- Appearance, Life and Leisure -
Figure 7.9 Iron age chariot burial found at Garton Slack near Driffield, Yorkshire, by
T.C.M. Brewster in 1971. The skeleton of a male of about 30 years was laid out over the
dismantled wheels, with the remains of two horse-bits, five terrets, two strap-links and other
fragments. Part of the pole shaft can be seen in the upper part of the photograph. Food, in
the form of half a pig's head, was placed on the body. (Copyright: Hull City Museums and
Art Galleries.)
birds or fish in streams, rivers and the sea (Figure 7.10). Children could be set to
collecting shellfish on the sea shore.^88 Many of the weapons used for hunting, the
bows and arrows, spears of various types, slings with shot, nets, and all the skills of
the chase which were used for food-gathering, or ensuring that larger animals, deer,
wild boar, wolves, foxes, and bears in mountainous regions, did not trample and
destroy crops or steal and kill young stock, could prove excellent training for the
young men who might one day have to show their mettle in local skirmishes or major
battles.^89
The majority of Celts would have lived within a mainly agricultural village
community, growing crops and raising beasts, as often as not having little contact
with the larger political or religious centres except at festivals or times of trouble.
Few families would have had either the two- or four-wheeled carts which have
been identified from burials (Figure 7.9).90 Only the wealthier members of society
could have afforded the lightweight chariots with the elaborate sets of trappings for
the horses, and other ornamental fittings such as terrets, finials and linchpins.^91
Britons, a well as Gaulish Celts, were noted for their use of chariots which were
drawn by two horses and carried the warrior and his charioteer.^92 One source
describes the fighting man as being armed with a shield, short spear and daggers,
and that they were remarkable for their endurance; another that they put bronze
helmet on their heads and had long shields as high as a man.^93 They were also
noted for taking the heads of their foremost enemies and preserving them as trophies(^109)