By around 400 BC, the Etruscans had already had five centuries of life in the Po Valley of northern Italy. They had twelve city-states, ore mines, good roads and drainage systems, and carried on trade with the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians... And the Celts. Etruscan warriors were famous from the Trojan war. Military technology was modern for the times. Their land was lush and fertile as well and they grew, among other things, wine grapes for the making of a wine now called Montepulciano. Etruscan metalwork was also famous throughout their trading sphere of influence.
But about this time, a large migration of Celtic tribes poured down over the Alps with the intention of settling the Po Valley region. According to Polybius, an Arcadian Greek historian who was born somewhere around 200 BC:
From this jumping-off place, the Celts soon covered the northern end of Italy. The Etruscans gradually faded from Italian history until the Romans incorporated the culture into their own.
The Celts laid the foundations for some of the most important towns in northern Italy: Taurinium (Turin), Bergomum (Bergamo), Mediolanum (Milan). The fertile lands yielded crops, and the Celts offered accommodations to visitors passing through their lands. Polybius was surprised that the Celts had such a system for boarding travelers; instead of separate contracts between guest and host for each service provided, the Celtic landlords offered an all-inclusive fee for everything. Prices were low as well. Even the most lavish accommodations cost about half a cent at that time.
By the time the Romans conquered northern Italy, the Celtic towns of Meduolanum and Taurinum were flourishing.
In the late Bronze Age, exchanges of goods was already common. Copper and tin, used to make bronze; salt from the mines of Hallstatt and other salt-producing areas had been available for trade since 1000 BC. During the eighth century BC, iron was introduced and began to be traded.
With the advent of iron, centers of control began springing up to regulate distribution and protect trading rights. Graves began to contain some more lavish interments. Between 800 and 600 BC, the people who were probably the earliest Celts began to build walled settlements on hills north of the Alps. Graves of 'nobles' began to become distinct for their richer grave inclusions.
Between 600 and 400 BC, graves with imported and status items became more centralized around the western area, in eastern France and western Germany. This westward trend seems to have come about due to the presence of the Greek trading city of Massalia, now called Marseilles. These newer towns or forts lay along river routes to the Rhone River corridor, providing easier access to Massalia. During this time period, the presence of Greek and Mediterranean goods in graves increased in the western area.
Control of trade routes and of merchandise for trade created an upper class of men who used strength of arms to protect their empires. Imported goods served to display status, and to confer favor from a noble upon his subjects. The Celts were becoming not only a warrior/ agrarian society, but a business-oriented society as well.
These fortified trading centers were centered along river routes to foreign trade centers. The rulers of these towns probably guarded these routes from aggression from other hopeful entrepreneurs. Control of trade brought wealth and riches to the lords of these towns. Some of the finds, usually somehow connected with wine, were more spectacular than anything found in their homes of origin. Whether they were traded or bought items or some form of diplomatic gifts isn't known.
The Celts of the late Hallstatt era began to make mass-produced items in 'factories' located in various settlements around central Europe. Long, thin courtyards, some with cubicle divisions in them, have yielded specialized equipment and cast-offs showing that one product above the rest were probably manufactured in any one of these places. One man would cut out patterns for shoes, for instance, and another would sew them together. The assembly line was also used in ancient Greece.
Manching in Bavaria, Stradonice in Bohemia, and Bibracte in eastern France were both trade and manufacturing centers of this period. Metal was worked into a variety of forms both for war and peace. Textiles were probably manufactured, leathers tanned and turned into useful items such as saddles and shoes. Smaller manufacturing or crafting areas were found near the larger factories and may have produced specialty items, items for use in the factory alone, or done finishing work on the produced items.
The artists of the new La Tene era borrowed from and improved upon designs from their trading contacts. The palmetto and lotus designs from Etruscan pieces was adapted and abstracted to fit onto ewers, bowls and other items from La Tene factories.
Damascening, a method of sandwiching one piece of metal between two others for working into sword blades, was Celtic.
From 300 BC on, the Celts manufactured and wore shirts of chain mail, which was probably a Celtic invention. These shirts were formed from interlocking rings of metal and took a long and difficult process to create. These shirts weighed up to 35 pounds and were probably confined to the upper warrior classes. The Romans adopted their use as well.
Potters threw pots and fired them in kilns which could control the amount of oxygen around the objects, which influenced color from red to gray to black. They added graphite to their clay to create a metalic appearance.
From the later Iron Age, craftsmen had learned to properly fuse glass into the surface of copper alloys and expanded from the usual red color. Coral inlay was used for decoration. Glass beads and bangles were popular, and the color Cobalt Blue was a great favorite, especially ornamented in yellow or white. Glass was probably imported.
Celtic woodworkers used lathes to create turned pieces, and adorned their work with carvings and metal ornament. Carpenters created gates and structures using either mortise and tenon or pegged joints. Gate structures from Caesar's murus gallicus were elaborate. Bridges and forts were built. Celts invented the barrel, and these replaced wine jugs north of the Alps. Caesar describes seagoing vessels from Gaul as tall, with leather sails, and anchor chains instead of ropes. These crafts probably resembled caravels from the 1400's more than Viking or Roman ships. Smiths and carpenters cooperated with each other in the construction of land vehicles, as shown in the Celtic wheel. Gaulish woodwrights created the outer rim of the wheel from one piece of wood, unlike the rest of the world at the time which created it in sections. Then the blacksmith would drop a hot metal tire over the assembly. The metal would shrink as it cooled, holding the entire wheel together without nails.
Uniformity in utensils made by Celtic craftsmen probably indicate large factories for their manufacture which used standardized specifications for things like axe-heads and pots.
Classical writers mention the Celtic practice of wearing loud checked patterns, probably plaid. The Celts used warp-weight looms to weave.
Examples of fabric and wood have been found in bogs; in salt mines; and in lake-beds, all of which preserved the usually-perishable materials from disintegration
The Celts were more than barbarian warriors who terrorized Classical civilizations on the Mediterranean Sea. They were craftsmen, businessmen, and innovative creators of product and design.
From The Celts by Gerhard Herm, 1977, St. Martin's Press, Inc.and The World of the Celts by Simon James, 1993, Thames and Hudson Inc.
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