Despite many changes throughout the Mediterranean and Europe, trade routes already present in the Bronze Age have been expanded and intensified in the coming Iron Age. People traveled Individually on foot, with carts or in caravans along the tracks and, in some places, proper roads.

Waterways and sea continued to be popular methods of transporting large quantities of goods. Very little survives of actual ships, but depictions on pottery, metalwork and mentions in ancient texts give us some insight into the inner workings of naval techniques and ships themselves.

Caravan routes and waterways carried goods between north and south stretched from the Baltic sea and Scandinavia, to the Mediterranean civilizations and the coast of Africa.

From the eastern steppes, Scythian artifacts and influence spread into the heart of Europe, and the Phoenicians from their homeland in Levant built settlements and established contacts into the Atlantic zone.

Greeks also maintained a large network of trade routes in the Mediterranean and beyond. Additionally, Incense route connected ports of the Mediterranean with far away places like kingdom of Saba (later Arabia Felix), India and beyond. This brought into Europe luxury goods like incense, spices, frankincense, myrrh precious stones and fibers.

For all communities of the time, it was important to control the origin and transport of resources like amber, glass wood, wax, livestock, hides and slaves. The “prestige goods economy” enabled sovereigns of the continental Europe to legitimize their rule and build their own culture.

Trading was probably conducted from community to community through ritual forms of partnership like gift exchange, diplomacy and marriage alliances for safe crossing and strengthening bonds.

Besides goods, trade also spread new technology and ideas. The local craftsmen followed the imported trend and then adapted them according to their own needs and preferences.


Sources: docs.google.com/document/d/1mnK9tpEvz9UgeVWuUh8fPF…

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Learn more about the history in the heart of Europe:    • History in the heart of Europe  

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