- Chapter Twelve -
In the final centuries of the Iron Age, much of the gold used in coins and rings may
have derived from gold imported from the Mediterranean world, partly in the form
of payment to Celtic mercenaries who served in armies in east Mediterranean lands
(Szabo I 99 I).
Silver is rare in iron age temperate Europe until the latter half of the second
century Be, when silver coinage began north of the Alps (Kramer I97I). Much of the
silver probably arrived through interaction with the Roman world. Celtic and
Roman silver coins are common north of the Alps during the final century and a half
before Christ.
Salt was procured through underground mining and through evaporation. Maier
(I 974: 328) indicates 350 known sites of salt extraction in Europe dating from
Neolithic times on. The best evidence from the Celtic period comes from the salt
mines at Hallstatt and at the Diirrnberg in the Austrian Alps. Those mines yield
information about technology and scale of mining, from about IOOO Be to the
end of the prehistoric Iron Age. The evidence from the mines and the associated
cemeteries demonstrates a relatively large-scale and highly organized procurement
technology, as well as a profitable enterprise, to judge by the trade goods present in
the graves (Pauli I978). There is evidence of salt evaporation at numerous sites
throughout Europe (Nenquin I96I), for example at Seille in France, Bad Nauheim
in Germany, and Hengistbury Head in Britain.
A substantial industry developed in the extraction of graphite-bearing clays for
the manufacture of pottery. In the Bronze and Early Iron Ages, graphite was
favoured as a surface decoration on fine pottery, and in the Early La Tene period
some communities began making pottery of a natural graphite-clay mix. During
the second and final centuries Be, pottery of this composition was very actively
manufactured in the Celtic lands east of the Rhine (Figure I2.3). At Manching,
24 per cent of the sherds studied came from graphite-clay vessels, and comparable
quantities appear at other oppida east of the Rhine, as well as at smaller settlements
(Kappel I969).
Different forms of coal were mined for the manufacture of personal ornaments.
Jet and lignite were extracted and cut into ring jewellery and beads, especially in the
Early Iron Age (Rochna I 96 I), and sapropelite was used for bracelets in the Late
Iron Age (Rochna and Miidler I974)'
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 manu-
factured objects are not as well represented in the archaeological record, principally
because they are less well preserved. They include textiles (Hald I980), furniture
(Biel I985), wheeled vehicles (Vierrddrige Wagen der Hallstattzeit I987) and boats
(Ellmers I969).
Manufactured objects belonging to the four principal categories served two main
kinds of purpose. One was utilitarian - iron axes were used for cutting wood,