PAGAN CELTIC ART IN THE EARLY IRON AGE
GENERAL NATURE OF THE MATERIALS AVAILABLE FOR THE STUDY
OF THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE EARLY IRON AGE IN
GREAT BRITAIN
The materials available for the study of Late-Celtic art in this
country may be classified as follows:—
METALWORK.
Arms of Offence and Defence.
Horse-trappings.
Chariot Fittings.
Personal Ornaments.
Toilet Appliances.
Domestic Appliances.
Musical Instruments.
Objects for Religious Use.
Objects of Unknown Use.
POTTERY AND GLASS.
Sepulchral Urns.
Vessels for Domestic Use.
Beads for Necklaces.
WOODWORK AND BONEWORK.
Vessels for Domestic Use.
Dress-fasteners.
Spatulæ.
STONEWORK.
Sculptured Monuments.
The arms of offence and defence of the Late-Celtic period are made of
metal; the sword-blades, dagger-blades, and lance-heads being of iron;
and the sword-sheaths, dagger-sheaths, shields, and helmets of bronze.
In this country the bronze objects only are ornamented.[187]
[187] A lance-head of iron from La Tène, in Switzerland, is ornamented
with engraved patterns, but nothing of a similar kind has been found in
Great Britain (E. Vouga, _Les Helvètes à La Tène_, pl. 5).
Bronze sword- and dagger-sheaths have been found in considerable
numbers in England, and also less frequently in Scotland and Ireland,
as will be seen from the lists given below.
_List of Localities in Great Britain where Bronze_
_Sword-sheaths of the Late-Celtic Period have been found._
Carham Northumberland.
Embleton Cumberland.
Houghton le Skerne Co. Durham.
Sadberge Co. Durham.
Warton Lancashire.
Stanwick Yorkshire.
Catterdale Yorkshire.
Flasby Yorkshire.
Grimthorpe Yorkshire.
Lincoln Lincolnshire.
Hunsbury Northamptonshire.
Amerden Buckinghamshire.
Water Eaton Oxfordshire.
Dorchester Oxfordshire.
Boxmoor Hertfordshire.
London Middlesex.
Battersea Middlesex.
Icklingham Suffolk.
Hod Hill Dorsetshire.
Moreton Hall Midlothian.
Glencotho Peeblesshire.
Bargany House Ayrshire.
Lisnacroghera Co. Antrim.
_List of Localities in Great Britain where Bronze_
_Dagger-sheaths of the Late-Celtic Period have been found._
River Witham Lincolnshire.
North Hinksey Oxfordshire.
Wandsworth Surrey.
Southwark Surrey.
Cookham Berkshire.
Athenry Co. Galway.
Some of these sheaths are elaborately ornamented, more especially the
specimens from Hunsbury, Lisnacroghera, and the River Witham. The shape
of the sheaths was evidently derived from a foreign source, as may be
seen by comparing those found in Great Britain with the examples from
Hallstatt and La Tène.
Bronze shields of the Late-Celtic period are not by any means common,
but the British Museum is fortunate enough to possess the only two
perfect specimens now in existence. One of these came out of the River
Thames at Battersea, and the other from the River Witham, near Lincoln.
The former is, perhaps, on the whole, the most beautiful piece of
Late-Celtic metalwork that has survived to the present time. It is of
oblong shape with rounded corners like the Gaulish shields,[188] and
is made out of plates of thin hammered bronze, strengthened all round
the edge by a roll moulding. The body of the shield consists of a
plain plate upon which are riveted three circular pieces of ornamental
repoussé work, the largest one in the centre, and the other two smaller
ones at the top and bottom. In the middle of each of the circular
pieces of ornament is a raised boss, the annular space surrounding
which is filled in with gracefully flowing =S=- and =C=-shaped curves
raised above the rest of the surface, and starting from and returning
to small circular plaques of enamel with a swastika design on each. No
written description can give any idea of the subtle decorative effect
produced by the play of light on the surfaces of the flamboyant curves
as they alternately expand and contract in width and rise and fall
above the surrounding level background. The drawing of the curves is
simply exquisite, and their beauty is greatly enhanced by the sharp
line used in all cases to emphasise the highest part of the ridge.
It will be observed that the design is set out with regard to small
circular bits of enamel placed in definite positions symmetrically
round a central boss. If closely coiled spirals like those of the
Bronze Age were to be substituted for the enamelled discs, we should
then have a style of decoration exactly similar to that of the
Christian Celtic MSS. The metalworker who made this shield seems to
have possessed the true artistic feeling which told him instinctively
exactly how much plain surface of shining bronze should be left to set
off the ornament to the greatest advantage. The other shield in the
British Museum, from the River Witham, is very inferior to the one just
described, and is probably of later date.
[188] See article on the Gaulish statue from Montdragon (Vaucluse) now
in the Musée Calvet at Avignon in the _Revue Archéologique_, N.S., vol.
xvi. (1867), p. 69; also _Diodorus_, bk. 5, ch. 30.
[Illustration: IRON DAGGER WITH BRONZE HILT AND SHEATH FROM RIVER WITHAM
_Reproduced from Kemble’s “Horæ Ferales”_]
Late-Celtic bronze helmets are of great rarity. There are two in the
British Museum, one from the Thames at London, and the other from
an unknown locality. A third from Torrs, Kirkcudbrightshire, is now
preserved at Abbotsford, near Melrose. The specimen from the Thames is
furnished with two conical horns terminating in small turned knobs,
all the different pieces of wrought metal being riveted together with
extreme neatness. The front of the helmet is ornamented with small,
round enamelled discs and repoussé work in very low relief. The other
helmet in the British Museum is shaped like a jockey’s cap, and is
particularly ugly in appearance.
The helmet at Abbotsford has been so fully described by Dr. Joseph
Anderson in his _Scotland in Pagan Times: The Iron Age_ (p. 113) that
it will not be necessary to say more about it here.
Decorated bronze helmets of the La Tène period have been found in
France at Berru[189] (Marne) and Gorge-Meillet[190] (Marne).
[189] A. Bertrand’s _Archéologie Celtique et Gauloise_, 2nd ed., 1889,
p. 356.
[190] E. Fourdrignier’s _Double Sépulture Gauloise de la Gorge-Meillet_.
It will be seen from the list given below how extremely common finds of
Late-Celtic horse-trappings have been.
_List of Localities in Great Britain where_
_Late-Celtic Horse-trappings have been found._
South Shields Co. Durham.
Stanwick Yorkshire.
Arras Yorkshire.
Rise Yorkshire.
Danes’ Graves Yorkshire.
Kirkby Thore Westmoreland.
Hunsbury Northamptonshire.
Locality unknown Lincolnshire.
Leicester Leicestershire.
The Fens Cambridgeshire.
Saham Toney Norfolk.
Westhall Suffolk.
Norton Suffolk.
London Middlesex.
Canterbury Kent.
Bapchild Kent.
Stouting Kent.
Alfriston Sussex.
Chessell Down Isle of Wight.
Hagbourn Hill Berkshire.
Polden Hill Somersetshire.
Hamdon Hill Somersetshire.
Abergele Denbighshire.
Neath Glamorganshire.
Clova Aberdeenshire.
Crichie Aberdeenshire.
Ardoch Perthshire.
Middleby Dumfriesshire.
Kirriemuir Forfarshire.
Henshole Roxburghshire.
Torwoodlee Selkirkshire.
Stanhope Peeblesshire.
Lochlee Ayrshire.
Dowalton Wigtownshire.
Birrenswark Dumfriesshire.
Auchendolly Kirkcudbrightshire.
Ballycostello Co. Mayo.
Clooncunra Co. Roscommon.
Emlagh Co. Roscommon.
Tara Co. Meath.
Ballynaminton King’s Co.
Kilkeeran Co. Monaghan.
[Illustration: BRONZE HARNESS-RINGS FROM POLDEN HILL, SOMERSETSHIRE NOW
IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM
SCALE ¾ LINEAR]
Under the head of horse-trappings are included a large number of
miscellaneous objects, such as bridle-bits, harness-rings, -buckles,
and -mountings, pendants, head ornaments, etc. In fact, the term
has been much abused by museum curators, who, when in doubt, say
horse-trappings. Much the most important finds, consisting in each case
of a large number of objects, have been those made at Polden Hill,
Somersetshire, in 1801; Hagbourne Hill, Berks, in 1803; Westhall,
Suffolk; Stanwick, Arras, and Rise, Yorkshire; all the objects being
now in the British Museum. The specimens from the Saham Toney find,
which was equally important, are to be seen in the Norwich Museum.
Other smaller finds are preserved in the museums at Edinburgh and
Dublin.
Nearly all the big finds of horse-trappings have included several
bridle-bits. These are usually quite plain, but there are, at least,
four highly ornamented examples known (1) from Rise,[191] Yorkshire,
now in the British Museum; (2) from Birrenswark,[192] Dumfriesshire,
in the Edinburgh Museum; (3) found near Tara,[193] Co. Meath, now in
the Dublin Museum; and (4) from Kilkeeran,[194] Co. Monaghan, also at
Dublin. These bridle-bits are formed of three or four separate pieces
linked together, as in a modern one, and the decoration, which is
concentrated on the terminal rings, consists of the usual Late-Celtic
trumpet-shaped expansions and coloured _champlevé_ enamels.
[191] _Magazine of Art_ for 1885, p. 456.
[192] Dr. J. Anderson’s _Scotland in Pagan Times: Iron Age_, p. 124.
[193] Sir W. Wilde’s _Catal. of Mus. R. I. A._, p. 605.
[194] _Journ. R. Hist. and Archæol. Assoc. of Ireland_, N.S., vol. i.,
p. 423.
In nearly all the finds of horse-trappings rings of various shapes and
sizes are of frequent occurrence. They were probably used for passing
the reins or other parts of the harness through, and perhaps also to
act as strap buckles. Most of the rings are round in cross-section,
except a segment separated from the rest by projecting flanges, the
cross-section of which is made rectangular, apparently to enable the
ring to be more rigidly fixed to the harness. The decoration of the
rings usually consists of curious projections of various shapes, some
resembling pairs of mushrooms placed with the convex tops together and
the stems inclined at an angle; whilst others are more like segments
of an orange. Many of the rings are ornamented with engraved patterns
composed of lines and dots, or are enamelled. The best specimens in the
British Museum have been derived from the finds already described at
Stanwick, Yorkshire; Polden Hill, Somerset; and Westhall, Suffolk.
[Illustration: Lower ends of Bronze Sword-sheaths from Hunsbury
Now in the Northampton Museum]
The harness-mountings are either in the form of a cross or a sort of
rosette, with petals like a flower, some pointed and some round. At
the back of the mounting are a pair of rectangular loops for passing
a strap through. The front is, in many cases, beautifully enamelled.
There is an extremely pretty little cruciform mounting of this kind
in the British Museum, but unfortunately the locality whence it came
is unknown. Two similar specimens have been recorded, one in the
Uffizi Museum at Florence,[195] and another from Saham Toney,[196]
Norfolk, now in the Norwich Museum. The most elaborately decorated
harness-mounting of the rosette type is the one from Polden Hill,[197]
Somersetshire, in the British Museum.
A large number of objects found in Ireland, resembling a spur or the
merry-bone of a chicken in shape, have been conjectured to be horses’
head ornaments.[198] One of them was found near Tara, Co. Meath, with
the bridle-bit already mentioned.
[195] Kemble’s _Horæ Ferales_, pl. 19, fig. 5.
[196] _Norfolk Archæology_, vol. ii., p. 398.
[197] Kemble’s _Horæ Ferales_, pl. 19, fig. 3.
[198] There are more than thirty-two in the Museum of the Royal Irish
Academy (see Wilde’s _Catal._, p. 109). Others have been found in the
counties of Roscommon, Sligo, and Cork (see _Proc. R. I. A._, vol.
vii., p. 161; Vallancey’s _Coll. de Rebus Hibernicis_, vol. iv., p. 54;
and Wood Martin’s _Pagan Ireland_, p. 462).
Iron tyres of chariot-wheels have been found at Stanwick,
Arras, Beverley, and Danes’ Graves in Yorkshire, and Hunsbury,
Northamptonshire; but the bronze objects associated with them, which
are believed to be the fittings of the chariots, do not afford
sufficiently characteristic decoration to need description here.
[Illustration: LATE CELTIC BRONZE FIBULA FROM WALMER, KENT; NOW IN THE
BRITISH MUSEUM
SCALE ¾ LINEAR]
[Illustration: LATE CELTIC FIBULA FROM IRELAND; NOW IN THE MUSEUM OF
THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY, DUBLIN]
[Illustration: ENAMELLED BRONZE FIBULA FROM RISINGHAM, NORTHUMBERLAND;
NOW IN THE NEWCASTLE MUSEUM]
[Illustration: BRONZE FIBULA, WATER EATON, OXON; NOW IN THE BRITISH
MUSEUM
SCALE 1/1 LINEAR]
The personal ornaments of the Late-Celtic period consist chiefly of
fibulæ, pins, collars, and armlets, usually of bronze, but in rare
instances of gold or silver.
The evolution of the Roman Provincial type of fibula from earlier La
Tène type can be nowhere better studied than in this country during the
transition from the Late-Celtic to the Romano-British period.
To anyone who is acquainted with the elaborate studies[199] made
by Scandinavian archæologists on the origin and development of the
various forms of fibulæ found in northern Europe it must be a matter
of surprise that up to the present no attempt has been made to do the
same thing for our own country. With the exception of Dr. Arthur Evans’
paper in the _Archæologia_,[200] absolutely nothing has been written on
the subject in England, nor do the curators of our public museums make
the faintest attempt to classify the different kinds of fibulæ of the
Romano-British period according to their shapes.
[199] Hans Hildebrand’s _Industrial Arts of Scandinavia_; Oscar
Montelius’ “Spännen från bronsåldern” in the _Antiquarisk Tidskrift
för Sverige_; and O. Almagren’s _Studien über norden europäische
Fibelformen_.
[200] Vol. lv., p. 179.
Looked at from a purely mechanical point of view, a fibula, or brooch,
belongs to the same class of appliances as an ordinary door-lock;
being, in fact, a device for fastening applied to dress. The fibula
was probably in its earlier stages evolved from a simple pin by
endeavouring to invent some way by which the pin might be prevented
from slipping out once it had been inserted in the fabric of the dress.
A sufficiently obvious plan for effecting this is to connect the head
of the pin with the point by means of a rigid bar sufficiently bent
into the shape of an arch to avoid pressing too closely upon the
portion of the dress between it and the pin. When fixed in its place
the brooch forms a complete ring, so that a locking and unlocking
contrivance is necessary in order to enable it to be removed when not
in use.
The modern safety-pin, which is also one of the most ancient
inventions, is perhaps the simplest kind of dress-fastener, and yet
it is the parent of the almost endless series of European fibulæ from
the Bronze Age to the present time. It can be constructed in the
easiest possible manner out of a single piece of metal wire of uniform
thickness by making a coil in the middle of its length to act as a
spring and a point at one end and a hook at the other. The pointed
end is then bent round until it catches in the hook, and the thing is
complete.
There are two other classes of brooches which do not belong to the
safety-pin type or its descendants, namely, (1) the Celtic penannular
brooch;[201] and (2) the Northern Bronze Age brooch,[202] which has
a pin with a hole through the head enabling it to slide, turn, and
move about loosely on the body of the brooch. With these we are not
concerned at present.
[201] Dr. J. Anderson’s _Scotland in Early Christian Times_, 2nd ser.,
p. 7.
[202] J. J. A. Worsaae’s _Industrial Arts of Denmark_, p. 92.
[Illustration: BRONZE FIBULA FROM CLOGHER, CO. TYRONE; NOW IN THE
BRITISH MUSEUM
SCALE 1/1 LINEAR]
[Illustration: LATE-CELTIC BRONZE FIBULA, LOCALITY UNKNOWN; NOW IN THE
BRITISH MUSEUM
SCALE 1/1 LINEAR]
[Illustration: S-SHAPED ENAMELLED BRONZE FIBULA, LOCALITY UNKNOWN; NOW
IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM
SCALE 1/1 LINEAR]
[Illustration: S-SHAPED FIBULA OF ENAMELLED BRONZE, FROM NORTON, E.
RIDING OF YORKSHIRE; NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM
SCALE 1/1 LINEAR]
Although the safety-pin type of fibula was, in its earlier stages, made
out of a single piece of wire, it may be considered to consist of four
different parts, each of which performs a function of its own, namely,
(1) the head, containing the spring or hinge; (2) the tail, containing
the catch, or locking apparatus; (3) the body or framework, connecting
the head with the tail; and (4) the pin, moving on a hinge or spring at
one end and with the pointed end fitting into the catch. In all fibulæ
derived from the safety-pin the pin is straight and the body bent into
a more or less arched shape, like a bow. An infinite variety of forms
were produced (1) by increasing the number of coils in the spring and
their size; (2) by expanding the tail end into a thin triangular plate;
and (3) by increasing the thickness of the body, or by making a coil in
the middle of its length to act as a secondary spring. Much the most
important modifications, however, in the safety-pin brooches were those
which gradually led up to the harp-shaped, T-shaped, and cruciform
fibulæ of the Romano-British period. Dr. Arthur J. Evans, in his paper
in the _Archæologia_ (vol. lv., p. 179) on “Two Fibulæ of Celtic Fabric
from Æsica,” has traced the evolution of the harp-shaped fibula from
the bow-shaped fibula in a most interesting way. The different stages
in the process appear to have been as follows:—
(1) The tail end of the fibula was extended and bent backwards so as
to make an =S=-shaped curve with the bow; (2) the retroflected end of
the tail was fixed to the middle of the convex side of the bow by means
of a small collar, made in a separate piece; (3) the whole of the back
was formed out of one piece of metal, with the collar surviving as a
mere ornament; and (4) the triangular opening at the tail, bounded by
the retroflected end, part of the bow, and the catch for the point of
the pin, was filled in solid with a thin plate. It will be noticed
that during this process of evolution the extended and retroflected
end of the tail has become part of the continuous curve of the convex
side of the bow, whilst what was previously one-half of the outside of
the bow is now on the inside of the triangular plate at the tail end.
This, together with the expansion of the head to suit the increased
number of coils in the spring, produced the characteristic harp-shape
of the Romano-British fibula, in many of which the knob ornament in the
middle of the back is the last survival of the collar for fixing the
retroflected end of the tail in its place.
The cruciform and =T=-shaped fibulæ, which began in Roman times and
continued to be used by the Anglo-Saxons, resulted from extending the
coils of the spring at the head symmetrically on both sides of the
pin. In this class of fibula the two outside ends of the coil were
joined by a loop passing through the inside of the bow so as to give
extra leverage to the spring, or sometimes serving merely as a loop for
suspension by means of a chain.
A specimen of silver was found at the Warren,[203] near Folkestone,
and is now in the British Museum. The lower portion is, unfortunately,
broken off, but the retroflected end of the tail remains, with the
little ornamental knob which is the survival of the practically useful
collar for securing it to the back of the bow. The coils of the spring
on each side of the pin and the connecting loop are clearly seen,
together with the loose ring passing through the coils of the spring
and a portion of the chain for suspension.
[203] _The Reliquary_ for 1901, p. 197.
An exceedingly pretty pair of harp-shaped fibulæ of silver, with a
well-wrought chain for suspension, were found near Chorley, Lancashire,
with Roman coins dating from Galba to Hadrian, and are now in the
British Museum. At the top of each fibula is a loop for attachment to
the chain, and the bodies are beautifully ornamented with Late-Celtic
flamboyant patterns. The knob, which is the survival of the collar
already referred to, has here assumed a highly ornamental form
resembling two floriated capitals of columns placed together.
[Illustration: BRONZE FIBULA FROM POLDEN HILL, SOMERSETSHIRE; NOW IN
THE BRITISH MUSEUM
SIDE VIEW, SCALE ¾ LINEAR]
[Illustration: BRONZE FIBULA FROM POLDEN HILL, SOMERSETSHIRE; NOW IN
THE BRITISH MUSEUM
FRONT VIEW, SCALE ¾ LINEAR]
[Illustration: BRONZE FIBULA FROM RIVER CHURN; NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM
SIDE VIEW, SCALE 1/1 LINEAR]
[Illustration: BRONZE FIBULA FROM RIVER CHURN; NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM
FRONT VIEW, SCALE 1/1 LINEAR]
The specimen represented on p. 104 is one of a pair of silver-gilt
fibulæ, similar to the preceding, but larger and without the chain,
although possessing the loops for suspension. They were purchased in
Newcastle about the year 1811, and are now in the British Museum. It is
stated in Hodgson’s _History of Northumberland_ (vol. iii., Appendix
x., p. 440) that the locality from whence they came was somewhere in
the county north-east of Backworth. The fibulæ were discovered in a
silver patera bearing a dedicatory inscription to the Deæ Matres, and
containing, in addition—
5 gold rings.
1 silver ring.
2 gold chains with wheel pendants.
1 gold bracelet.
3 silver spoons.
1 mirror.
280 denarii.
2 large brass coins of Antoninus Pius.
A full account of the find is given in E. Hawkins’ “Notice of a
remarkable collection of ornaments of the Roman period, connected with
the worship of the Deæ Matres, and recently purchased for the British
Museum” in the _Archæological Journal_ (vol. viii., p. 35).
[Illustration: One of a pair of silver-gilt Fibulæ found in
Northumberland, with Denarius of Antoninus Pius (A.D. 139)
Drawn by C. Praetorius]
We may here call attention to the intensely Celtic character of the
fibulæ just described. The wearing of brooches in pairs with a chain
attachment was a Celtic and not a Roman custom, as has already been
pointed out in a previous volume of _The Reliquary_ (for 1895, p. 157).
A pair of bronze fibulæ, of the same kind as the one from the Warren,
Folkestone, fastened together by a double chain, was found in one of
the Gaulish cemeteries in the Department of Marne[204] in France, and
is now to be seen in the museum of St. Germain, near Paris. It may,
therefore, be fairly assumed that all the fibulæ found in this country
with chains attached to them or with loops for a chain at the top are
more Celtic than Roman.
[204] Engraved in the _Dictionnaire Archéologique de la Gaule_.
Other examples from the cemeteries of Somme-Bionne, Courtois,
Bussy-le-Château, and Sommesous in the Department of the Marne, are
given in the _Album_ accompanying L. Morel’s _La Champagne souterraine_
(pls. 13, 29, 34, and 40).
Amongst the Late-Celtic antiquities in the British Museum are three
specimens which illustrate the evolution of the harp-shaped fibula very
well. One ornamented with a coral boss and gold stud, probably from the
Marne district, was presented by the late Sir A. W. Franks; another
came from a chalk pit near Walmer, Kent; and the third was found at
Clogher, Co. Tyrone.
Broadly speaking, it may be said that the safety-pin type of fibula
made in one piece is earlier in date than the Roman occupation of
Britain, and the specimens found in this country are obviously either
imported from abroad or copied from foreign originals, such as those
found at La Tène, in Switzerland, and in the Champagne district of
France. The fibula in use in Britain, after it became a province of the
Roman Empire, has a massive harp or bow-shaped back made in a separate
piece from the pin and spring. In the earlier, or La Tène type of the
fibula, the catch for the end of the pin forms one side of a triangular
opening, which, as we have already mentioned, is filled in with a thin
plate in the later or Roman Provincial fibula. There is also a sort of
transitional kind, with ornamental piercings in the plate.
There was yet another description of fibula belonging to the
Romano-British period, having a flat plate for the body in the shape of
a circular disc, or sometimes in the shape of a fish or animal.
The different classes of Late-Celtic fibulæ are given in the following
lists.
_List of Localities in Great Britain where Late-Celtic_
_Fibulæ have been found._
LA TÈNE AND MARNIAN TYPE, WITH TAIL BENT BACKWARDS.
Cowlam (Brit. Mus.) Yorkshire.
Hammersmith (Brit. Mus.) Middlesex.
Avebury (Brit. Mus.) Wiltshire.
Water Eaton (Brit. Mus.) Oxfordshire.
Clogher (Brit. Mus.) Co. Tyrone.
LA TÈNE AND MARNIAN TYPE, WITH TAIL BENT BACKWARDS
AND ATTACHED TO BOW.
Aylesford (Brit. Mus.) Kent.
Folkestone (Brit. Mus.) Kent.
Walmer (Brit. Mus.) Kent.
Locality not given (Liverpool Mus.) Kent.
Datchet Oxfordshire.
LA TÈNE AND MARNIAN TYPE, WITH FLATTENED
AND EXPANDED BOW.
Ringham Low Derbyshire.
Hod Hill (Brit. Mus.) Dorsetshire.
London (Guildhall Mus.) Middlesex.
Bonville (Brit. Mus.) Co. Armagh.
Navan Rath (Mus. R.I.A.) Co. Armagh.
Locality unknown (Mus. R.I.A.) Ireland.
Hunsbury (Northampton Mus.) N’hamptonshire.
TRANSITIONAL TYPE, WITH ORNAMENTAL HEAD AND EITHER
PLAIN OR PIERCED TAIL-PLATE.
Birdlip (Gloucester Mus.) Gloucestershire.
London (Guildhall Mus.) Middlesex.
ROMAN PROVINCIAL TYPE, WITH HARP-SHAPED PROFILE,
T-SHAPED TOP, OR SPRING-CASE, AND PIERCED TAIL-PLATE.
Polden Hill (Brit. Mus.) Somersetshire.
Stamford Hill, Plymouth Devonshire.
Cricklade (Brit. Mus.) Wiltshire.
ROMAN PROVINCIAL TYPE, WITH HARP-SHAPED PROFILE,
EXPANDED TRUMPET-SHAPED TOP, AND FLORIATED
KNOB IN MIDDLE OF BOW.
Backworth (Brit. Mus.) Northumberland.
Chorley (Brit. Mus.) Lancashire.
Great Chesters (Newcastle Mus.) Northumberland.
River Tyne (Newcastle Mus.) Northumberland.
Risingham (Newcastle Mus.) Northumberland.
Ribchester Lancashire.
Farley Heath Surrey.
KELTO-ROMAN DISC-SHAPED TYPE, WITH
REPOUSSÉ ORNAMENT.
Brough (Brit. Mus.) Westmoreland.
Victoria Cave, Settle Yorkshire.
Silchester (Strathfieldsaye House) Hampshire.
KELTO-ROMAN S-SHAPED OR ZOÖMORPHIC TYPE,
WITH ENAMELLED ORNAMENT.
Kirkby Thore Westmoreland.
Dowkerbottom Cave, Settle Yorkshire.
Malton Yorkshire.
Thirst House Cave, Deepdale Derbyshire.
Kilnsea Yorkshire.
Cirencester Gloucestershire.
Locality unknown (Brit. Mus.)
Metal pins do not seem to have been much used as dress-fasteners
during the Late-Celtic period, judging from the number to be seen in
our public museums. One of the most beautiful pins of this period now
in existence is the one found with the burial previously mentioned at
Danes’ Graves,[205] near Driffield, Yorkshire, and now in the York
Museum. The pin is of bronze, with a peculiar crook near the top and a
circular head (resembling a chariot-wheel with four spokes) inlaid with
shell, or, according to another account, enamelled. Two bronze pins,
with plain turned heads, were amongst the objects derived from the
Thirst House Cave,[206] Deepdale, Derbyshire.
[205] _Proc. Soc. Ant. Lond._ ser. 2, vol. xvii., p. 120.
[206] _The Reliquary_ for 1897, p. 96.
Several pins of the class known as “hammer-headed” have been discovered
from time to time, chiefly in Ireland and Scotland. These pins are of
considerable size, some being ten inches long, and have semicircular
heads with the convex side facing downwards. The top of the pin is
bent at right angles, and the head fixed on in front of it. At the
top of the head are usually from three to five projecting studs, and
the face of the head is enamelled with Late-Celtic designs. From the
associations in which such pins have been found and the style of
their decoration, they would seem to belong to the transition period
between Paganism and Christianity. There is one in the British Museum
from Moresby, Cumberland, which was associated with a small bronze
ornament of Late-Celtic character; another in the same collection from
Craigywarren,[207] Co. Antrim, has spiral patterns upon it; whilst a
third in the Edinburgh Museum, from Norrie’s Law,[208] Forfarshire, was
associated with coins of the seventh century, and silver leaf-shape
pendants engraved with the same mysterious symbols which occur so
frequently on the early Christian sculptured stones of Scotland. A
hammer-headed pin of silver from Gaulcross,[209] Banffshire, has spiral
designs upon the head, but of a kind more nearly resembling that found
on the Christian crosses of about the ninth century in Argyllshire
than the Late-Celtic flamboyant designs of Pagan times. Other examples
of pins of this kind have been found at Lagore,[210] Co. Meath,
Urquhart,[211] Elginshire, on the Culbin Sands, Nairnshire, and in the
island of Pabbay, Hebrides.
[207] Wood Martin’s _Lake-Dwellings of Ireland_, p. 110.
[208] Dr. J. Anderson’s _Scotland in Early Christian Times_, 2nd ser.,
p. 36.
[209] Dr. J. Stuart’s _Sculptured Stones of Scotland_, vol. ii., pl. 9.
[210] Wood Martin’s _Lake-Dwellings of Ireland_.
[211] _Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot._, vol. xxxv., p. 279.
[Illustration: BRONZE HOOK-AND-DISK ORNAMENT FROM IRELAND; NOW IN THE
DUBLIN MUSEUM]
[Illustration: BRONZE PIN, ENAMELLED, FROM DANES GRAVES, NEAR
DRIFFIELD, YORKSHIRE; NOW IN THE YORK MUSEUM]
[Illustration: BRONZE DISC FIBULA WITH LATE-CELTIC ORNAMENT, FROM
SILCHESTER; NOW AT STRATHFIELDSAYE HOUSE
_S. Victor White, of Reading, photo._]
Unquestionably the finest Late-Celtic personal ornaments are the
collars for wearing round the neck, of which, at least, two in gold and
about ten in bronze are known to exist. Being larger than any other
class of personal ornament, they naturally afford greater scope for the
display of the elaborate forms of flamboyant designs in which the art
metalworker of the period used to revel. One of the gold collars just
referred to came from Broighter, on the western shore of Lough Foyle,
near Limavady, Co. Londonderry. It was in the British Museum, but has
recently been removed to Dublin. The collar, which formed part of one
of the most valuable finds of gold ornaments yet made in Great Britain,
is unique both as regards its form and the extraordinary artistic skill
displayed in its decoration. The hoard was accidentally brought to
light in 1896 whilst ploughing a field on the farm occupied by Mr. J.
L. Gibson. We give a list of the various objects comprising the find
below.
_List of Objects in the Limavady Find of Gold Ornaments._
(1) Model of a boat, 7¾ inches long by 3 inches wide, weighing
3 ozs. 5 dwts., with benches and rowlocks for eighteen oarsmen
(nine on each side) and rowlock for steering-paddle in the
stern.
(2) Boat-fittings in miniature, consisting of fifteen oars, one
grappling-iron, three forked implements, one yard-arm, and
one small spar.
(3) Bowl, 3½ inches in diameter by 2 inches deep, weighing
1 oz. 5 dwts. 12 grs., provided with four small rings for
suspension.
(4) Two twisted necklets (one broken), the perfect one 5 inches
in diameter, weighing 3 ozs. 7 dwts. 9 grs.
(5) Two chains of plaited wire, one 1 foot 2½ inches long, weighing
2 ozs. 7 dwts., and the other 1 foot 4½ inches long, weighing
6 dwts. 12 grs.
(6) Late-Celtic collar, 7½ inches in diameter, made of a tubular
ring 1⅛ inch in diameter.
The collar must have had a joint of some kind, which is now missing;
and the fastening is a most peculiar one, consisting of a =T=-shaped
projection on the end, one-half of the tubular ring fitting into a
slot in the end of the other half of the ring. The locking is effected
by giving the slotted end a half turn after the =T=-shaped projection
has been inserted. The whole of the exterior surface of the tube is
decorated with long sweeping curves, narrow in the middle and with
trumpet-shaped expansions at each end, combined with helixes resembling
a snail-shell. The background is shaded with a sort of engine-turned
pattern of fine lines drawn with a pair of compasses. This remarkable
gold collar has been fully described and illustrated by Dr. Arthur
Evans in the _Archæologia_ (vol. lv., p. 397), and the facts relating
to its discovery are related in detail by Mr. R. Cochrane, F.S.A.,
in a paper in the _Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of
Ireland_ (vol. xxxiii., p. 211). An account of the evidence given by
Mr. C. H. Read, F.S.A., before the committee appointed to inquire into
the respective rights of the British Museum and the Museum of the
Royal Irish Academy at Dublin to the possession of the hoard of gold
ornaments will be found in the report of the inquiry in the Blue Book
issued in 1899.
[Illustration: BRONZE BEADED TORQUE, FROM MOWROAD, NEAR ROCHDALE,
LANCASHIRE
SCALE ¾ LINEAR]
[Illustration: BRONZE COLLAR FROM WRAXHALL, SOMERSETSHIRE; NOW IN THE
BRISTOL MUSEUM]
A second collar of gold now in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy in
Dublin, said to have come from Clonmacnois, King’s Co., is illustrated
in Sir W. Wilde’s _Catalogue of Antiquities of Gold in Museum R.I.A._,
p. 47. It consists of a plain hollow ring 5½ inches in diameter with
an ornamental bulb on each side, one of which seems to be made in
imitation of one of the glass beads of the period.
The Bristol Museum possesses a perfect flat-jointed bronze collar, of
a different kind from any of those just described, from Wraxhall,[212]
Somerset, and a portion of another from Llandyssyl,[213] Cardiganshire.
In the British Museum there are two similar collars, one from
Trenoweth,[214] Cornwall, and the other from the Isle of Portland,[215]
Dorsetshire. The Edinburgh Museum has also an exceedingly good example
from Stitchell,[216] Roxburghshire. All these collars are elaborately
ornamented in the Late-Celtic style. The date of the collar from the
Isle of Portland is approximately fixed by its having been associated
with a dish of Samian ware.
The existence of other Late-Celtic collars has been recorded at
Mowroad,[217] near Rochdale, Lancashire; Embsay,[218] near Skipton,
Yorkshire; Perdeswell,[219] Worcestershire; Lochar Moss,[220]
Dumfriesshire; and Hyndford Crannog,[221] near Lanark. These five
belong to a special class of what are not inaptly called “beaded
torques,” because rather more than one-half the collar is composed
of bronze beads of two different shapes, (one convex and the other
concave) strung alternately on an iron rod of square cross-section,
so as to prevent the beads from revolving. The remaining and smaller
segment of the circle consists of a bronze tube of rectangular
cross-section, ornamented on the exterior with a Late-Celtic flamboyant
design. The Perdeswell collar is incomplete, and the part which remains
is formed of twenty beads resembling vertebræ strung on to an iron wire
or bar, as in the case of the Lochar Moss collar.
[212] _Archæologia Cambrensis_, ser. 6, vol. i., p. 83.
[213] _Ibid._
[214] _Archæologia_, vol. xvi., p. 127.
[215] _Ibid._, vol. liv., p. 496.
[216] Dr. J. Anderson’s _Scotland in Pagan Times_.
[217] H. Fishwick’s _History of the Parish of Rochdale_, p. 5.
[218] _Archæologia_, vol. xxxi., p. 517.
[219] _Ibid._, vol. xxx., p. 554.
[220] D. Wilson’s _Prehistoric Annals of Scotland_, vol. ii., p. 141,
and _Archæologia_, vol. xxxiii., p. 347.
[221] _Proc. Soc. Art. Scot._, vol. xxxiii., p. 385.
[Illustration: Bronze Beaded Torque from Lochar Moss, Dumfriesshire
Now in the British Museum]
[Illustration: BRONZE ARMLET FROM THE CULBIN SANDS; NOW AT ALTYRE, NEAR
FORRES, N.B.]
[Illustration: BRONZE ARMLET FROM THE CULBIN SANDS; NOW AT ALTYRE, NEAR
FORRES, N.B.]
The last class of personal ornaments of the Late-Celtic period to
be noticed are the armlets. The most remarkable of these are of the
Scottish type, as it may fairly be called, only one specimen having
been found outside Scotland.[222] The armlets of this type are very
heavy and massive, and their general form appears to have been
suggested by a coiled serpent; as in the one from the Culbin Sands,
Nairnshire, the ends of the coil terminate in actual serpents’ heads.
The armlets are usually found in pairs, and are highly ornamented
with flamboyant work, and in some cases enamelled. Although they are
of cast bronze, the style of the decoration is evidently copied from
the repoussé designs of the wrought metalwork of the period. Dr. J.
Anderson has devoted a considerable portion of his Rhind Lectures on
_Scotland in Pagan Times_: Iron Age, to the examination of the Scottish
group of armlets, most of which are in the Edinburgh Museum. The
following is a list of the known examples:—
[222] At Newry, Co. Down.
_List of Localities where Armlets of the Scottish Type_
_have been found._
Culbin Sands, Nairnshire. Bunrannoch, Perthshire.
Auchenbadie, Banffshire. Seafield Tower, Fifeshire.
Castle Newe, Aberdeenshire. Stanhope, Peeblesshire.
Belhelvie, Aberdeenshire. Plunton Castle, Kirkcudbrightshire.
Aboyne, Aberdeenshire.
Pitalpin, Forfarshire. Locality unknown.
Grange of Conan, Forfarshire. Newry, Co. Down.
Pitkelloney, Perthshire.
The armlet from Stanhope, Peeblesshire, was associated with a
Romano-British saucepan, which suggests that this type belongs to the
later part of the Celtic Pagan Iron Age.
Bronze armlets of La Tène, or continental type, have been derived from
the burial mounds at Cowlam and Arras, Yorkshire. The bronze armlet
from the Stamford Hill Cemetery, near Plymouth, is jointed like the
collars, and decorated with flamboyant work.
A pair of penannular ring armlets of silver terminating in serpents’
heads, which may possibly be Late-Celtic, was disposed of at the sale
of the Bateman Collection from Lomberdale House, Derbyshire. They were
found at Castlethorpe,[223] Buckinghamshire, in 1827, in a small urn
containing Roman silver and brass coins, none later than the reign of
Verus (A.D. 161-169), and a massive silver ring set with a carnelian
engraved with a figure of Bonus Eventus. A similar pair of base silver
armlets were found near the Carlswark Cavern,[224] in Middleton Dale,
Derbyshire.
Three very elegant armlets of twisted and looped bronze wire were
associated with a Late-Celtic burial outside Thirst House Cave,[225]
Deepdale, Derbyshire. Armlets of the same make are illustrated in
Lidenschmit’s _Alterthümer_, (vol. ii., pt. 5, pl. 3).
[223] _The Reliquary_, vol. xiii., pl. 18; and _Jour._; and _Brit.
Archæol. Assoc._, vol. ii., p. 353.
[224] _The Reliquary_, vol. 1867, p. 113.
[225] _Ibid._, 1897, p. 101.
The Late-Celtic toilet accessories are of three kinds, namely,
hand-mirrors, hair-combs, and châtelaines. The mirrors are of bronze
and circular in shape, with an ornamental handle. The back, or
unpolished face of the mirror, is in nearly all cases decorated with
incised circles of different sizes, combined with curved lines and a
peculiar sort of background filled in with cross-hatching. A list of
mirrors such as those described is given below.
[Illustration: LATE-CELTIC BRONZE MIRROR, IN THE MAYER MUSEUM,
LIVERPOOL; LOCALITY UNKNOWN]
_List of Localities where Late-Celtic Mirrors have been found._
Warden (Bedford Mus.) Bedfordshire.
Stamford Hill, near Plymouth (Plymouth Mus.) Devonshire.
Birdlip (Gloucester Mus.) Gloucestershire.
Trelan Bahow (British Mus.) Cornwall.
Balmaclellan (Edinburgh Mus.) Kirkcudbrightshire.
Locality unknown (Liverpool Mus.)
Unornamented mirrors have been found with burials at Arras,[226]
Yorkshire, and Gilton,[227] Kent.
The hair-combs are of bone, and will therefore be described
subsequently when dealing with bonework.
The châtelaines of the Late-Celtic period are pretty little objects of
bronze, generally enamelled. At the top is a loop for suspension; there
is a little rod below, from which are hung tweezers, picks, files, etc.
Specimens have been discovered in the Thirst House Cave,[228] Deepdale,
Derbyshire, and at Canterbury,[229] and Craven Arms,[230] Shropshire.
[226] W. Greenwell’s _British Barrows_, p. 454.
[227] B. Faussett’s _Inventorium Sepulchrale_, p. 30.
[228] _The Reliquary_ for 1897, p. 95.
[229] _Proc. Soc. Ant. Lond._, ser. 2, vol. vi., p. 376.
[230] _Archæologia Cambrensis_, ser. 5, vol. vi., p. 90.
The domestic utensils and cooking appliances of the Late-Celtic
period include wooden tankards and buckets with bronze mountings,
bronze bowls and saucepans, and iron fire-dogs. Some of the riveted
caldrons possibly also belong to this period, but as they cannot be
distinguished from those of the Bronze Age it will be unnecessary to
describe them here.
There is a very perfect wooden tankard mounted with bronze in the Mayer
Museum, Liverpool, from Trawsfynydd,[231] Merionethshire, having a
handle ornamented in the Late-Celtic style with flamboyant tracery,
which might easily be mistaken for Gothic work of the fourteenth
century were it not for the trumpet-shaped expansions which occur
in the details. Handles of similar tankards have been found at
Aylesford,[232] Kent; Elveden,[233] Essex; Okstrow,[234] Orkney; and
Carlingwark Loch,[235] Kirkcudbrightshire.
Late-Celtic wooden buckets with bronze mountings are of the greatest
rarity, so much so that only two are known to exist, one from
Aylesford,[236] Kent, in the British Museum, and the other from
Marlborough,[237] Wilts, in the Devizes Museum. They are both decorated
with repoussé designs representing men, animals, etc., treated much in
the same way as on the Ancient British and Gaulish coins of the same
period.
Bronze bowls have been frequently found on Late-Celtic inhabited sites
and with Late-Celtic burials. A quite plain but extremely well-made
bronze bowl is to be seen in the British Museum side by side with the
beaded torque from Lochar Moss,[238] Dumfriesshire, which accompanied
it. There is another plain bowl in the Gloucester Museum which was
associated with the burial at Birdlip,[239] Gloucestershire, already
described. A bronze bowl ornamented with projecting bosses is amongst
the objects derived from the Glastonbury[240] Marsh Village; and a
bowl in the Dublin Museum from Keshkerrigan,[241] Co. Leitrim, has a
very characteristic Late-Celtic handle in the form of a beast made up
of flamboyant curves. A special type of bronze bowls with zoömorphic
handles and enamelled decorations will be dealt with subsequently.
[231] _Archæologia Cambrensis_, ser. 5, vol. xiii., p. 212.
[232] _Archæologia_, vol. lii., p. 44.
[233] _Ibid._, vol. lii., p. 45.
[234] J. Anderson’s _Scotland in Pagan Times: Iron Age_, p. 242.
[235] _Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot._, vol. vii., p. 7.
[236] _The Reliquary_ for 1897, p. 35.
[237] Sir R. Colt Hoare’s _Ancient Wilts._
[238] D. Wilson’s _Prehistoric Annals of Scotland_, vol. i., p. 465,
pl. 9.
[239] _Trans. of Bristol and Gloucestershire Archæol. Soc._, vol. v.,
p. 137.
[240] _Proc. of Somersetshire Archæol. Soc._, vol. xl., p. 149.
[241] _Reliquary_ for 1900, p. 247.
Most of the saucepans in use during the Late-Celtic period were
either imported from Italy and Gaul or were so nearly copied by local
metalworkers as to be indistinguishable from the originals. None of
these saucepans, as far as I am aware, have Celtic decoration upon
them, although several are inscribed with Celtic names, and others
are highly enamelled. Two specimens in the British Museum are of
exceptional interest, one of bronze enamelled and inscribed with the
name “BODVOGENVS,” from Prickwillow,[242] near Ely, Cambridgeshire,
and the other of silver, with a highly ornamented inscribed handle,
which was found at Backworth,[243] Northumberland, with the pair of
Kelto-Roman fibulæ previously mentioned. The more elaborate saucepans
were probably used in connection with religious ceremonies and not
for cooking, as is borne out by the dedicatory inscriptions upon the
handles and the circumstances under which many of them have been found.
A list has already been given of the saucepans associated with finds of
Late-Celtic objects.
[242] _Archæologia_, vol. xxviii., p. 436.
[243] _Archæol. Jour._, vol. viii., p. 39.
The metalworkers of the Late-Celtic period were not only capable
of executing some of the finest pieces of repoussé bronze that the
world has ever seen, but they also excelled in producing works of
art in wrought-iron of great merit. As an example of their skill in
this direction we have the remarkable pair of fire-dogs from Capel
Garmon, Denbighshire,[244] now in the possession of Colonel Wynne Finch
of Pentre Voelas, near Bettws-y-coed. The fire-dogs consist of two
upright bars, each surmounted by the head of a beast with horns, and
standing on an arched foot, connected near the bottom by a horizontal
bar on which to rest the logs of wood used for the fire. The uprights
are ornamented on each side with thinner pieces of iron bent into
undulations and scrolls, and fixed to the uprights at intervals with
rivets having large round heads.
Each of the beasts’ heads has a very curious sort of crest ornamented
with a row of circular holes and round knobs. Other fire-dogs of the
same kind, made of plain iron bars, and with horned beasts’ heads on
the top of the uprights (each horn terminating in a round knob), have
been found at Mount Bures,[245] Essex, Hay Hill,[246] near Cambridge,
and Stamfordbury,[247] Bedfordshire, associated with Romano-British
burials.
The only objects of the Late-Celtic period which may conjecturally
have been used for religious purposes are the little bronze figures of
animals from Hounslow,[248] Middlesex, now in the British Museum.
[244] _Archæologia Cambrensis_, ser. 6, vol. i., p. 40.
[245] C. Roach Smith’s _Collectanea Antiqua_, vol. ii., p. 25.
[246] _Archæologia_, vol. xix., p. 57.
[247] _Publications of Cambridge Ant. Soc._ for 1845.
[248] _Proc. Soc. Ant. Lond._, ser. 2, vol. iii., p. 90.
Under the head of musical instruments come the bone flutes from Thor’s
Cave, Staffordshire, and the magnificent bronze trumpet found in 1794
at Loughnashade, Co. Armagh, and now in the Museum of the Royal Irish
Academy at Dublin. Most of the trumpets of this kind are of the Bronze
Age, but the style of the decoration on the annular disc at the mouth
of the one from Loughnashade shows clearly that it is of the Iron
Age.[249] [249] Sir W. Wilde’s _Catal._, pp. 627 and 631.
Amongst the objects of unknown use of the Late-Celtic period are
certain so-called spoons, some peculiar disc-and-hook ornaments, and
a few highly ornamented circular pieces of repoussé bronze with a
cup-shaped depression nearly in the centre.
[Illustration: Late Celtic Brone Spoon from Brickhill Lance, London]
[Illustration: Late Celtic Bronze Spoon from Crosby Ravensworth,
Westmoreland]
The spoon-like objects have been very fully dealt with in a paper by
Mr. Albert Way in the _Archæological Journal_ (vol. xxvi., p. 52), and
below is given a list of all the known specimens.
[Illustration: Late Celtic Spoon. One of a pair from Weston, near Bath.
Now in the Edinburgh Museum. Scale 1/1 linear]
_List of Localities where Spoon-like Objects with Late-Celtic_
_Decoration have been found._
Crosby Ravensworth (British Mus.) Westmoreland.
London, Brickhill Lane (British Mus.) Middlesex.
London, Thames (British Mus.) Middlesex.
Weston, near Bath (Edinburgh Mus.) Somersetshire.
Llanfair (Edinburgh Mus.) Denbighshire.
Penbryn (Ashmolean Mus.) Cardiganshire.
Locality unknown (Liverpool Mus.) Ireland.
Locality unknown (Dublin Mus.) Ireland.
Walmer Kent.
The body of these objects is shaped like a very shallow spoon with a
pointed end, and the handle (if such it may be called) is circular
or nearly circular, in many cases with two little round ears or
projections at each side. The so-called spoons are generally found in
pairs, one spoon having a cruciform design in the middle of the bowl;
whilst its fellow has a small hole bored through the edge of the bowl.
The handles of the spoons are always ornamented, sometimes on the front
only, but more commonly on the back as well.
There are specimens of the other Late-Celtic objects of unknown
use—namely, the hook-and-disc ornaments[250] and the circular pieces
of repoussé metalwork with a cup-shaped depression—in the British
Museum[251] and the Dublin Museum.[252]
[250] _The Reliquary_ for 1901, p. 56.
[251] _Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot._, vol. xix., p. 254.
[252] Sir W. Wylde’s _Catal. Mus. R.I.A._, p. 637.
No satisfactory explanation has been given of the use of certain wheel
and triskele pendants of which examples have been found in Berkshire,
Kingsholm, near Gloucester, Hunsbury, N. Hants, Seamill Fort, Ayrshire,
and Treceiri, Carnarvonshire.
POTTERY AND GLASS
The pottery of the Late-Celtic period differs from that of the Bronze
Age in being turned on a wheel instead of being handmade. The firing
is also better done, and the quality of the ware superior in every way.
Since the discovery of the Aylesford cemetery in Kent, in 1886, it has
been possible to differentiate Late-Celtic pottery from Romano-British
by the peculiar forms of the vases. Dr. Arthur Evans has dealt with
this subject pretty exhaustively in his paper in the _Archæologia_
(vol. lii., p. 315).
The most characteristic of the Aylesford urns is tall, with a narrow
base and wide mouth. The base is in the shape of a low truncated cone,
the top of which is the narrowest part of the vase, and from this point
it gradually gets wider until the top rim is nearly reached, when it
contracts again slightly. The curve thus produced is of such extreme
elegance as to at once suggest a classical origin. The exterior surface
of some of these pots is plain, but in many cases it is divided into
bands by horizontal projecting bead mouldings. Dr. A. Evans does not
find much difficulty in showing that the peculiarities of form can be
directly traced to the metal _situlæ_ from which the vases were copied.
With regard to this, he says:—
[Illustration: LATE-CELTIC POTTERY FROM HUNSBURY; NOW IN THE
NORTHAMPTON MUSEUM]
[Illustration: LATE-CELTIC POTTERY FROM HUNSBURY; NOW IN THE
NORTHAMPTON MUSEUM]
[Illustration: Late Celtic urns from Shoebury, Essex
Now in the Colchester Museum]
“In most cases these (_i.e._ the Aylesford) vases,
which for elegance of form may almost vie with the ceramic
products of Italy or Greece, are divided into zones by the
small raised ridges or cordons described above, the zones
themselves being, in turn, decorated with finely incised
linear striations. This type of vase, beautiful as it is
in itself, is still more interesting from the comparisons
to which it inevitably leads us. No one familiar with
the ceramic forms of an important group of North-Italian
cemeteries, belonging, for the most part, to the fourth
or fifth centuries before our era, and of which the whole
series of objects so admirably excavated and arranged by
Professor Prosdocimi at Este[253] forms the most splendid
illustration, can fail to be struck with the manifold points
of resemblance presented by the urns before us with the
most characteristic of the vase-types there represented.
The contour of the type referred to, with its shoulders
sometimes angular, sometimes abruptly rounded off, its
inverted conical body divided into vertical zones by raised
cordons, and tapering off to a pedestal below, can only be
described as identical with that of some of the finest of
the Aylesford specimens. The only perceptible difference is
that, whereas the British urns are almost uniformly covered
with a black or brown coating—the colouring matter may have
been supplied by pounded charcoal—zones of the Euganean
cineraries are coloured alternately with bands of graphite
and red ochre. Some of the earlier of the Este vases are,
however, of plain dark brown _bucchero_, and others,
again, of later date, of an uniform red or grey. These
North-Italian parallels have a still further value, inasmuch
as they throw the clearest possible light on the actual
genesis of this type. The cordoned vases of Este are, in
fact, nothing more than copies in clay of certain forms of
bronze _situlæ_; the commonest form of these, which is
distributed through the whole of the geographical area where
these vases are discovered, is zoned in the same way as the
pots, the zones answering to an universal method of early
metal industry, in accordance with which vessels were built
up of bands of thin metal riveted together at the edges,
each zone being often, in turn, defined by cordons or beads
of metal. These cordons themselves in their more prominent
form represent the wooden rings that surrounded and kept
together the framework of wooden staves, to which in early
times the metal plates themselves were riveted.”
[253] _Notizie degli Scavi_, etc., 1882, pp. 5-37.
Besides the pedestalled vases from Aylesford,[254] made in imitation of
the cordoned _situlæ_ of bronze from the North-Italian region, there
are others, perhaps derived from them, with elegantly formed bases.
There are also vases without pedestals, and having somewhat globular
bodies as well as bowl-shaped and saucer-shaped pots. Most of these are
now in the British Museum.
[254] A fine example of this type from Sandy, Beds, is illustrated in
T. Fisher’s _Bedfordshire_.
The following list gives the finds of pottery of a similar kind:—
_List of Localities where Finds of Late-Celtic Pottery
of the Aylesford Type have been made._
Kit’s Coty House (Maidstone Mus.) Kent.
Allington (Maidstone Mus.) Kent.
Northfleet Kent.
Elveden Essex.
Shoebury Essex.
Braintree Essex.
Locality unknown (Cambridge Mus.)
Hitchin Herts.
Aston Clinton (Aylesbury Mus.) Bucks.
Abingdon (Ashmolean Mus.) Berks.
Whitechurch (Dorchester Mus.) Dorset.
Weymouth (British Mus.) Dorset.
[Illustration: LATE-CELTIC POTTERY FROM YARNTON, OXFORDSHIRE; NOW IN
THE BRITISH MUSEUM
SCALE ¾ LINEAR]
[Illustration: LATE-CELTIC POTTERY FROM KENT’S CAVERN, NEAR TORQUAY,
DEVONSHIRE; NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM
SCALE ¾ LINEAR]
Another class of pottery is recognised to belong to the Late-Celtic
period, not so much by the forms of the vases (because most of them are
in a very fragmentary condition) as by the patterns upon them, which
consist of incised curved lines, circles, dots, and different kinds of
cross-hatching and shading. A list of the finds is given below.
_List of Localities where Finds of Late-Celtic Pottery,_
_ornamented with Incised Lines, Circles, Dots, and Shading,_
_have been made._
Hunsbury (Northampton Mus.) Northamptonshire.
Mount Caburn (Pitt-Rivers Coll.) Sussex.
(British Mus.)
Brighton (Brighton Mus.) Sussex.
Highfield Pits, near Salisbury
(Blackmore Mus., Salisbury) Wiltshire.
Kent’s Cavern, Torquay (British Mus.) Devonshire.
Glastonbury Marsh Village
(Glastonbury Mus.) Somersetshire.
Kingsholm (Ashmolean Mus.) Gloucestershire.
Yarnton (British Mus.) Oxfordshire.
Those who wish to compare the Late-Celtic pottery of Britain with
Gaulish pottery of the same character may, with advantage, consult the
_Dictionnaire Archéologique de la Gaule_, and Paul du Chatellier’s _La
Poterie aux époques préhistoriques et gauloise en Armorique_.
As far as the available evidence goes, glass does not seem to have
been used for any other purpose by the Late-Celtic people except the
manufacture of personal ornaments, the most important of which were
beads for necklaces. Some of the beads from Ireland and Scotland,
specimens of which may be seen in the museums at Dublin and Edinburgh,
are most artistically fashioned from twisted rods of glass of
variegated colour bent into peculiar shapes. They have been obtained
from the Irish crannogs at Lagore, Co. Meath, and Lough Ravel.
A bracelet of green glass, with a cable-like ornament in white and blue
strands surrounding its outer surface, was found a few years ago in the
crannog at Hyndford, Co. Lanark.
WOODWORK, BONEWORK, AND THE KIMMERIDGE SHALE INDUSTRY
Owing to the perishable nature of the material very few examples
of carved woodwork of the Late-Celtic period are now in existence.
Those which we do possess have been derived from the Glastonbury
Marsh Village and from the crannog at Lochlee, Ayrshire. Mr. Arthur
Bulleid, F.S.A., has illustrated three specimens in an article on
“Some Decorated Woodwork from the Glastonbury Lake Village” in the
_Antiquary_ for April, 1895, p. 109. No. 1 was dug up from the peat
at a depth of 6 feet 6 inches below the surface, near the south-east
edge of the village. It is a rectangular piece of wood dressed smooth
all over, 1 foot 7 inches long by 3¾ inches wide by ⅛ inch thick,
decorated on one side with a step-pattern shaded after the fashion of
chequerwork, with a cross-hatching of diagonal lines. No. 2 is the
stave of a small bucket, which, when complete, must have been 7 inches
high by 5½ inches in diameter, decorated with a lozenge pattern shaded
with parallel straight lines. No. 3 is a portion of a tub 6 inches high
by 1 foot in diameter, cut out of a solid piece of ash, and having
its exterior surface decorated with flowing lines of extreme beauty,
resembling scrolls of foliage converted into geometrical ornament by
successive copying. Where the flowing lines diverge, the trumpet-shaped
expansions are shaded with diagonal cross-hatching and dots. There is
a good model of this tub in the British Museum. The designs on the
woodwork from Glastonbury are produced by incising the surface with
some fine sharp-pointed tool, and afterwards burnt in by passing a
heated piece of metal along the incisions.
The specimen from the Lochlee crannog, which is illustrated in Dr. R.
Munro’s _Ancient Scottish Lake-Dwellings_ (p. 134), is a piece of ash 5
inches square, ornamented on one side with a triple spiral, and on the
other with Late-Celtic flamboyant work.
A wooden bowl with a carved handle, found in a bog near Rathconrath,
Co. Westmeath, and now in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy in
Dublin, may possibly belong to the same category.
Amongst the objects of bone belonging to the Late-Celtic period the
most remarkable are the spatulæ, or flakes, of which no less than 5,000
are said to have been derived from cairn H of the Slieve-na-Caillighe
series, near Oldcastle, Co. Meath. These chambered cairns were in the
first instance erected as burial-places at the end of the Neolithic
Age or the beginning of the Bronze Age, and the one marked H on the
plan given in the _Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot._ (vol. xxvi., p. 294) appears
to have been used as a workshop by an artificer in bone during the
Early Iron Age. Ninety-one of the bone spatulæ from the cairn in
question were engraved by compass, with circles, curves, and ornamental
puncturings, and twelve were decorated on both sides. Unfortunately
the whole of the bones have been lost, and we only know what they were
like from the illustrations in E. Conwell’s _Tomb of Ollamh Fodhla_
(p. 53). A fragment of one of these bones which had been overlooked by
the previous explorers of the cairn has recently been brought to light
by Mr. E. Crofton Rotheram.[255] Perhaps the most interesting feature
connected with the bones from Slieve-na-Caillighe is the discovery
with them of the pair of iron compasses used in producing the incised
designs upon them.
[255] _Journ. R. Soc. Ant. Ireland_, ser. 5, vol. vi., p. 257.
Besides the bones just described, the other principal objects of
the same material belonging to the Late-Celtic period are certain
toilet-combs and spoon-shaped fibulæ, or dress-fasteners. Bone combs
with Late-Celtic ornament have been found on the inhabited site at
Ghegan Rock, near Seacliff, Haddingtonshire, and in the crannogs
at Lagore,[256] Co. Meath, Ballinderry,[257] Co. Westmeath; and at
Longbank crannog on the Clyde, near Glasgow. Spoon-shaped fibulæ of
bone have been derived from the Victoria Cave, Settle, the Kelko Cave,
Giggleswick, and Dowkerbottom Cave, Arncliffe, Yorkshire. The ornament
upon them consists of concentric circles and dots.[258]
In addition to wood and bone, the Late-Celtic people used Kimmeridge
shale for the manufacture of objects, chiefly turned vases with
cordons, like the Aylesford pots previously described. Vessels of
this kind have been found at Old Warden,[259] Bedfordshire, Great
Chesterford[260] and Colchester,[261] Essex, and Corfe Castle,[262]
Dorset.
[256] Sir W. Wilde’s _Catal. Mus. R.I.A._, p. 271, fig. 176.
[257] _Ibid._, p. 271, fig. 177.
[258] Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins’ _Cave-Hunting_, pp. 91 and 131.
[259] “On the Materials of Two Sepulchral Vessels found at Warden, Co.
Beds”, by the Rev. J. S. Henslow (_Cambridge Ant. Soc. Publ._, 1846).
[260] _Archæol. Jour._, vol. xiv., p. 85.
[261] Henslow, _loc. cit._, p. 87.
[262] _Archæol. Jour._, vol. xxv., p. 301.
STONEWORK
Only three sculptured monuments decorated with Late-Celtic patterns
are known to exist at present.[263] They are all in Ireland and are
fully described by Mr. G. Coffey in the _Proceedings of the Royal Irish
Academy_ (vol. xxiv., sect. c, p. 257).
[263] At Mullaghmast, Co. Kildare; Castle Strange, Co. Roscommon; and
Turoe, Co. Galway.
[Illustration: GRANITE MONOLITH, WITH LATE-CELTIC SCULPTURE, AT TUROE,
CO. GALWAY.
HEIGHT OF STONE, 4 FT.
_Reproduced from a photograph by Mr. A. McGoogan illustrating
Mr. George Coffey’s paper in the “Proceedings of the Royal Irish
Academy”_]