duct petty warfare. Th e transmission of steppe material cul-
ture and ideals was partly a result of conquest and partly from
peaceful trade, adoption, and emulation. Steppe cultures were
mobile, engaged in a nomadic lifestyle in which they raised
horses, cows, sheep, and goats and depended on raiding
and trading to acquire grain and other staples not produced
within their own communities. Technologies that included
the composite bow and mounted-horse warfare made the
steppe raiders nearly impossible to subdue. As theirs was an
extremely successful way of life, the duration of their impact
and infl uence was thousands of years. Th e replacement of
these groups from the steppes by subsequent migrants from
the south and east continued from an initial cultural develop-
ment in the Ukraine well into the historic period. Mediterra-
nean cultures and Celtic cultures were profoundly infl uenced
by Scythians by about 500 b.c.e., and Scythians and Sarma-
tians, both Indo-Aryan–descended cultures, are described
by the Greek historian Herodotus at about 440 b.c.e. in his
fi rsthand accounts.
THE BRONZE AGE REORGANIZATION AND
HISTORIC CELTIC MIGRATIONS
As it was with the initial spread of agriculture, all of Europe
was eventually transformed by the horse riders. Th e diffi culty
for archaeologists is in determining the roles to ascribe to
conquest and to emulation. Evidence for the adoption and
adaptation of materials and ideas does not necessarily mean
that force was the primary mechanism of change. Th e elite
transmission of ideas and technologies is suffi ciently top
down in its infl uence that only a very few individuals need
to be impressed by the effi cacy of a weapon or material, such
as bronze, to ensure its adoption within the community and
eventually throughout the region.
Th e proto-Celtic expansion seems to have occurred dur-
ing the Urnfi eld Period (ca. 1300–ca. 750 b.c.e.) of the Late
Bronze Age and to have changed the landscape of central and
western Europe by about 1100 b.c.e. An increase in the num-
ber of small settlements across Europe suggests a rapid infl ux
of people who brought with them the technological and ideo-
logical elements fi rst seen on the Eurasian steppes. From areas
such as the Rhineland and Switzerland into France, the pat-
tern of technological and cultural dissemination appears to
have expanded almost like a pulse. Th e development of Celtic
culture is now thought to have taken place within the areas of
the Rhineland and the Marne as an indigenous expression of
sociopolitical change. Artistic styles from the La Tène region,
which are the hallmark of Celtic culture, demonstrate an as-
sociation with Scythians and Mediterranean peoples.
Relations between Celts and their neighbors probably
promoted migrations such as the fi rst historical migration that
began sometime around 400 b.c.e. Th is movement reached
Rome to terrorize its urban population nearly a decade later,
following the battle of Allia in 387 b.c.e. Th e impact of the
Celts’ looting of the city lingered with the Romans long af-
ter the Celts had been supplicated with a ransom and had re-
turned to Gaul. At issue for this multicomponent movement
of people are its causes. Whole regions seem to have emptied
of those who were suitably equipped and fi t to fi ght. In the
Champagne region there was a dramatic decrease in warrior
burials, suggesting that the warrior class left their communi-
ties and migrated south for plunder. Depopulation is also evi-
dent from settlements in Burgundy and throughout southern
Germany. Classical sources, such as those of the Roman his-
torian Livy (59 b.c.e.–17 c.e.), recorded events surrounding
the invasion of the Italian peninsula and the sack of Rome
several centuries aft er they had occurred. In Livy’s account,
along with that of the Greek scholar Dionysius of Halicarnas-
sus (fl. ca. 20 b.c.e.) and the Greek geographer Strabo (ca. 64
b.c.e.–aft er 23 c.e.), the Celts were drawn south in search of
plunder that included exotic produce. Olive oil, fi gs, and wine
had been traded up the Rhône corridor for several hundred
years. Access to these riches ranked highly as a motivator for
migration.
An example of a well-documented historic migration ap-
pears in Julius Caesar’s Commentarii de bello Gallico (Com-
mentaries on the Gallic War), his self-serving account of his
campaigns in France. Caesar fought the Helvetii in 58 b.c.e.,
and in his commentaries he describes the process and ob-
jective of that group’s migration. According to Caesar, their
motive for migration was to acquire territory through the
conquest of Gaul. Once the decision to migrate had been
made, three years was allocated as the time for preparation,
and an individual named Orgetorix (fl. fi rst century c.e.) was
given the responsibility of organizing the movement. Orgeto-
rix developed an alliance with members of the Sequani and
Aedui in an eff ort to further his own cause; the conspiracy
backfi red, resulting in his demise.
Th e Helvetii chose to carry out the migration anyway and
established a date to gather for the proposed move. Th ey were
joined in their journey by members of other Celtic groups,
including the Boii, all of whom had set fi re to their own vil-
lages and towns to discourage anyone from staying behind.
At issue was the path of migration into Gaul; there were only
two options, and one led south through a Roman province
that was protected by Caesar. Eventually Caesar turned the
migrants back to their formerly held territory. Caesar makes
it clear in his account that he wished the Helvetii to remain in
their own lands lest the empty area become occupied by Ger-
mans, who would readily have moved into the fertile vacated
zone between the Alps and the Roman province.GERMANIC MIGRATIONS AND THE HUNS, GOTHS,
AND VISIGOTHS
Like the Celts before them, German tribes placed tremendous
pressure on Roman provincial administrators in Gaul and
northern Italy. Roman commentary on the Germans appears
in Caesar’s works and in the descriptions of the Roman histo-
rian Cornelius Tacitus (ca. 56 c.e.–ca. 120 c.e.) in Germania,
written 150 years later, in 98 c.e. Tacitus provides informa-
tion on German social organization, primarily with respectmigration and population movements: Europe 709