The Celtic World (Routledge Worlds)

O~=~ ___ 5Om

• The First Towns -


• needles

• weaving equipment
  Aironaw1s
  ~ bone paints

Figure 10.7 Distribution of leather and textile working from Manching. (From Collis 1984,
fig. 8.23.)

advanced than in the Roman world. Py (1990) has demonstrated how the numbers of

coins lost, and so presumably in circulation, drop in the Augustan period in southern

France, and the same is probably true for central France and south-east Britain as well.

It would thus seem that the industrial revolution was a prerequisite for the

foundation of urban settlements, and it is noteworthy that major settlements do not

generally occur outside the main areas where wheel-turned pottery, glass and coinage

were in common use. The failure of urban settlements to appear, for instance, on the

North European Plain seems more connected with the failure of that area to develop

technologically. Some of the innovation of this period, for instance the advances in

pottery production, can be traced back to the Mediterranean world, but some

aspects, like the iron industry and coin use, were more advanced than in the

Mediterranean, and indicate indigenous changes.

In conclusion, urbanization in the Celtic-speaking world seems mainly to be con-

nected with an upsurge in production, partly due to contacts with the Mediterranean

world, but partly indigenous. This increased production in turn stimulated increased

trade contacts with the Mediterranean, bringing in luxury goods such as wine, and the

upsurge in trade itself became a factor in urbanization. However, this development was

not maintained everywhere. In the areas north of the Danube, almost all the urban sites

had been abandoned by the end of the first century Be; in contrast, in Gaul, Britain

and Spain it laid the foundations for subsequent urban development, and many major

settlements were already well established by the time of the Roman conquest.

REFERENCES

Alvarez Sanchfs, J. R. (1990) 'Los "verracos" del valle de Ambles (Avila): del analisis espacial

a la interpretacion socio-economico', Trabajos de Prehistoria 4T 201-33.

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