ABSTRACT
TAURING the period when socketed axes and swords were current in England, several intrusive groups, settling in
sufficient numbers to affect the ceramic and sepulchral records, have been recognized. It is indeed likely that an almost con tinuous stream of invaders was flowing into England from the Continent, but two principal waves, each with two crests, can be distinguished-the Urnfield1 and the Hallstatt invasions2 respectively. The first group of urnfield invaders, settling principally in Wessex, introduced what are termed globular urns from the Rhine Valley; a second group, occupying East Anglia and Southern England, brought the so-called bucket urns, decorated with finger-tip impressions on raised mouldings, again from the Rhine Valley. This wave did not certainly reach Upland Britain at all, though the decoration of our Encrusted Urns is thought by Fox to be inspired by the bucket-urn people.
