The Archaeology of Celtic Art

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DEFINITIONS, MATERIAL AND CONTEXTwhich stage in the metal-working process it represents), but in minimal quantitiescompared to the actual by-product of bronze or iron-working on even a limited scale.Crucibles and fragments of moulds are found, but again it is not always taphonomicallyclear that they represent in situ activity. Excavated evidence of metal-working wasrecovered from the late Hallstatt occupation at the Heuneburg in south-west Germany,where a ‘workshop quarter’ was identified on the basis of smelting furnaces and relatedstructures. Graphic testimony of metal-working on site was provided by the castingmould for a ‘Silenus mask’ for the handle attachment of an Etruscan bronze flagon.In Britain and Ireland several hill-forts of later Bronze Age and Iron Age date haveyielded evidence of bronze-working, notably Rathgall in Co. Wicklow (Raftery, 1976;1994a), the Breiddin in North Wales (Musson, 1991) and South Cadbury in Somerset(Barrett et al., 2000), though the structures associated with this activity are ratherephemeral in each case. By the late La Tène period, iron production in quantity isattested by the profusion of iron implements from the oppidum at Manching in Bavaria,though the structural evidence here, and at Kelheim, where the volume of slag indicatesvery large-scale production of iron, amounts to broken debris from furnaces and hearthsfor smelting and smithing. The problem archaeologically in locating the actual productionsites is hardly surprising. Because of noxious fumes and risks of fire, industrialprocessing was likely to be located away from the focus of settlement, and ethnographicevidence suggests that the mystique attached to the smiths’ craft may equallyhave set them aside from the domestic community.Professional metal-working, however, was not restricted to hill-forts or oppida. Thescale of production at Gussage All Saints, Dorset, was sufficient to convince Spratling(1979, 141) that it was not simply a seasonal activity. Furthermore, it is clear thatoutput was concentrated on the production of harness equipment and chariot fittingsrather than everyday domestic goods. A similar pattern of specialization is reflected inthe later Iron Age in Atlantic Scotland, as at Beirgh in west Lewis and Eilean Olabhatin North Uist. It is evident, therefore, that metal-working was conducted at a varietyof levels, from the professional and specialist to the seasonal and domestic, and that thearchaeological evidence for these activities, other than through the products themselves,might prove hard to recover.Iron ore is widely available across Europe, and it is probable that local supplies wereexploited without necessitating extensive mining operations. Copper and tin, on theother hand, did require deeper mining. Information regarding mining techniques, andmore especially about the communities involved in mining, is less easily inferred.Modern research at the salt-mine settlement at Dürrnberg-bei-Hallein (Stöllner, 2003)paints a bleak picture of conditions underground, with miners suffering from parasiteinfestation and child labour making up a significant part of the workforce. It is hardto reconcile this with the relative wealth of graves from the early La Tène cemetery,probably not of the miners themselves, but of the wealthy elite that controlled thehighly productive output of salt and salt-cured beef. Stylistic similarities between theflagon from grave 112 at the Dürrnberg and that from the Glauberg in Hessen arguefor long-distance networks among the master craftsmen and their patrons, but there isno reason to assume that the manual labourers of the mining community enjoyed thebenefits of their wealth creation.Indicative of the status of craftsmen in Celtic society are occasional examples of burials,such as graves 469 and 697 at Hallstatt, or in some of the Celtiberian warrior-graves,13
DEFINITIONS, MATERIAL AND CONTEXTin which tools are included among grave-goods. On the basis of Urnfield and Hallstattgraves in Central Europe with metal-working accessories, Anthony Harding (2000,239–40) has suggested that bronze-smiths may have been accorded special treatmentin death as in life. Pauli raised the possibility that the early La Tène chariot-burialat the La Gorge-Meillet burial might have been that of a master craftsman on the basisof its possible association with hammer, punches and related tools (Pauli, 1978, 459).Whether we recognize the role of warrior-craftsman depends again upon whether weregard grave-goods as ‘possessions’ or symbols of office of the deceased, whether we viewthem as votive offerings, or whether they are indicative of those groups in society whocontributed to the funerary rites. At any rate, it underscores the dangers of simplisticinterpretation.The relative absence of evidence for metal-working, more especially for permanentmetal-working sites or workshops, encouraged Childe’s (1930, 44ff) belief that bronzeworkerswere full-time craftsmen, but operating on a peripatetic basis from village tovillage, a model that has proved remarkably enduring. The Megaws endorsed thismodel for the early La Tène period (1995, 357), though recognizing the probability ofsome static workshops in princely patronage. Certainly the wide-ranging sources ofsupply and specialist skills implicit in prestige objects like the Basse-Yutz flagonsimplies mobility of materials, skills and ideas, but this need not mean an independentclass of itinerant craftsmen. Craftsmen may indeed have been mobile, but moreprobably within the constraints of a hierarchically-controlled society. Recognizing theproducts of individual workshops or ‘schools’ on the basis of stylistic similarities,therefore, is a tenuous principle. Technical traits, like those displayed by the Rodenbachseries of balluster rings or Haffner’s (1979) Weiskirchen type of gold-leaf plaques,on the other hand, may be a more reliable indicator of the distribution area of aworkshop or related ‘guild’ of craftsmen. In particular, the use of a specific formulain the compass-drawn designs of the latter might be evidence of the exclusive or‘secretive’ nature of some groups of artists.Ethnographic analogies (Rowlands, 1971) suggest a variety of models for the role ofmetal-workers in non-state societies, and it seems probable that in Iron Age Europe,given the range of craft skills involved and the great diversity of production, severaldifferent systems were in operation. Some undoubtedly involved long-distance sourcesof supply, of amber or coral, for instance; other more basic needs, such as supplies ofiron ore, could have been met from local resources. It is inherently unlikely that thewarrior elite would have relied upon itinerant tinkers for their weapons and defensivearmour, and the employment of master-craftsmen under princely patronage seems probabletoo for the finer pieces of personal ornament, even if the individual specialists insheet bronze-work, lost-wax casting, ornamental engraving, gem-setting, gold-workingand the like were drawn from a wider pool through diplomatic liaisons.An important and under-used source of potential light on the role of craftsmenin Celtic society is early Irish or Welsh literary sources (Gillies, 1979). Recognizingthe pitfalls of treating these as a ‘window on the Iron Age’ (Jackson, 1964), theynevertheless articulate traditions that could well have had a greater antiquity. Gilliesidentified several recurrent themes that he believed might have a ‘respectable antiquity’in Ireland and Wales. One of these was the belief in a triad of craft gods,Goibniu the smith, cognate to the Roman Vulcan, Luchta the wright and Creidne thebronze-smith, all linked by their role in providing spears used in battle by the ruling14
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Page 39 and 40: Figure 2.2 Late Bronze Age cult veh
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Page 55 and 56: 3THE LA TÈNE EARLY STYLESOrigins a
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Page 67 and 68: THE LA TÈNE EARLY STYLESFigure 3.5
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Page 73 and 74: THE LA TÈNE EARLY STYLESFigure 3.8
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Figure 3.11 The Glauberg bronze tor
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THE LA TÈNE DEVELOPED STYLESFigure
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THE LA TÈNE DEVELOPED STYLESFigure
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THE LA TÈNE DEVELOPED STYLESdisint
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THE LA TÈNE DEVELOPED STYLESsince
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THE LA TÈNE DEVELOPED STYLESidenti
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THE LA TÈNE DEVELOPED STYLESWaldal
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Figure 4.7 Torcs and arm-ring from
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Figure 4.8 La Tène decorated potte
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Figure 4.9 Münsingen, Berne. A: ce
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THE LA TÈNE DEVELOPED STYLESon the
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Figure 4.11 Insular early La Tène
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THE LA TÈNE DEVELOPED STYLESvexing
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THE LA TÈNE DEVELOPED STYLESPrunay
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THE LA TÈNE DEVELOPED STYLESgroupi
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THE ART OF THE SWORDSMITHwhich spec
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THE ART OF THE SWORDSMITHstylized b
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THE ART OF THE SWORDSMITHFigure 5.2
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Figure 5.3 ‘Halimba’ scabbard f
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THE ART OF THE SWORDSMITHconservati
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THE ART OF THE SWORDSMITHAmeglia, c
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THE ART OF THE SWORDSMITHapart from
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Figure 5.7 Scabbards from eastern E
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THE ART OF THE SWORDSMITHtriangles
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THE ART OF THE SWORDSMITHtheme, an
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Figure 5.9 Irish engraved scabbards
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THE ART OF THE SWORDSMITHand freque
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6THE LA TÈNE LATERRELIEF STYLESBro
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Figure 6.1 La Tène ‘Plastic Styl
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THE LA TÈNE LATER RELIEF STYLEShem
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THE LA TÈNE LATER RELIEF STYLESA d
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THE LA TÈNE LATER RELIEF STYLESinh
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THE LA TÈNE LATER RELIEF STYLESin
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THE LA TÈNE LATER RELIEF STYLESwit
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THE LA TÈNE LATER RELIEF STYLESess
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THE LA TÈNE LATER RELIEF STYLESFig
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THE LA TÈNE LATER RELIEF STYLESpla
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Figure 6.10 British Iron Age brooch
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7INSULAR BRITISH ART TO THEROMAN CO
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INSULAR BRITISH ART TO THE ROMAN CO
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Figure 7.1 Engraved and relief orna
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Figure 7.3 The Witham shield. Adapt
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Figure 7.5 Iron Age decorated potte
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Figure 7.7 Mirrors from Holcombe, D
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Figure 7.8 Mirror from Desborough,
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8LA TÈNE AND NON-LA TÈNEIN IRELAN
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LA TÈNE AND NON-LA TÈNE IN IRELAN
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Figure 8.3 Irish ‘La Tène’ - 1
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Figure 8.4 1. Knock (‘Clonmacnois
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Figure 8.5 Irish ‘La Tène’ - 2
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Figure 8.6 The Turoe stone, Co Galw
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Figure 8.7 Ireland and Northern Bri
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Figure 8.8 Ceremonial head-gear. A:
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Figure 8.9 Ornamented discs. A: Ban
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SOUTH-WEST EUROPE AND THE CELTIBERI
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Figure 9.2 Anthropomorphic and zoom
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Figure 9.4 Celto-Ligurian statuary.
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Figure 9.6 Celtiberian swords and s
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LATER STYLES AND ROMANIZING INFLUEN
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Figure 10.10 Scottish cast bronze a
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11LATER INSULAR ART IN BRITAINAND I
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LATER INSULAR ART IN BRITAIN AND IR
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Figure 11.4 The Norrie’s Law, Fif
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Figure 11.10 Technical details of t
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12CONCLUSIONSArchaeology and Celtic
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CONCLUSIONSFirst, we should try to
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CONCLUSIONSOn the principle that th
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CONCLUSIONSDespite some recent rese
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CONCLUSIONSVehicle embellishments,
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CONCLUSIONSof the wearer. In the co
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CONCLUSIONS13). On the other hand,
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BIBLIOGRAPHYAllen, D. and Nash, D.
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BIBLIOGRAPHYColes, J. M. (1962) ‘
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BIBLIOGRAPHYFirth, R. (1951a) ‘Th
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BIBLIOGRAPHYHarding, D. W. and Gill
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BIBLIOGRAPHYKristiansen, K. and Jen
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BIBLIOGRAPHYNeedham, S. (1979) ‘T
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BIBLIOGRAPHYRyan, M. (1989) ‘Chur
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BIBLIOGRAPHYVillard-Le Tiec, A., Ch
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INDEXbeads: amber 45; ‘dumb-bell
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INDEXcrowns 153, 183-5, 184; see al
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INDEXHounslow 224, 265Hradenin 270,
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INDEX‘ornament horizon’ 173Orna
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INDEXsymbol stones, Class I 239, 24
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The Archaeology of Celtic Art

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