CHAPTER VIII - THE IRON AGE

Abstract

This chapter discusses the Iron Age. Buckinghamshire, south of the Icknield Way, was probably more thickly populated during the Iron Age than at any other time in its prehistory. Iron is usually first associated in this country with the so-called Hallstatt immigrants of about 500 B.C. The Hallstatt people are associated with the first of a series of invasions generally classified in three groups labelled by archaeologists as Iron Age A, B and C. These movements continued until the last century of the prehistoric era; Iron Age C—that of the Belgae—being actually in progress just before the time of the Roman conquest. Among the highlights of the Iron Age were the extensive development of agriculture with improved agricultural implements, the full flowering of the strange and dynamic school of Celtic art, and about 75 B.C., the arrival of the Belgae—a warlike confederation of Teutonic-Celtic tribes—who introduced a gold coinage. The Druids also come in sight, charged with the unenviable responsibility for the spiritual welfare of these Iron Age people. At first, small settlements of kindred Iron Age people using the same distinctive pottery and implements were scattered along the course of the Upper Icknield Way. The sites and the material from these settlements reflect a Wessex culture known as All Cannings Cross and indicate that these people arrived in the district in about 300 B.C.