The bronze age and the Celtic world - Universal History Library

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Chapter III
EARLY TRADE WITH CELTIC LANDS
the close of the stone age the movements of people had been by means
of gradual drifting. During the palaeolithic age, when the population
supported itself by hunting, the people wandered over considerable areas in search
of game, and the inhabitants of different regions frequently met and mingled
with one another. As the forest conditions arose during the close of the Magdalenian
period these wanderings were restricted in scope, and with the gradual introduction of
domesticated animals and the practice of agriculture during the neolithic age, more
settled communities arose. Thus the different types mixed less with one another,
and the communities became more speciahsed, both in type and culture, as their
wanderings diminished.
A new method of intermixture was, however, soon to arise, as the practice of
commerce developed. It is possible that even during the palaeolithic age, tribes who
lived in a region where flint or other suitable material was abundant, or who had
become skilled in the fashioning of some advanced type of implement, sometimes
bartered their spare products for other commodities. Such operations, if they did
exist, must have been very limited in extent, and confined to bartering between
neighbouring tribes.
During the neolithic age this simple principle of exchange continued, though
it was probably more frequent, since communities had a narrower range, and some
must have been Hving in regions where suitable raw material was scarce or non-existent.
Some well favoured regions also had begun to develop regidar commerce. The
inhabitants of the island of Santorin, the ancient Melos, had before metal was known
organised an export trade in obsidian goods, for they held a monopoly of that excellent
volcanic glass in the .^gean region'. It seems likely, too, that the people of the Lipari
• Bosanquet (1904) 216-233.
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