Chapter ThirteenSettlementsDuring the Iron Age, trade within temperate Europe is evident at most settlements in
bronze objects, graphite used for surface colouration and mixed with clay in pottery,
glass beads, and other materials. This evidence indicates that virtually all communities
were involved in trade on a regular basis. The early iron age centres such as the
Heuneburg in south-west Germany and Bragny in France, and the oppida of the Late
Iron Age probably manufactured goods for trade to the smaller communities in the
countryside (see p. 224), perhaps in a system that brought foodstuffs and other farm
and forest products into the centres. But we need to be cautious in hypothesizing such
relationships between centres and small communities, because many of the smaller
sites also yield evidence of manufacturing (see p. 226). Until we have more infor-
mation about the small settlements, and technical analyses that indicate the origins
of particular goods, we will remain uncertain as to the organization of this internal
trade.
The importation of goods from outside Celtic Europe is apparent at many of the
centres. The Heuneburg, Mont Lassois and other settlements have yielded sherds of
Attic painted pottery, ceramic amphorae from the Mediterranean world, coral,
and amber from the Baltic region. These goods are not common on smaller sites,
though the recent discovery of Attic red-figure pottery at a small settlement at
Hochdorf in south-west Germany (Biel 1991) indicates that further research may
change substantially our present view.
The oppida of the final two centuries Be were centres of commerce (Timpe 1985:
267-8), as is apparent in the quantities of Roman imports recovered at them
(Svobodova 1983, 1985) and in the growth of industries that operated for export
trade. The manufacture of pottery, glass jewellery, sapropelite ornaments, bronze
vessels and iron weapons seems to have been geared to some extent towards export
trade in this late period. The major oppida are characterized as market-places (Maier
1991) at which local and long-distance commerce were concentrated. Silver and
bronze coinage may have developed to serve the needs of the large, commercially
focused communities for a standard of exchange (Kellner 1990: 15). Coins are good
indicators of trade, because their places of origin can often be determined (Figure
13.4). For example, of the 886 coins recovered at Manching, 58 per cent were minted
in southern Germany, 28 per cent in regions to the west, 5 per cent in regions to the
east, 3 per cent were Roman, and 6 per cent were unidentifiable (Kellner 1990: 16).
At other oppida, too, substantial numbers of coins are of foreign origin.
Graves
The evidence for trade activity from graves parallels that from settlements. Bronze
objects, graphite-decorated pottery and glass beads and bracelets frequently occur in
graves and reflect local patterns of circulation within temperate Europe. Elaborately
constructed graves that contain more and finer local products than most also often
have in them imported objects from outside the Celtic area. The Vix grave at Mont
Lassois and Grafenbiihl at the Hohenasperg, for example, contained many imported
luxury goods from the Mediterranean world, including the enormous bronze krater,