ABSTRACT
The first archaeological evidence to be equated with these Belgic immigrations was that of the cremation cemetery excavated at Aylesford in Kent by Sir Arthur Evans and published by him in 1890. The complementary urnfield at Swarling, which, with Aylesford, has been taken as the type-site of this intrusive south-eastern culture, was published in 1925 by J. P. Bushe-Fox. Shortly afterwards, the British evidence was related to contemporary late La Tene groups on the Continent by C. F. C. Hawkes and Dunning (1930) in their classic study of the problem, which has remained the basis for all subsequent research. The inter pretation then put forward was that two principal movements brought Belgic culture to Britain, the first, around 75 B.C., to the south-east, and the second, dating to the period shortly after Caesar’s return to Gaul, being that which Commius led in flight across the Channel, resulting in the Atrebatic colonisation of Wessex. This early conclusion can now be seen to have been an oversimplification, and it was revised by Hawkes in his scheme of 1959 for the British Iron Age, and in a subsequent re-appraisal of the Continental origins of the Belgic immigrants (1959; 1968). Meanwhile, the evidence from the burials of the Aylesford-Swarling series, and in particular the pottery, has been the subject of a detailed survey by Dr Birchall (1965), who endeavoured to reconcile the relatively late dating of these material remains with the evidence for pre-Caesarian invasion.
