- Appearance, Life and Leisure -
took the torque as spoils of war, gaining for himself and his descendants the name
Torquatus.^36 Boudica is also specifically described as wearing 'a great gold torque'.27
It is useful to note the increasing numbers of gold torques which have been found in
East Anglia over recent years, for example the six pieces from Ipswich;37 and the
finds from Snettisham found at different dates between 1948 and 1990.38 One of these
gold torques has been compared with a similar piece from Mailly-Ie-Camp (Aube),
though bronze pieces seem to have been generally more common within that region
of France.^39 Probably the largest, most exotic gold piece is the so-called diadem from
the rich burial at Vix (Cote d'Or) dated to the sixth century Be, which also included
a modest copper alloy torque, two anklets still virtually in situ, bracelets, six fibulas
and a number of beads.^40 Another rich grave, of the late fourth century Be in
Waldalgesheim in the Hunsriick mountains, included a gold torque and three gold
bracelets.^41 Other gold torques have been found, for example in another rich grave
at Filottrano near Ancona, similar to the Waldalgesheim piece in style and date;42 and
a third-century Be example from Gasic, Vojvodina, in what was Yugoslavia.^43 These
ornaments not only represented items for securing clothes but were also evidence for
the wealth and status of those wearing them. They could be given as gifts to favoured
kinsmen and supporters, as well as providing a useful source of bullion in times of
emergency; they could be given as offerings to the gods and their intermediaries, such
as Veleda, prophetess of the Bructeri;44 or offered to them as spoils of war.^45
Other examples of petsonal jewellery that have been found in settlements and
cemeteries are beads, for instance in the burials at Vix;46 Arras, Burton Fleming,
Danes Graves, Garton Slack and other sites in the East Riding of Yorkshire have
yielded examples of jet, amber, bronze and more commonly glass, both plain and with
applied decoration:^47 whilst there have also been the occasional finds of gold beads.^48
One of the better known series of finds from a burial in late iron age Britain is that at
Welwyn Garden City (1965) which produced one amber bead and two glass ones.^49
For warriors and other wealthier persons, personal appearance was always impor-
tant. Strabo relates not only that he had seen Celts in Rome towering as much as half
a foot above the tallest people in the city, but that the Celts of transalpine Gaul tried
to avoid becoming stout and pot-bellied, and that any young man whose girth
exceeded the standard length of belt was punished.^50 Some men shaved their faces,
though the moustache was often allowed to grow to a luxuriant length (see Figure
7.3). Examples of metal razors have been found from the Late Bronze Age on, as
witnessed by a number of finds from Verona and the region around;51 and the perhaps
better known crescent-shaped examples of Iron Age date.^52 An earlier, more unusual
subrectangular piece from Croson di Bovolane was decorated with patterns of
swimming ducks.^53 By the Late Iron Age, in Britain, and more commonly in the
north-western parts of Europe, razors had taken on a triangular shape with an iron
blade, and a small handle or grip of copper alloy at the apex, sometimes with an
ornamental gryphon or leopard's head as decoration. 54 One of the more recent finds
with a gryphon-head terminal came from excavations at Canterbury in 1982.55 Hair
was also well groomed and an object of note; see, for instance, the description of
Boudica, who is said to have a mass of very yellow hair growing down to her hipsP
Julius Civilis, who led the revolt of the Batavians in AD 69-70, swore to dye his hair
red and let it grow until he had wiped out the Roman legions;56 whilst Diodorus notes
(^103)