a reply to: LedermanStudio Trade routes can't be overlooked. It's really extraordinary how stuff got around and not just during the classical Greek period, but centuries earlier.A stone hand axe was found in Southern England that was carved from jadeite in the Austrian alps some 6000 years ago. People had only just started riding horses instead of eating them. Imagine what 800 miles looked like back then and how the heck the axe made its way there and how many owners traded it. www.bbc.co.uk... Another example is one of the Irish 'bog bodies' used Spanish tree sap as hair gel. Picture a dude from 3000 years ago with an Elvis quiff. Somehow something as niche as hair gel had a market and was traded from Spain to the NW of Ireland. www.nationalgeographic.com... The popular picture of 'ancient times' is that Russia through Europe was a fragmented mass of territories occupied by warring tribes. We imagine it'd be impossible to go 100 miles without being robbed or killed for being a foreigner. In reality, merchants followed trade routes and objects could be passed along from one person to another and cross hundreds of miles. It doesn't necessarily mean Trader Joe himself travelled the breadth of the European land mass, but goods could pass through regions like the old image of people passing buckets of water along a chain to put a fire out.