INDUSTRY

Most of the goods manufactured by the iron age Celts that survive archaeologically can be divided into four main functional categories - tools, weapons, containers and personal ornaments. Discussion here focuses on these. Other categories of manufactured objects are not as well represented in the archaeological record, principally because they are less well preserved. They include textiles (Hald 1980), furniture (Biel 1985), wheeled vehicles (Vierradrige Wagen der Hallstattzeit 1987) and boats (Ellmers 1969).

Manufactured objects belonging to the four principal categories served two main kinds of purpose. One was utilitarian - iron axes were used for cutting wood.

Figure 12.3 Map showing the principal distribution of graphite-clay pottery of the Late Iron Age (shaded areas) and natural deposits of graphite-clay (black areas). (Adapted from Kappel

1969; 40, fig. II and map 2.)

Weapons for fighting, and pots for holding food. The other purpose was expressive - to communicate information (Douglas and Isherwood 1979). Fibulae and bracelets were often highly ornate and individualized - no two were exactly alike. Pauli (1972) has shown that particular items of personal ornamentation were associated with specific categories of persons, a pattern conforming to what we know about the role of costume in folk traditions (Bogatyrev 1971). Tools in iron age Europe are rarely ornamented, yet Rybova and Motykova (1983) have presented arguments for interpreting hoards of iron tools as votive deposits, used to communicate with supernatural powers rather than for purely utilitarian purposes. Weapons, especially swords, frequently bear decoration. Both pottery and metal containers are often ornamented in ways that communicated information.

Tools

Most of the tools that survive from the Iron Age are made of iron. By the time of the oppida, m the second and final centuries BC, some 200 distinct types of iron tools can be identified, serving a wide range of purposes (Jacobi 1974). These include metalworking, carpentry, agriculture, mining, fishing, hunting, textile production, leatherworking and cooking. Other implements include medical instruments.

Equipment for the hearth, locks and keys, and fittings for harnesses and wagons. Metallographic analyses indicate techniques employed in the manufacture of tools. Pleiner (1968) has shown that already at the start of the Iron Age, around 800 BC, some smiths had mastered the techniques for producing fine, hard and sharp cutting-edges by carburizing blades to make the iron-carbon alloy, steel. By the final centuries before Christ, smiths were regularly applying specialized welding techniques for producing sharp steel blades and utilizing other properties of iron, such as the toughness of wrought iron, for implements such as nails. Pleiner (1962) provides an overview of the techniques utilized by Celtic smiths.

Weapons

At the start of the Iron Age, some swords, spearheads and helmets were still made of bronze, but several centuries later, iron had nearly completely replaced bronze for weapons. The principal categories were swords, spearheads and shields (the body of the shield was usually of wood, the boss and rim of iron); and, less frequently, helmets. The characteristic burial practice of the period between 400 and 150 BC included placement of weapons in many of the men’s graves (Figure 12.4) - typically in between 25 per cent and 75 per cent of men’s burials - indicating that a very large number of iron weapons were manufactured. Some weapons, especially swords, were decorated, and the helmets - restricted to a small number of individuals - were sometimes elaborately ornate. Helmets from Agris and Amfreville, both in France, are intricately decorated in gold over iron bases, and the Agris specimen is further ornamented with coral, that from Amfreville with enamel (Megaw and Megaw 1989: 72, pi. X, XI; 112, fig. 154).

The technology of sword manufacture deserves special attention. Swords from about 400 BC to the end of the Celtic Iron Age were long, two-edged, with straight parallel blades and hilt of organic material (Figure 12.4, i). Analyses show that complex techiques such as packet-welding were employed in manufacture, and the result was characteristically an excellent piece of military hardware. Many of these weapons, especially a group from Switzerland, bear stamped signs, most often symbols but in one case the Celtic name KORISIOS written in Greek letters (Wyss 1956). These signs may identify the smiths who made the swords, and suggest a high degree of specialization in this craft. The scabbards were frequently decorated (De Navarro 1972).

In the final three centuries BC in the British Isles, some weapons were objects of particularly rich adornment. Parade shields, scabbards, helmets, spearheads and harness fittings were often decorated extravagantly, with fine engraved line ornament and enamel inlay (Raftery 1991). These objects were intended to display status. They are often found in wet places, for example the Wandsworth shield bosses from the Thames River and the Lisnacrogher scabbard-plates from a bog in Northern Ireland. The fine craftsmanship suggests a highly organized community of metalworkers that produced special display items for an elite group (Raftery 1991: 557, 562). A large assemblage of weaponry, including many ornate pieces, was found in a bog at Llyn Cerrig Bach in Anglesey, Wales (Fox 1946).

Figure 12.4 Manufactured goods in Grave 35 of the Steinbichl cemetery at Manching, Bavaria, Germany, i - iron sword; 2 - iron spearhead; 3 - iron spear shoe; 4 - ceramic vessel; 5-7 - fragmentary iron fibulae; 8-13 - iron rings, probably part of the suspension system for the sword; 14 - bronze tweezers; 15 - bronze ring with two blue glass beads; 16 - iron shield boss. (From Kramer 1985: pi. 21; reproduced with permission from Franz

Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart.)

Containers

Pottery is the most common artefactual material recovered on settlement sites in Celtic Europe, and ceramic vessels occur in graves as well. Analyses of clays Indicate that most pottery was locally made, and finds of kilns (e. g. Meduna 1970) provide information about scale and character of pottery manufacture. Already at the beginning of the Celtic Iron Age, ceramics included a wide range of different forms, such as large storage vessels, large and small bowls, jugs, plates, dishes and cups, each piece with its specific function (Kossack 1964). The potter’s wheel was introduced about 500 BC and became a general piece of pottery-making equipment around the start of La Tene D, about 120 BC (Roualet and Charpy 1987). By the period of the oppida, in the second and final centuries BC, several distinctive categories of pottery were made and used on the large settlements. These included coarse ‘domestic’ ware, fine wheel-thrown pottery, a special cooking vessel of graphite-clay mix, and thin-walled, highly fired ceramics with often intricate polychrome painted patterns (Figure 12.5). For Manching, we have good statistical data on types. Of 175,142 sherds studied, Stdckli (1979: 3) provides the following percentages: 3 5 per cent smooth wheel-turned pottery, 25 per cent coarse domestic ware, 24 per cent graphite-clay, 11 per cent fine painted, and 5 per cent non-graphite-clay comb-decorated pottery.

Celtic craftworkers also made metal vessels, especially of bronze, but also, in the early period, of gold. The few gold bowls recovered were apparently intended for display (Kimmig 1991), but the bronze containers served a range of purposes. Common among the metal containers were large, round-bodied vessels called cauldrons or kettles. Bronze cauldrons are found in many richly outfitted burials and in deposits in wet contexts suggestive of votive offerings (Rybova and Motykova 1983). Only at the oppida do we have evidence for their manufacture (Jacobi 1974; Hachmann 1990). Cauldrons may have been used for boiling large quantities of meat or for brewing beer, but it is clear from the evidence of myths and legends that they also served ritual purposes in feasts and other ceremonies (Green 1992: 57-8).

Personal Ornaments

The most common ornaments worn on the person during the Celtic Iron Age can be divided into four main categories - fibulae, ring jewellery (bracelets, leg-rings, finger-rings, ear-rings), belt-hooks and beads. Fibulae were most often of bronze, though in the oppldum period iron fibulae were also common, and iron fibulae are often found in men’s graves (Figure 12.4, nos. 6 and 7). In the earlier part of the Celtic period, inlay and attached ornaments of enamel, glass and coral were common on bronze fibulae. Gold and silver fibulae occur Infrequently. We have evidence for on-site manufacture of fibulae from throughout the Celtic Iron Age. The evidence includes moulds in which the fibula bows were cast, and partly finished fibulae. Fibulae occur In graves, especially in women’s burials (Figure 12.6, 3), on settlements and in hoards and votive deposits. Their utilitarian purpose was to hold together garments at the shoulder, but they played an important communicative function too, in transmitting information about the wearer, as Pauli (1972) has shown. For the archaeologist, fibulae are important as chronological markers, because the fashion for particular types changed rapidly.

Figure 12.5 Top: characteristic graphite-clay cooking pot with comh decoration, from Manching. (From Kappel 1969: pi. i, no. 4.) Bottom left: Jar of fine pottery with painted hand decoration, from Manching. (Maier 1970: pi. 5, no. 120.) Bottom right: high jar of fine pottery with painted hand and cross-hatch decoration, from Manching. (Maier 1970: pi. 82, no. 1177.) (All reproduced with permission from Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart.)

Ring jewellery was common and is found particularly in burials, but also in hoard deposits, especially in the final two centuries before Christ. Bronze is the most common material (Figure 12.6, no. 4), but iron rings also occur, and gold rings are found in special contexts, in rich burials of the period 550-400 BC and in hoard deposits from 150-50 BC. In Britain, of special significance are large numbers of gold torques made in East Anglia during the final century BC. At Snettisham, eight sets of

Figure 12.6 Manufactured goods from Grave i in the Steinbichl cemetery at Manching, Bavaria, Germany. 1,2- blue glass bracelets; 3 - bronze fibula; 4 - bronze bracelet; 5 - ceramic vessel; 6 - 201 glass and two amber beads; 7 - bronze chain belt. (From Kramer 1985; pi. i; reproduced with permission from Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart.)

Objects were found on a field, containing a total of at least sixty-one torques, as well as numerous coins, some bracelets and pieces of gold and tin (Raftery 1991: 565-6). Silver rings are less common than gold. Bronze rings, especially neck-rings, are often ornamented with enamel inlay. Glass rings came into fashion around the middle of the third century BC. They are frequent in women’s burials (Figure 12.6, nos. i and 2), and fragmentary rings are numerous on settlement sites (Gebhard 1989; Venclova 1990). Sapropelite bracelets are common burial goods and occur in fragmentary form on oppidum settlements (Rochna 1961).

Chain belts made of bronze links are a form of ring jewellery. Like the glass bracelets, they are common in women’s graves (Figure 12.6, no. 7) of La Tene C (about 250-120 BC). The decorative hooks are often ornamented with enamel.

Belt-hooks of both bronze and iron are common in men’s and women’s graves. Many are highly ornamental, especially in the earlier periods. Like other categories of personal ornament, they were worn in visible locations on the body and probably served to communicate information about the wearer.

Glass beads of many different forms, sizes and patterns are common, especially in graves of women (Figure 12.6, no. 6) and children, but also on settlements (Haevernick i960; Venclova 1990). Amber was also a favoured material for beads, as were bone and antler.