ABSTRACT
In an attempt to identify foreign influences - of whatever source or stimulation - in the British Iron Age, we should not assume that these need stem from a single movement at any given time. From its geographical relationship with the Continent, Britain was natur ally vulnerable to colonisation from at least two principal directions. From across the Straits of Dover, the most direct access into the country was afforded in prehistoric, as in historic, times to martial invaders from north-eastern France, the Low Countries and ultimately from Central Europe. To the west, the cross-channel route could have been used by traders from Brittany and the Atlantic seaboard, or by refugees displaced from homelands further east.
