- Trade and Exchange -
In addition to the concentrated commercial activities evident at the oppida,
many small, unfortified settlements were situated at fords on rivers, such as Aulnat,
Basel-Gasfabrik and Breisach-Hochstetten, and they too show evidence of consider-
able commercial activity (Fischer 1985: 288-9). The pattern supports the suggestion
by Duval (1983) and others that, as commerce expanded during the second century
Be, new groups of artisans and merchants emerged into positions of wealth and
prominence, their economic activities and social positions based on the growing
commerce.
The excavated oppida yield evidence of writing in the final two centuries before
Christ, both in the form of writing implements - stili and bronze frames from
wooden writing tablets Qacobi 1974b), and in inscriptions in Greek characters
scratched into pottery, as at Manching (Kramer 1982) and in central and southern
Gaul (Laubenheimer 1987). This writing was probably introduced in the context of
trade between the oppidum communities and the Mediterranean world and provides
another indication of the increasingly specialized role of the Celtic merchants in the
expanding commerce of the late iron age centres.
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