CHAPTER SIXTEEN
THE TECHNOLOGY OF
METALWORK
Bronze and gold
--.•. --
Peter N orthover
T
he Celtic world covers such a large extent in both time and space that it is impos-
sible in this short essay to explore in any comprehensive manner the way in
which copper alloys were used. The focus is in any case immediately restricted by
the limited range of metallurgical research applied to Celtic material when compared
with, say, the bronze age and classical worlds. The most extensive work has
been done in Britain, although similar research is now taking place in France, in
Switzerland and in Spain, and also in areas on the fringes of the ancient Celtic world
such as Denmark, Bulgaria and Romania. This work has been concentrated in
the pre-Roman Iron Age although some technical studies have been made of the
metalwork of the late Celtic Christian West (see Youngs 1989). This discussion must
therefore concern itself mainly with the pre-Roman Iron Age in western and alpine
Europe and in particular with the British Isles because that is where the majority
of metallurgical research has been carried out.
The definition of the Celtic Iron Age itself is not without its difficulties. The
conventional archaeological division into Hallstatt and La Tene eras (First and
Second Iron Ages to use French terminology) and the distribution of the styles
and technology associated with them form the most useful basis for exploring the
copper and bronze metallurgy of the period. This is not surprising given that these
cultural groupings were defined on the basis of their metalwork.
BRONZE AND IRON
Iron came late to north-west Europe. It did not reach Britain until the end of the
eighth century or beginning of the seventh century Be, appearing in company with
objects of Hallstatt C type. In Britain, at least, it has been impossible to confirm the
presence of iron in any earlier association. The key find, after which the period is
named in Britain, is a votive deposit from the bed of Llyn Fawr, a small fake in South
Wales (Savory 1975, 1976). This find combines elements of the local final bronze age
tradition, such as specific types of bronze socketed axes and chisels, types which had
a wide European distribution such as razors and belt and harness fittings, with both
local and continental types of iron object. The last mentioned is the only example of