Posted on 04/07/2011 7:47:12 AM PDT by decimon
A large gap in pre-history could signal that Britain underwent an economic downturn over 2,500 years ago.
In history lessons, the three ages of pre-history - Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age - seem to flow together without a gap.
But there is a 300-year period in British history between around 800 BC and 500 BC where experts still struggle to explain what happened, where bronze is in decline and iron was not widely used.
"By 1000 BC the bronze axe had become almost a proto-currency," says historian and presenter Neil Oliver.
"It was wealth that was divorced from its use as a metal. And, a little like economic bubbles that we see today, it spelt danger.
"Attitudes to bronze were about to change, with dramatic consequences not only for Bronze Age elite, but for all British society.
"By 800 BC, Britain - along with the rest of Europe - was heading for an economic meltdown."
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Bzzzzzzzzt! WRONG!
It was caused by burying too much gold in graves, causing a currency devaluation and adoption OF the Bronze Standard.
That is WHY it was “The Bronze Age”.
Incidentally, that was also the reason even more gold started being buried as hoards: Gresham's Law!
The beginning of coined money is circa 7th c BC, and the earliest coins were silver. Nyah nyah. The Romans started using bronze currency after they got a grasp on what money actually is vs what gold and silver actually are (iow, they were way ahead of a lot of people around today).
I thought they played Castle Donington.
Lemme see if this makes any sense?
Various tribes in Britain had trade relations with Eastern Mediterranean folks. Iirc, tin was one of their trade items?
But there were traders from Greece and such places going in and out.
Athens had that brutal plague in 430BC. Might the tribes of Britain gotten a dose of the same or something similar but just got it a bit earlier?
A hard plague would thin out the skilled labor along with the end users. Maybe the art died out locally, and they had to wait for some of the Celts from continental Europe to drop by once that new fangled iron thing caught on to teach em up?
Coins? Never mentioned them new fangled thingies; I said gold.
They buried so much with the cadavers that they started running out, so had to substitute brass rings.
(That, incidentally, resulted in the early beginnings of the carnival ride industry. A different story, for a different day.)
Alas, as the gold got scarcer, the brass inflated beyond reason, then was suddenly devalued from 20:1 gold to 2000:1. Hyperinflation set in, and 300 years of history was lost.
It wasn’t until grave robbing was invented (later codified as “inheritance taxes”) that there were enough gold earings and bracelets going back into circulation to allow a stimulus package to be put together, including the massive bailout of the nearly defunct major money lenders, allowing the beginning of a recovery.
Some things never change. And I know, because I Were There.
I blame Bush, Cheney and Halliburton.
Regardless, I believe this period is within the cold period that preceded the Roman warm.
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