indication that Celtic countries and
districts which were on the line of trade routes, like the Rhone valley,
had attained to a material civilisation of no mean character before the
Roman conquest. In Britain, too, the districts that were in touch with
continental commerce had, as Caesar tells us, also developed in the same
direction. The religious counterpart of this development in civilisation
is the growth in many parts of Gaul, as attested by Caesar and by many
inscriptions and place-names, of the worship of gods identified with
Mercury and Minerva, the deities of civilisation and commerce. It is no
accident that one of the districts most conspicuous for this worship was
the territory of the Allobrogic confederation, where the commerce of the
Rhone valley found its most remarkable development. From this sketch of
Celtic civilisation it will readily be seen how here as elsewhere the
religious development of the Celts stood closely related to the
development of their civilisation generally. It must be borne in mind,
however, that all parts of the Celtic world were not equally affected by
the material development in question. Part of the complexity of the
history of Celtic religion arises from the fact that we cannot be always
certain of the degree of progress in civilisation which any given
district had made, of the ideas which pervaded it, or of the absorbing
interests of its life. Another difficulty, too, is that the accounts of
Celtic religion given by ancient authorities do not always harmonise with
the indisputable evidence of inscriptions. The probability is that the
religious practices of the Celtic wo