THE AGE OF BRONZE 
The peoples of more southern countries regarded it as a 
magic talisman possessing wonderful virtues and sought 
after it eagerly, as they did after gold, ivory, turquoise, 
pearls, fragrant herbs, and incense. The demand for such 
things, if it did not actually originate in the Bronze Age, 
at least greatly increased then, and 
in time resulted in drawing a large 
part of the ancient world into a 
single economic unit, linked to- 
gether by caravan trails and sea 
routes extending in all directions. 
The wheeled vehicle, though well 
known by this time, was used main- 
ly in ceremonials, for war, and in 
farm work, and to some extent in 
local transport. In many regions 
the almost total absence of roads 
rendered impossible its employment 
for long journeys. The “through 
freights”” used pack animals—don- 
keys, horses, mules, and oxen. They 
made their way often in long trains, 
over mountain ranges and across 
plains, by means of the footpaths 
which had come to seam them in 
all directions from far back in the 
Stone Age. LG 
The camel, destined later on to Uae ae 
become the most important caravan jn an oak coffin in a grave- 
anamaleot all, was hardly known ._moundin Denmark bem 
: : acCurdy, after Montelius 
during the Bronze Age. Its use did 
not become general, and then only in certain countries, 
until the true historic period—about the beginning of the 
Iron Age proper. 
Commerce by water became during the Bronze Age 
almost as important as that by land. Beginning ap- 
parently in the transitional period between the Old and 
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