¶We have to be careful here--History lies buried deep in clay tablets and broken stones--Before 500 BC, Western Europe wasn't writing much down--But we know there were kingdoms. The archaeologists found them in the dirt and gold.
¶Tartessos stood proud in what's now southern Spain. They worked silver and tin, traded with the Phoenicians. The Greeks wrote about them--Called their king Arganthonios--the Silver Man--He ruled from his city on the Guadalquivir River--The excavations at Huelva showed us their wealth--Bronze, silver, gold--all worked with skill we didn't think possible for that time.
¶Up in France, the Hallstatt princes built their fortified towns--Not a single kingdom, but many--Each had his hill fort, his warriors, his craftsmen--They traded amber from the north for wine from the south--Their burial mounds still stand--Inside, they found Greek bronzes--Etruscan gold. These weren't simple tribal chiefs--They were kings who could command the labor of thousands.
¶The Etruscans, though more central than western, had their league of twelve cities before 500 BC--Each with its king, its laws, its armies--They built in stone while others built in wood. Their tombs tell us how they lived, how they ruled.
¶But here's the truth of it--we can't know it all--The people who lived then didn't leave us their histories.
¶What we know comes from their graves, their trash heaps, their broken walls. And from what others wrote about them, those others who had letters and scrolls.
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