How early this Spanish trade began we cannot yet say with certainty, beyond the fact that it must have been in existence for some time before the destruction of Hissarlik II. in 2225 B.C.[106] How long it continued in the same hands is also uncertain. But, as I have shown elsewhere,[107] there is evidence that while it lasted, and certainly before 2000 B.C., the eastern traders not only passed through the Pillars of Hercules and discovered the tin fields in the north-west of the peninsula, but learned also that both tin and gold were to be found in the rivers of the south of Brittany. Before the close of the third millennium, probably several centuries before its close, this Levantine trade had reached the Morbihan, where stone axes have been found which repeat the shapes of copper axes from Cyprus.[108]
Now, if we compare the copper and bronze axes found throughout the Mediterranean, from Cyprus to Spain, and those found along the west of Europe from Spain to Brittany, we find a gradual change in form from the triangular axes of Cyprus to the western type, with semi-circular butt and widely splayed edge. The earliest types are found only in the east, the more developed only in the west, for in the east they followed a different line of development. It is true, however, in a general way that the type develops as we pass westward and northward, two or more varieties overlapping at many points en route. This can better be understood by reference to the series of axes shown in Plate I., which could probably be made more perfect, were it possible to get drawings of all the specimens in local museums and private collections.
If again we take the copper daggers, with broad butts and slightly ogival blades, several of which have been found in Crete, and compare them again with those found at Scurgola in South Italy and Monteracello in Sicily,[109] and with other types from Malta,[110] Spain, Brittany and the west, we shall find the type gradually narrowing at the butt and lengthening in the blade, till we come in later centuries to the type commonly known as the rapier, but which I think might more correctly be termed a dirk (see Plate II.).
The gradual evolution of the axe and the dagger as they pass westwards and northwards seems to indicate a line of trade, spreading further and further to the north-west as the centuries pass. At present we must be content with an outline of the movement, but if illustrations of all the specimens found in these regions were available, I doubt not but that the evidence would be more convincing and the details and the dates more minute and exact.
Thus we find these early traders seeking for copper, tin and gold, or any other precious commodities, on the north-west of Europe before 2000 B.C., and it has been shown by various authorities that among the gold-fields explored at that time none was richer than the Irish gold-fields in the Wicklow Hills.[111] It is needless here to recapitulate all the evidence which has been adduced to establish the early working of these deposits. The wealth of gold ornaments of this period found in the island, most of which have passed into the melting pot, but hundreds of which are still in the National Museum at Dublin,[112] would alone be sufficient evidence; but we know also that certain ornaments, known as lunulæ or crescents, were exported and reached Brittany, Denmark and Germany.[113] It is likely, too, that gold objects of Irish origin reached to more distant places.[114] This shows us that Ireland was in touch with the trade routes we have been discussing, and this in turn accounts for the vast numbers of bronze implements of early types which are to be found in all museums and private collections, not only in Ireland itself, but throughout Great Britain.
It would seem probable that the early traders from the Mediterranean also reached the Baltic at about the same date, for we find there, too, an early bronze industry, which, while bearing a close resemblance to Central European models, exhibits also western and Mediterranean types.[115] The search for amber probably induced our traders to go to this distant region, for amber, like the precious metals, was much in request in Mediterranean lands, for again it was a substance from which beads could readily be made. It was probably these traders who carried with them the news of the Irish gold-fields, and in due course other traders, starting out from the Baltic, joined the gold rush. We have already seen that a gold crescent of Irish work has been found in Denmark, we can find, too, other evidence of this trade.
Now if we plot out on a map of the British Isles the sites at which have been found the bronze implements of this period, and such a map of flat celts was published some years ago by Mr. O. G. S. Crawford,[116] we shall notice certain striking features. Where the chalk lands or limestone hills exist these finds are fairly numerous and generally distributed, for, as Crawford showed, these areas were open grass lands. But throughout the rest of the country these sites string out into long lines, and these lines, if produced, would intersect near Dublin; these lines seem to indicate trade routes, passing through thickly wooded and probably uninhabited country on their way to the Irish gold-fields.
One such route starts from Southampton and passing Winchester, crosses the Kennet at Newbury, where it was met perhaps by a route from Chichester. Thence it passed by the head waters of the Thames to a point on the Cotswolds not far from Cirencester, where it may have been joined by other routes from the south-west. It descended the scarp slope of the Cotswold at or near Broadway, crossed the Avon near Evesham, and the Severn at Bevere Island above Worcester. Thence it passed up the west side of the valley, crossing the river again below Shrewsbury. Its course across north Shropshire seems to have lain on the watershed between the Tern and the Perry, if we may judge from evidence of a later date,[117] thence passing from Ebnal towards Llanarmon-dyffryn-Ceiriog, it crossed over to the Dee Valley, where we can pick up fresh evidence near Corwen. From the head of Bala lake it seems to have turned slightly north of west, instead of passing down the Mawddach Valley, and it reached the coast somewhere to the north of Harlech, perhaps by the so-called Roman steps at Cwm Bychan. This is the best attested route so far traced out, but further work is required to establish its course with precision all the way.
Another route from the Yorkshire coast through York to the Aire gap has been described by Colonel E. Kitson Clark,[118] while some years ago I traced several from the borders of the Fens into Leicestershire, where they met at Bardon Hill; thence the route passed through Ashby-de-la-Zouch as far as Burton-on-Trent, where it seemed to be pointing to the Peak district.[119] There appears to be a route running thence by Macclesfield and Knutsford towards Warrington, while there are signs that the route through the Aire gap also turned south towards the same spot. Near Warrington a number of flat axes have been found,[120] some on the north and some to the south. The northern settlement was in the parish of Winwick, and among the things found there and dating from this time is a battle-axe of the so-called boat-axe or batyx type.[121] This type and the flint of which it is made both indicate Denmark as the place of origin. The fact that both these trade routes run to Warrington, which seems then to have been an island in the middle of the Mersey, shows, I think, that here we have a port, from which in the early bronze age Baltic traders set sail for Dublin Bay.[122] Warrington, therefore, rather than Chester, was the first predecessor of Liverpool, and the Mersey holds its own as the earliest estuary used for the western trade. Crawford’s map also shows that a similar trade route must have crossed Scotland from the Firth of Forth to the Firth of Clyde and the Mull of Galloway, but no details of such route have been worked out.