Page 189 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

15° The Chariots

But trade is a two-way exchange, and the beaker people
were clearly interested not only in selling but also in buying.
Their need for agricultural produce was small, and it was neces­
sary for them to persuade their potential customers to produce
other things for sale. So they were not merely traders and smiths;
they were also prospectors and exploiters. They were constantly
on the lookout for suitable trade goods. The metals which were
rare in Spain, such as gold and tin, stood first on their list, but it
was also they who first realized the potentiality of such semi­
precious substances as jet, callais, and amber.
Throughout their range their activities produced revolution­
ary changes out of all proportion to their numbers. Though
bronze was still too expensive, for tin was scarce, objects of copper
were now within the economic reach of the wealthier members of
the farming communities, and flat-cast axes and short daggers of
copper were soon in general use, while copper jewelry was even
more widespread. It is interesting to see, too, that with the spread
of the beaker people there is a sharp upswing in the amount of
barley grown. There is a strong possibility that the bell-shaped
beakers which are the hallmark of the Spanish traders are the
outward sign of the spread of beer into Europe. It had been
known for thousands of years in Egypt and Mesopotamia, and
undoubtedly reached Spain together with the ships from the east.
Now the farmers of Europe began to devote a proportion of their
land to growing the grain from which the new and potent liquor
could be made.
It is not surprising that, after the beaker people first met the
Indo-Europeans in the Rhineland, the mixed population which
arose in the course of two or three generations (undoubtedly also
with a large proportion of the original farmers and even of the
aboriginal hunters) was culturally dominated by the beaker folk.
Nor is it surprising that the influence of the beaker people
spread far beyond their actual physical range. Though only
three actual bell beakers have been found in Denmark, the south
Scandinavians at this time abandoned the practice of burying
battle-axes with their dead, as their Indo-European-speaking
ancestors had done on the Pontic steppe, and began to bury fine
flint daggers with them instead.