Page 131 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

and somewhat less reguiany, wiui me xviuunvxiauvuu. —
few’adventurers who are bitten of wanderlust and really travel

far, one or two in every generation will return.
’ So the men of England, such of them as are interested, will

have some sort of picture of their world. They probably know
Crete and Egypt by name, and have some idea of how far away
they are. They will look on them as their superiors in material

wealth and comfort, and will know that Cretans and Egyptians

use bronze for their tools and ornaments and weapons. They
know, of course, that metals exist, and will themselves have han­
dled bronze—rather wistfully—more than once. They will not

have heard of Babylon, even as a name, though they will be

aware that there are other civilizations beyond Egypt and Crete.
Closer home their picture of northern and western Europe
will be much clearer. They will be vaguely troubled by stories

of the ever-increasing numbers of battle-ax people pushing into

the farmlands along the Rhine, the polders of the Netherlands,
and the coastal regions of Scandinavia. And they will hear of
the beaker traders of western Europe before ever the first of

them sails across from Brittany and lands on the south coast of

England.
It is the ax traders who actually meet the beaker people first,

on an occasion when they have taken a consignment of Welsh
axes, as they sometimes do, across the Channel to one of the mar­

kets in the north of France. It is the day after the British traders
have settled in, and while they are making the rounds of their

old friends and customers, that the caravan from the south ar­
rives. First an advance guard, a middle-aged man to pick the

campsite, and four young men as a bodyguard. They are for­
eigners, that anyone can see, slight and swarthy, with round
heads and black hair and speaking an unknown language. But

"hat impresses the crowds that flock around them is their as­

surance of bearing and their splendid clothing and equipment.
ey are dressed in woven cloth, which though not unknown is a
ra^tki^n ^ese nort^ern countries. Flowing cloaks, dyed in reds

an ues, are clasped at the neck by real bronze buttons. The

young men bear bows on their shoulders and quivers on their