COIN SCALES IN LATE PRE-ROMAN IRON AGE BRITAIN

A survey of excavation reports for sixty-one LPRIA sites in Britain reveals five 'fine' balances and objects possibly representing seven more. This paper describes the scales and discusses their use in Iron Age Britain.     

RAVENS AND CROWS IN IRON AGE AND ROMAN BRITAIN

The raven and crow skeletons from Danebury are re‐examined, taking into account their taphonomy, their context and the associated finds. Raven and crow burials from other Iron Age and Roman sites are surveyed, again with a discussion of their context and associated finds where these could be ascertained. Taken together, the evidence makes it clear that most if not all were deliberate burials, often at the base of pits. We demonstrate how interpretations of such burials have changed, with zooarchaeologists initially proposing functional explanations and archaeologists readier to accept that the burials were deliberate. We go on to argue that the unique character of ravens and crows, including their tolerance of humans, their scavenging habits, and their voice, led to their playing an important role in Iron Age and Roman rites and beliefs.     

WOAD, TATTOOING AND IDENTITY IN LATER IRON AGE AND EARLY ROMAN BRITAIN

Summary. This paper explores the archaeological evidence for the practice of facial and corporeal dyeing, painting and tattooing in the later Iron Age and early Roman period. The aim is to construct a hypothesis which explains how, why, when and by whom such pigments were worn. Although this hypothesis discusses woad-derived indigo, this is used mainly, although not exclusively, as an experimental tool, as no conclusive archaeological evidence exists which reveals the identity of the 'real' pigment(s). Woad has also long held a place in the popular imagination as the source of the dye which the ancient Britons used to paint themselves.
This paper explores the possibility that the cosmetic grinder was the focal artefact used in body painting or tattooing, and was used for grinding and mixing body and face paint. It is suggested that, rather than being a 'Roman'-style tool for cosmetic application from the start, it may have begun life as an artefact first used by the later Iron Age Britons for body painting and expressing indigenous identities.     

PITS, PRECONCEPTIONS and PROPITIATION IN the BRITISH IRON AGE

Summary: Large pits have long been known to be a characteristic of the British Iron Age. Originally they were thought to be habitations but since the 1930s they have been assumed to have served as grain silos. This paper reviews our changing conceptions and then considers a range of new data for special burials within the pits. A model is developed which sees the storage of seed grain in pits as a deliberate act designed to place the grain in the protection of the chthonic deities. the chronological and spatial implications of pit storage in Britain are briefly considered.     

THE RIVER HAS NEVER DIVIDED US: BRONZE AGE METALWORK DEPOSITION IN WESTERN BRITAIN

The significant quantities of Bronze Age metalwork recovered from the River Thames have focused archaeological attention on the presence of metalwork from riverine locations and led to the expectation that rivers should contain metalwork. Finds from bogs and marshes have also been considered to be part of this practice of deposition in ‘wet places’. Whilst rivers and bogs can indeed be thought of as ‘wet’, this overlooks the fundamental physical and cosmological differences between these two types of wetland. This paper will consider Bronze Age metalwork finds from rivers in the west of Britain, paying particular attention to Britain's longest river, the Severn. The finds will be compared to those from bogs and marshes, and an attempt will be made to explain these differences in terms of the opposing metaphorical qualities of flowing and standing water, and the landscapes in which these wet places are located.     

PERCEIVING COMMUNITIES: EXCHANGE, LANDSCAPES AND SOCIAL NETWORKS IN THE LATER IRON AGE OF WESTERN BRITAIN

Summary.   In recent years British Iron Age studies have focused on regionality whilst critiquing the hierarchical model of Iron Age society. Despite the success of these approaches there has been little detailed replacement of previous social models with an understanding of how Iron Age societies worked. Looking at the later Iron Age of western Britain this paper combines examination of the exchange of material culture alongside study of the landscape to explore the nature of Iron Age communities. It is argued that Iron Age societies in the region used material culture to construct and maintain social relationships, while using visual landscape references allowed groups to engage in larger perceived communities.     

WEALTH AND STATUS IN IRON AGE KNOSSOS

Summary.   Knossos Tekke tomb 2 is one of the richest tombs in the Iron Age Aegean, renowned for its deposits of gold. The tomb is widely attributed to a family of goldsmiths, who migrated to Knossos from the Near East. This article, however, questions this attribution. An alternative interpretation is pursued through surveys of the distribution of some luxury materials, amply represented in the Tekke tomb, in all known Knossian tombs. By setting the Tekke find against the large corpus of Knossian burial material, I identify the Tekke occupants as members of a local élite. This group is shown to have had privileged access to the products of a goldsmith's workshop, as well as to the sources of some lavish, mostly imported, raw materials, and to have regulated their distribution within Knossian society during the eighth century. The means through which the Tekke élite claimed and defended their wealth and status are assessed and their possible Late Bronze Age pedigree is conjectured.     

MAKING METAL AND FORGING RELATIONS: IRONWORKING IN THE BRITISH IRON AGE

Summary.   This article explores the social significance of metalworking in the British Iron Age, drawing ethnographic analogies with small-scale, pre-industrial communities. It focuses on iron, from the collection of ore to smelting and smithing, challenging the assumption that specialized ironworking was necessarily associated with hierarchical chiefdoms, supported by full-time craft specialists. Instead, it explores more complex ways in which social and political authority might have been associated with craftwork, through metaphorical associations with fertility, skill and exchange. Challenging traditional interpretations of objects such as tools and weapons, it argues that the importance of this craft lay in its dual association with transformative power, both creative and destructive. It suggests that this technology literally made new kinds of metaphorical relationships thinkable , and it explores the implications through a series of case studies ranging from the production and use of iron objects to their destruction and deposition.     

BLACKSMITHING TECHNOLOGY IN IRON AGE WESSEX

Summary. The sophistication of Iron Age blacksmithing technology in Wessex was determined by the metallurgical examination of 503 iron artefacts using Optical Metallography, Electron Microprobe Analysis and Vickers Hardness Testing. Iron artefacts from the different regions and site types of Southern Britain were examined to determine both the capabilities of Iron Age blacksmiths to alter the properties of iron artefacts through cold-working, carburization, heat-treatment and alloy selection, and the distribution of these possible techniques. The reasons for the selection of the areas, the sites, and the actual artefacts chosen for examination are discussed.     

SEALED SILVER IN IRON AGE CISJORDAN AND THE 'INVENTION' OF COINAGE

Summary. Recent finds of hoarded silver in Cisjordan present new material for the consideration of the conceptual history of coined metals. When the fundamental concepts associated with coinage are abstracted from the various objects that express them, it is possible to see that a kind of coined metal existed in Cisjordan and other parts of the Near East prior to the traditional 'invention' of coinage by the Lydians and Greeks c. 600 BC. ¹ Both hoards and written sources indicate that seals affixed to precious metals at times qualified them in a numismatic sense by guaranteeing weights set to standards as well as controlled composition. What has been characterized as the 'invention' of coinage was rather an adaptation of these same principal concepts. The frequency and size of silver hoards from Cisjordan point to a proliferation in the 'monetary' use of silver in that region during the Iron Age and suggest a relationship to the overwhelming preference for silver coinages among the Greeks.     

USING AND ABANDONING ROUNDHOUSES: A REINTERPRETATION OF THE EVIDENCE FROM LATE BRONZE AGE–EARLY IRON AGE SOUTHERN ENGLAND

Summary.   It has recently been demonstrated that a number of roundhouses of the early first millennium BC in southern England show a concentration of finds in the southern half of the building. It has thus been argued that this area was used for domestic activities such as food preparation, an idea which has formed the basis for discussion of later prehistoric 'cosmologies'. However, reconsideration of the evidence suggests that this finds patterning does not relate to the everyday use of the buildings, being more likely to derive from a particular set of house abandonment practices. Furthermore, evidence can be identified for the location of domestic activities within contemporary roundhouses that appears to contradict the established model.     

PORE-SIZE DISTRIBUTION DETERMINATIONS IN NEOLITHIC,IRON AGE,ROMAN AND OTHER POTTERY

A method of evaluating the pore-size distribution of pottery is described and results obtained from a number of samples ranging from Neolithic to modern pottery shown graphically. The method may serve to distinguish between similar-looking sherds if no other means of identification exists, but further work is needed before a series of determining curves can be established.     

FROM RAW IRON TO SEMI‐PRODUCT: QUALITY AND CIRCULATION OF MATERIALS DURING THE IRON AGE IN FRANCE*

Iron raw materials provide a privileged source of information for the reconstruction of metallurgical techniques and the circulation of iron products. An interdisciplinary approach, combining archaeological and archaeometrical studies of the exemplars known from the French Iron Age, has been undertaken. This enables a new typological classification to be produced that demonstrates a correlation between morphological and structural properties. Through comparison with chronological data, it is possible to propose a reconstruction of the organization of production according to three main periods, which are characterized by the circulation of different qualities of iron and by diverse levels of artisanal specialization.     

THE EARLY CHRONOLOGY of ALET, and ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR HENGISTBURY HEAD and CROSS-CHANNEL TRADE IN the LATE IRON AGE

The port of Alet (Saint-Malo) plays a key role in models of cross-Channel trade prior to the conquest of Gaul. It is argued here that the bulk of the archaeological evidence from this site may however be more correctly assigned to the decades following the Gallic War, and consequently it is necessary to reassess the nature of the connection between Alet and Hengistbury Head in the first half of the first century BC. the evidence of amphorae and recent work on Armorican pottery, combined with a consideration of the problems of navigation in this region, indicates that a coastal route was preferred to a cross-peninsular journey via Alet; it is suggested that Guernsey may have been an important point on this route, and that Alet and the gulf of Saint-Malo were usually avoided. the evidence presented seems to support Caesar's comment that the Veneti controlled cross-Channel trade at this period.     

'ROMAN' OR 'NATIVE' BODIES IN BRITAIN: THE EVIDENCE OF LATE ROMAN NAIL-CLEANER STRAP-ENDS

Summary.   This paper reviews late Roman 'nail-cleaner strap-ends', a group of objects first discussed by Hawkes and Dunning (1961 ). The precise function of these objects is unclear as their shape suggests use as toilet instruments but the split socket suggests that they were part of belt-fittings. We suggest a detailed typology and discuss the dating evidence and the spatial distribution of the type. Regardless of their precise function, it is argued in this paper that nail-cleaner strap-ends of this type are unique to late Roman Britain and thus represent a distinct regional type. The use of nail-cleaner strap-ends can be viewed in the context of gender associations, military status and religious beliefs.     

THE EARLY IRON AGE IN THE PARIS BASIN: A STUDY IN CULTURE CHANGE

Summary. The archaeological evidence for Iron Age cultures in the Paris Basin is outlined. The data are heavily weighted to burials, there being little evidence available of settlements, but regional patterns of variation can be recognized. The broader contacts of the region are discussed and the effects of external trade and internally generated pressures on socio-economic systems are considered.