during the Neolithic Period were similar to those of earlier
times, with one signifi cant innovation. Axes made by grind-
ing one stone against another, rather than by fl aking, be-
came common. Modern experiments show that ground stone
axes are more effi cient for cutting down trees and chopping
wood—both activities that Neolithic farmers carried out to
clear their fi elds and to build houses and fences—than are
axes made by fl aking. More effi cient tools meant that farmers
could spend less time on the basic tasks of managing their
farms and devote more eff ort to generating surplus produce.
Surplus might take the form of foods such as grain and meat
or perhaps other goods, such as leather and wool. Surplus
products might then be used to exchange for materials made
by other individuals or for goods that might arrive through
trade with other communities.
Th e farming peoples of the Neolithic Period began to
manufacture textiles on a regular basis, using wool from
sheep and linen from fl ax grown in the fi elds. Only under ex-
ceptional circumstances do textiles survive to be recovered by
archaeologists. Complete garments made of textile fi bers have
been found in many submerged settlements along the lakes
of circum-Alpine Europe and in some bog environments in
northern regions of the continent. Th e widespread distribu-
tion of ceramic spindle whorls (weights attached to spindles
to help them maintain momentum) and loom weights attest
to the production of textiles in many communities through-
out the continent. Some communities produced the textiles
they needed to make clothing for their own members, while
others produced surplus textiles for trade with other com-
munities, in exchange for which they would receive materials
that the other communities produced.
Metalworking in Europe began during the sixth millen-
nium b.c.e., when copper was hammered to form beads and
simple pins. By the middle of fi ft h millennium b.c.e. metal-
smiths were casting both copper and gold to produce more
substantial objects than was possible through hammering.
Bronze, a copper alloy that usually was about 90 percent cop-
per and 10 percent tin, was coming into widespread use by
the middle of the third millennium for tools and ornaments,
representing an important technological advance over the
soft er copper. Neither copper nor tin is common in Europe,
and both required complex underground mining to produce.
Copper mines of the Bronze Age (2000–800 b.c.e.) have been
explored in the Alps of Austria, and the evidence shows that
the industry was relatively large in scale and highly special-
ized technologically.
Small quantities of iron were being processed during the
Late Bronze Age, but it was not until iron began to replace
bronze as the principal material for tools that we speak of the
Iron Age. In central parts of Europe this change took place
around 800 b.c.e., and in northern Europe a couple of centu-
ries later. Iron is much more abundant on the earth’s surface
than are copper and tin, and so much iron ore was readily
available on the surface during prehistoric times that under-
ground mining was not required in many areas. While the
main advantage of iron over bronze was its greater availabil-
ity, once blacksmiths had mastered the techniques of working
with iron, the new metal also could yield sharper, harder, and
more durable cutting implements. By the end of the Iron Age
hundreds of diff erent kinds of tools were being made of iron
and of steel (an alloy of iron and carbon). Among the most
common tools were knives of diff erent kinds, axes, hammers,
scythes for harvesting hay, and implements for use in wood-
working, such as saws and chisels. Nails were fi rst commonly
employed for building houses and boats during the fi nal two
centuries b.c.e.
All of these tools made economic activity more effi cient.
Crops could be grown with less eff ort expended to prepare
the soil and harvest the plants, and buildings and ships would
be constructed faster and more sturdily. Th us, more time and
energy became available for other economic activities, such as
creation of surpluses for trade and engaging in trading expe-
ditions. Th e overall scale of economic activity could increase,
since these basic activities required a smaller proportion of a
community’s total resources and energy.
In the Roman Period the principal change in manufac-
turing was in scale, not in kind. In the politically unifi ed land-
scape of the Roman Empire the production of some goods,
such as pottery, could be organized on a larger scale than
had been practiced earlier in temperate Europe. For example,
large centers of manufacture at La Graufesenque and Lezoux
in France and Rheinzabern in Germany produced great quan-
tities of terra sigillata, the ornate red pottery that was favored
both within the empire and outside it. In other materials also,
including metal and glass, Roman Period manufacturing was
carried out in greater quantities than was production in the
pre-Roman context. But even with the emergence of some
larger-scale industries, many of the manufactured goods that
people used were still made in village or household settings.TRADE
Trade is important not only because it enables people to ac-
quire raw materials from far away and specialized products
that their own communities do not produce but also because
it inevitably brings people into contact and forces them to in-
teract. Along with goods, information passes between trade
partners. Evidence shows development of active trade by the
Upper Paleolithic Period (12,000–40,000 years ago). Flint of
exceptional quality and shells from the seacoasts are oft en
found on sites at considerable distances from their sources,
indicating that people were either trading with groups who
had access to them or traveling distances to acquire them.
By the Mesolithic Period systematic trade in amber from
the Baltic Sea region is evident throughout northern Europe.
With the establishment of permanent settlements and the
production of agricultural and animal goods, communities
had the fi rst opportunity to generate surplus products that
could be traded for other goods. From this time on people
traded for a wide range of materials, including amber, coral,
gold, and jet, all of which they used to make ornaments andeconomy: Europe 361