- Chapter Ten -
Figure 10.6 Generalized plan showing the density of traded Mediterranean objects (amphorae,
Campanian wares, etc.) in central and western Europe, and the relationship of key settlements
to major through routes (rivers, passes, sea crossings). (From Collis 1984, fig. 9.22.)
The third and second centuries BC saw enormous strides in production and
exchange in central and western Europe. There are two industries which document
this development most clearly, but similar things were probably happening in other
industries as well. In iron production we can demonstrate both a qualitative and a
quantitative leap, and huge quantities of iron objects suddenly become common on
all types of settlement. Something similar happens in the pottery industry, and this
can be characterized first in the increased importance of wheel-turned pottery over
hand-made, and second in the construction of elaborate kilns for mass-production.
They are indicators of increased specialization in a broad range of other industries
- wood-and leather-working, glass, metallurgy, textiles, and at Manching Jacobi
(1974) has identified the specialist tools that accompanied these changes (Figure 10.7).
We do not yet understand much of the interrelationship between industrial
and agricultural production, but in some areas one element may have been the appear-
ance of low-value coinage, notably the cast bronze 'potin' coins whose relatively early
date, late second century BC, has now been generally recognized. In many areas they
pre-date the foundation of the oppida, but there are areas in central Europe where
coinage was not common even after the oppida had been established. In Gaul these
coins are exceptionally common, and the use of low-value coins may have been more
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