Typical for the Arras Culture of eastern Yorkshire is the presence of inhumation burials – some of which are chariot burials – and of square barrows. Long-distance social networks are probably at the origin of the introduction of these funerary rites into Yorkshire towards the early 3^rd century BC. They coincide with the spread of chariot burials in many parts of northern Gaul, at a time when international contacts seem to intensify, resulting in a rapid diffusion of new technologies, art styles and ideologies. As the connection between the Arras Culture and northern Gaul is most apparent in the field of ritual, the possible role of the druids must be examined. The druids were the authority on matters of ritual and the guardians of oral lore ; as such they had good knowledge of their local funerary practices and of those of their ancestors, but also of the customs in neighbouring regions and beyond. Historical sources attest that they travelled fairly regularly ; some of them had even received their education in Britain. No doubt this mobility of the druids lead to the creation of social networks specific to their own religious and intellectual class, but not unrelated to the networks of the secular elite to whom they acted as councellors.