The Celtic World (Routledge Worlds)

• Chapter Thirteen -

find is an important reflection of transmission of precious objects over sizeable
distances within temperate Europe.
Hoards of iron ingots are different. They represent the transport of smelted and
forged iron from sites of production to places where the metal was to be further
processed into needed implements. Several different forms of ingots are known, each
concentrated in a particular region of Europe Gacobi I974a: 248-53).
During the Late La Tene period, about 120-50 BC, two different types of hoards
provide important information about trade. One group contains metal objects,
including iron tools and bronze ornaments and vessels. The hoard from Kappel in
southern Wiirttemberg had in it a bronze jug from an Italian workshop, along with
other bronze vessels and many iron tools (Fischer I959). Hoards of the other group
contain gold and silver, in the form of coins and ring jewellery. The gold and silver
coins in these hoards often reflect long-distance trade (Kramer I 97 I; Furger-Gunti
I9 82 ).

MECHANISMS

The archaeological evidence of the results of trade and exchange is relatively straight-
forward, and changes in the intensity and directionality of commerce can be identified.
Less clear are the mechanisms and organization of Celtic trade. Renfrew's (I975: 42,
fig. I 0) diagram provides useful models for thinking about the way trade systems work.
In order to identify specific mechanisms, we need to use ethnographic and ethno-
historic information to generate models for examining prehistoric trade situations.
I distinguish here five main categories of trade and exchange mechanisms. Until we
develop a better understanding of how to recognize the different mechanisms through
their material correlates, using analogy, these suggestions must remain tentative.

Barter Trade

Barter is the exchange of goods for other goods perceived by the participants to be
of equal value. The purpose of the transaction is acquisition of goods, and interaction
is peaceful. For trade in raw materials, barter trade was probably the predominant
mechanism, to judge by what we know of historical cases in medieval Europe
and elsewhere. We have archaeological evidence for the use of packhorses (Wyss
I989) and freight boats (Ellmers I969) to transport materials, and ancient writers
emphasize the importance of the river systems of Gaul for Celtic trade (Timpe I 985:
260). Payment of tolls in the course of such trade seems to have been a regular
practice (Timpe I 985: 276), at least at the end of the Iron Age.
The gold, silver and bronze coinage of the final two centuries BC provides good
information about barter trade. The regular sizes and weights of coins, and especially
the balances for weighing precious metals - more than thirty have been found at
Stradonice in Bohemia - indicate that coins served as standards of value in a barter
system (Steuer I987). The recovery of balances, as well as moulds for casting coin
blanks, at small settlements, as well as at oppida, suggests that this early monetary
system permeated the late iron age countryside.