The Salt Trade
The word 'Hall', often found in contemporary Austrian place-names or geographical features, is derived from the ancient word for salt. (Zronik 14) Beginning in the 7th century BC, one of the main regions of Celtic occupation was in modern-day Austria, centred around Hallstatt, a large prehistoric salt-mining area. The Hallstatt period, 750 - 450 B.C., is named after this region. Hallstatt is the location where most of the extensive and comprehensive finds pertaining to the early Iron Age were discovered. (Schutz 191) Salt was a highly desirable commodity at the time, and the Hallstatt culture took advantage of the salts high value by establishing a salt trade. There are two main components in any trading system; exports and imports. The Hallstatt culture exported salt, and imported such items as pottery, jewelley, weapons, and gold. The salt trade resulted in increased wealth for the Hallstatt culture while the imported goods carried along cultural influences. The various influences came from all around Europe, but most notably the Greeks, the Italians, the Mediterranean. With the current weather conditions at the time, the value of salt was extremely high. With salt having such a high value, the salt trade led to a stratificatio
Once the effects of the increased wealth settled in, a stratification of the Hallstatt culture took place. This design is attributed to influences radiating from the Greek colonies in the Adriatic (Schutz 221) Also; 'Orientalizing' influences were spread northward from Italy. The demand was attributed to the dry weather which lasted from 700 to 500 B. With Heuneberg having the Hohmichele tumulus close by, this suggests that some members of the community were beneficiaries of exceptional treatment in death, and by inference, probably also in life. The later years of the Hallstatt were recognized by daggers in the grave inventories. Although the graves were robbed, the graves still had a large inventory of bronze vessels, fibulae, as well as glass and amber beads. The grave goods indicated a sophisticated and hierarchical society. (Schutz 200) The traders would return with luxury items such as bronze and pottery vessels from the Greeks, glass, coral, precious metal goods and raw metals, amber, silk, gold, horse bridals, embossed bronze vessels with narrative friezes, drinking vessels, and large quantities of wine. Throughout time, trade has always allowed cultures to expand and develop past their social boundaries. All of a standard much advanced upon that recorded from earlier Europe, reflecting a decisive and recognizable social structure. The economic basis of the Hallstatt culture focused on the mining and distribution of rock salt. This can be seen with the colonization of North America. There were twice as many dagger graves as there were sword graves in the earlier period. (Schutz 200) The fact that the amount of hard work needed to mine the salt suggests that salt was an important commodity during that time, thus salt was a great source of wealth. The salt was then transported out of the mines by means of baskets made of wood or hides carried up by headbands from roughly 1.
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