Chapter Twelve -ContainersPottery is the most common artefactual material recovered on settlement sites in Celtic
Europe, and ceramic vessels occur in graves as well. Analyses of clays indicate that
most pottery was locally made, and finds of kilns (e.g. Meduna 1970) provide infor-
mation about scale and character of pottery manufacture. Already at the beginning of
the Celtic Iron Age, ceramics included a wide range of different forms, such as large
storage vessels, large and small bowls, jugs, plates, dishes and cups, each piece with its
specific function (Kossack 1964). The potter's wheel was introduced about 500 Be and
became a general piece of pottery-making equipment around the start of La Tene D,
about 120 Be (Roualet and Charpy 1987). By the period of the oppida, in the second
and final centuries Be, several distinctive categories of pottery were made and used
on the large settlements. These included coarse 'domestic' ware, fine wheel-thrown
pottery, a special cooking vessel of graphite-clay mix, and thin-walled, highly fired
ceramics with often intricate polychrome painted patterns (Figure 12.5). For
Manching, we have good statistical data on types. Of 175,142 sherds studied, Stockli
(1979: 3) provides the following percentages: 35 per cent smooth wheel-turned pottery,
25 per cent coarse domestic ware, 24 per cent graphite-clay, II per cent fine painted,
and 5 per cent non-graphite-clay comb-decorated pottery.
Celtic craftworkers also made metal vessels, especially of bronze, but also, in the
early period, of gold. The few gold bowls recovered were apparently intended for
display (Kimmig 1991), but the bronze containers served a range of purposes.
Common among the metal containers were large, round-bodied vessels called
cauldrons or kettles. Bronze cauldrons are found in many richly outfitted burials and
in deposits in wet contexts suggestive of votive offerings (Rybova and Motykova
1983). Only at the oppida do we have evidence for their manufacture Oacobi 1974;
Hachmann 1990). Cauldrons may have been used for boiling large quantities of meat
or for brewing beer, but it is clear from the evidence of myths and legends that they
also served ritual purposes in feasts and other ceremonies (Green 1992: 57-8).
Personal OrnamentsThe most common ornaments worn on the person during the Celtic Iron Age can
be divided into four main categories - fibulae, ring jewellery (bracelets, leg-rings,
finger-rings, ear-rings), belt-hooks and beads. Fibulae were most often of bronze,
though in the oppidum period iron fibulae were also common, and iron fibulae are
often found in men's graves (Figure 12.4, nos. 6 and 7). In the earlier part of the Celtic
period, inlay and attached ornaments of enamel, glass and coral were common
on bronze fibulae. Gold and silver fibulae occur infrequently. We have evidence for
on-site manufacture of fibulae from throughout the Celtic Iron Age. The evidence
includes moulds in which the fibula bows were cast, and partly finished fibulae.
Fibulae occur in graves, especially in women's burials (Figure 12.6, 3), on settlements
and in hoards and votive deposits. Their utilitarian purpose was to hold together
garments at the shoulder, but they played an important communicative function too,
in transmitting information about the wearer, as Pauli (1972) has shown. For the
archaeologist, fibulae are important as chronological markers, because the fashion for
particular types changed rapidly.