Re: Celtic and Afro-Asiatic?

Scriptum est:
> >Actually, it's not inconceivable.  The Phoenicians had trade
> >interests in Britain, as Britain was one of the better sources
> >of tin in the ancient world.  So they could have founded emporia
> >along the same lines as those the Greeks founded throughout the
> >Mediterranean world.  But AFAIK there's no archaeological evidence
> >for such an emporion, and so any link is little more than a
> >remote possibility.
> >
Just some thoughts about early trade--
if the trade in tin from Britain to the Mediterranean was anything like the
early spice trade out of the Moluccas, or the even earlier amber trade from
the Baltic to the Mediterranean-- there were many intermediaries, each of
whom, not so incidentally, made a tidy profit for their leg of the journey.
The tin trade could also have gone from Britain across the channel, then
overland through many hands to, say, a Phoenician settlement at what later
became Massilia.

Was the tin processed into ingots in Britain-- most likely IMO, since
shipping ore wouldn't be practical-- or somewhere else?

Granted, the Phoenicians were intrepid seamen, and might well have sailed
beyond the Pillars of Hercules-- IIRC, however, the Greeks and the Romans
didn't. But I suspect a direct Phoenician trade between Britain and the Med.
would be unlikely, given what we do know about early trading networks.