The bronze age and the Celtic world - Universal History Library

100 THE BRONZE AGE AND THE CELTIC WORLD
and little has been done to catalogue them. The formation of an illustrated card
catalogue of all the metal objects of the bronze age in the museums and private
collections in the British Isles is in progress, under the auspices of a research
committee appointed by the British Association for the advancement of Science. The
specimens deposited in EngHsh collections have, for the most part, been already
included in this catalogue, and it is from this that the bulk of the statistical matter
relating to the British Isles has been derived.
As we have seen in some earher chapters, distribution of certain types of bronze
implements may be taken as evidence of trade, and we have to consider whether it
was some form of commerce which carried the leaf-shaped swords to Ireland, Finland,
Podoha and Egypt, or whether this wide distribution betokens some other form of
movement. Before the days of fairly large ships and highly organised industry it is
not uncommon to find implements, whether of flint or obsidian, copper or bronze, carried
from country to country, without apparently any general movement of the population.
On the other hand, when pottery and heavier or more easily damaged goods pass from
one centre to another, it usually betokens migration. We have seen how this was so
when the beakers were carried from Bohemia towards Jutland and Britain. Of course
Roman pottery was shipped extensively for trade purposes, as were red figure vases and
other types of Greek ceramic wares. The same is true, though to a less extent, of
Mycenean and some Minoan wares, for the ^gean traders exported oil and wine. But
such export of pottery betokens a relatively high civihsation and a well-organised
commerce. Under more primitive conditions we may, I think, postulate that where
metal implements or small cult objects alone were carried, these are evidence only of
trade, while when pottery is found, as it were, on the move, this indicates a movement
of the potters, hence a migration of people. When pottery and weapons are both
found moving together, especially if the weapons are of a more advanced type than
those hitherto found in the land into which they are being introduced, we may suspect,
if indeed we cannot be sure, that we are deahng with a hostUe invasion and the arrival
of conquerors.
It will be necessary for us, therefore, to determine whether these swords, which
have penetrated nearly the whole of Europe except the Iberian peninsula, were carried
by trade, by some other form of peaceful penetration, or by conquest. The great