Such then, as far as our evidence extends at present, seems to have been the population of Celtic lands in the true neolithic age, when people lived in small, self-contained communities, and outside commodities were rarely met with, and then only bartered from tribe to tribe. As we shall see, the next thousand years or so were to introduce fresh elements.
CHAPTER III
EARLY TRADE WITH CELTIC LANDS
UNTIL the close of the stone age the movements of people had been by means of gradual drifting. During the palæolithic 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 specialised, 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 palæolithic 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 living in regions where suitable raw material was scarce or non-existent. Some well favoured regions also had begun to develop regular 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 Ægean region[78]. It seems likely, too, that the people of the Lipari islands traded in the same material with south Italy, Sicily and Malta.[79] Some of the natives of the French department of Indre-et-Loire, finding themselves possessed of great quantities of beautiful honey-coloured flint in the neighbourhood of Le Grand-Pressigny, exported implements, both finished and in the rough, to many distant places in France,[80] and the same is probably true of the dwellers on Pen-maen-mawr, if we may judge from the extensive remains of their industry recently discovered at Graig Llwyd.[81] The industry of Le Grand-Pressigny seems, however, like the obsidian trade in the Mediterranean, to belong to the closing phases of the neolithic age, while the Graig Llwyd factory may well date from the bronze age.
So long as these products of local industry were distributed by land, as in the case of Le Grand-Pressigny and Graig Llwyd, the old method of barter from tribe to tribe was possible and doubtless still continued. But when an island, such as Santorin, was the scene of production, such methods were ineffectual, and a definite organisation for export became necessary. To carry goods from one island to a neighbouring isle or to the mainland requires a ship and a crew, besides some representatives of the makers to effect the sales. When the ship has been equipped it is economical to provide a full cargo, and this would be more than one small community would need or could afford to purchase. This leads to trading voyages of some days’ or weeks’ duration, when the ship can call at a number of ports to meet the needs of many communities. The inland inhabitants have also to be catered for, and the most serviceable ports became in their turn fresh centres of distribution, and need a depôt under the supervision of a representative of the makers.
Thus, even before the close of the stone age, we see developing, especially in the Mediterranean region, the beginnings of an organised commerce, involving visits paid by ships and their crews to distant ports and foreign communities, and sometimes leading to the establishment of small foreign trading settlements. With the introduction of metal these features increased rapidly, and, as we shall see, before the bronze age had been in existence for many centuries, an extensive trade had grown up, mainly by sea, but sometimes by land as well, so that bronze became known and used over most parts of Europe which were not too remote from the sea to be affected by sea-borne commerce. Thus a considerable mingling of peoples and cultures took place, not by the sudden arrival of large numbers of invading hordes, but by the constant infiltration of small bodies of merchants and seamen.
The origin of the discovery of metal is still unknown, though many ingenious suggestions have been made. All investigators are agreed that gold, being the most strikingly conspicuous metal, was the first to be noticed and used, though there are those who believe that copper was almost if not quite as early a discovery. Professor Elliot Smith has made interesting suggestions in both cases. He believes that somewhere on the African shore of the Red Sea a cult arose which involved the use of the cowry shell as an amulet for fertility; such cults are well-known and widely spread.[82] For some reason the shells did not ultimately satisfy the people, or the supply diminished, and they made models in gold, deposits of which were found in that locality. Thus the virtue of the amulet, residing originally in its form, became transferred to the material, and gold became and has since remained a lucky and fortunate possession.[83]