cultivawhile all the implements the is-landers had to combat the thicket and clear the arable land with were unwielstone axes or soft bronze ones. Probably, that was the reason why traces of earlier civilization are only found on the treeless slopes of Western downs. Iron tools appeared only after a new stream of invaders, tall and fair, poured from the continent, from what is now France and Germany. Whole tribes migrated to the Isles, warriors with their chiefs, their women and their children. The invasion of these tribes known as Celtic tribes went on from 8th-7th cc. B.C. to 1st c. B.C.
The first Celtic comers were the Gaels, but the Brythons arrived some two centuries later and pushed the Gaels to Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Cornwall taking possession of the south and east. Then, after a considerable lapse of time somewhere about the 1st c. B.C. the most powerful tribe, the Belgae, claimed possession of the south-east while part of the Brythons was pushed on to Wales though the rest stayed in what is England today, and probably gave their name to the whole country. Thus the whole of Britain was occupied by the Celts who merged with the Picts and Scots, as well as with the Alpine part of the population; the latter predominated in the West while the rest of the British Isles became distinctly Celtic in language and the structure of society. The Gaelic form of the Celtic dialects was spoken in Caledonia (modern Scotland) and Ireland, the Brythonic form in England and Wales. The social unit of the Celts, the clan, superseded the earlier family groups; clans were united into large kinship groups, and those into tribes. The clan was the chief economic unit, the main organizational unit for the basic activi-ties of the Celts, farming.
This Celt-dominated mixture of Picts, Scots and other ingredients came to be called Brythons, or Britts.
In their farming they used a light plough which merely scratched the surface of their fields: the latter there-fore had to be ploughed twice, the second time cross-wise, hence the square shape of the Celtic field. The introduction of the iron axe opened up new possibilities; woods could be cleared and more areas put under cultivation. Later on, with the advent of the Belgae, the heavy plough was introduced, drawn by oxen, so the slopes of downs could be used only as pasture land, and fertile valleys cleared of forests could be farmed so successfully that soon the south-east produced enough grain and to spare. It could therefore be exported to Gaul and the Mediterranean and luxuries from those lands brought a new brightness to the otherwise austere existence of the tribesmen. Besides, rough crockery-making, hide-processing and the like, were practised.
They must have traded with the Phoenicians (whom a student of history finds mentioned in most historical works as professional traders of the ancient world); in this case the Phoenicians were attracted by the British tin and lead ("the Tin Islands" they called them) which were taken by those tra-ders to the Continent, to Gaul and the Netherlands.
It was a patriarchal clan society based on common ownership of land. Soon the primitive ways of land-tilling began to give way to improved methods.
It was then that social differentiation began to develop. Even slight technical improvements created opportunities for the tribal chiefs to use the labour of the semi-dependent native population. Along with the accumulation of wealth the top elements of the clans and tribes showed tendencies of using military force to rob other tribes.
Fortresses were built on hilltops, tribal centers in fact, towns began to appear in the more wealthy south-east; true, they were at first no more than large groups of wattle-and-clay houses encircled by a sort of fortified fence. Among the first towns mentioned are such as Verulamium, Carnulodunum, Londinium. The population of the towns grew apace. Some of the inof the continental countries trading with the British Celts, such as the Celts of Gaul, etc. came over to Britain and settled in Kent, contributing to the civilization of that part of Britain since they could teach the British Celts some useful arts. The British craftsmen perfected their skill mostly in bronze work and learned to give an adequate expression to the subtle artisticism of the Celtic spirit. Their characteristic curvilinear design, often a composition in circular shapes, is to be found on weapons, vases, domestic utensils, etc.
The Celts were good warriors, as later invaders had a chance to find out. Celtic war-chariots were famous even beyond the limits of the country. They were reliably built to hold one man standing up to drive and two more to do the fighting.
The chariot itself was a destructive force, the well-trained horses trampling down the enemy and the wheels fixed with sharp knives or swords, rotating with the wheel movement, a grave menace to everything living that