The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1920-01-15
r. A. S. MacAlister, professor of Celtic
Archaeology, University college,

Archaeology, university COlIeBes
Dublin, in the London Times.
In a paper by DR.. A. c. Haddon (now
of Cambridge, published some thirty
years ago in the Proceedings of the
Royal Irish academy, a statement Is
made that there is no savage island in
the South Seas concerning whose
ethnology we know less than we know
about the ethnology of Ireland. Startl-
ing though it he, this statement was
true when it was made, and it Is equal
ly true today The scientific study of
Irish ethnology can hardly be said to
have begun.
All genuine lovers of Ireland must
deplore the.curse of political strife by
which the country is blighted, and by
which every undertaking for her bene-
fit is hampered. None deplore it so
much as those to whom she presents
fascinating and inexhaustible field OF
scientific study. To take but one ex-
ample - the numerous prehistoric
monuments in the fields Of Ireland are
among the last vuryiving relics of the
ancient Bronze Age culture of Europe;
the culture which is more favorably
situated lands developed into the
civilizations of Crete. of Greece, and of
Etruria.=s Nowhere better than In Ire
land can the roots and origins of these
civilizations be studied; yet the monu-
ments Oh which this study depends
are daily perishing, neglected and I'M
recorded.
Legends Of immigration.
There is nowhere in the world a
land of a community racially homo
geneous; and Ireland conforms to this
| W. -
race is represented among her people
is obvious to anyone, who with open
I eyes travels through her towns and
countrysides; and the fact is freely
recognized and acknowledged by the
ancient native traditions. These ira
ditions preserve for us legends of
| irnmigrations of tribes, each in turn
setting out from some vague eastern
| land zigzagging over the map of
Europe, and finally establishing itself
in Ireland and remaining till disposed
by succeeding invaders. Such legends
no doubt, belong to the dreamland OF
folklore: they have been worked into
! their present quasi-historical form by
The literary students of the early
Christian period, upon framework OF
artificial chronology based on Biblical
! indications. Nevertheless they pre-
serve the germ of a. real fact. and they
are meant to explain an actual
phenomenon the stratificat1on OF
racial type, which was so evident as
to attract attention even before the
days Of scientific ethnology.
In the Iron Age.
We may further indicate some con
illusions to which the archaeological
evidence seems to point, as to the
time at which these Scandinavian I'M
migrants entered the country. The
cultural development proceeds in al
unbroker evolution throughout the
Stone and Bronze ages. In England
there appears an immigrant round
headed tribe at the beginning OF the
Bronze age; it was probably this PEG
Pile who introduced the bronze culture
into England. But they do not pene
trate to ireland, which country ap
pears to have acquired its bronze hanC
there is in Ireland breach OF con
tinuity of evolution at the beginning
of the Iron age. Especially noteworthy
is the introduction at this time of the
practice Of constructing lake dwelling:
on artificial islands This presents {
real analogy with the phenomena con
seauent upon the Norman Conquest
w men IHS ANOEIlldu poASSASN
among themselves the ancient tribe
lands and reduced their former occu
pants to vassalage, they were obliged
to protect themselves with strong
dwellings built in the middle OF lakes
Teutonic Blood an Celtic Tongue.
The probability, therefore, is that /
was the Scandinavian immigrants wht
introduced the Iron age culture int
the country, somewhere about thu
third century B. c. Most likely 1t wa
the same people who, Teutonic though
they may have been in blood. intro
duced the Celtic language. There Il
reason to believe that the pre-Celti'
language (whatever it may have been
survived in the country till well afte
the introduction of Christianity; also
that before the conversion OF tn
country the aboriginal tribes differed
in religion as we'll as In racial char
!, acter from their overlords. These dis
tinctions would, of course, help to keeI
the separate races from intermingline
AneIo-Norman Invasion.
But this carefully constructed sc
ciety, with its two well-defined strata
so strongly reminding us of,the an
cient Spartan castles, the Perioeci o
the Helots on the one hand and TIL
Laconians on the other-was destroy
4 ed by the Anglo Norman invasion
Fair-haired Mediterranean plebeial