- Chapter Eighteen -
construction in the Celtic world until Roman times. Iron hoop-tyres became a
constant feature, the nails diminishing in number until about the second century Be,
when the shrunk-on tyre with no nails was achieved (Piggott 1983: 216).
All vehicles, from the earliest disc wheels through to spoked wheels of all types,
had wheels rotating freely of their axles, and held in place by linchpins of bronze
or iron often made into decorative features. The long cylindrical naves of the sixth-
century Hallstatt wheels were frequently completely sheathed in bronze or (as
at Hochdorf) iron. One vehicle, that from Vix of just before 500 Be, has bronze-
sheathed naves in an elegant double-curved classical moulding, the cyma recta,
which, without sheathing, became standard in La Tene, and here we must look for
ultimate origins in the western Greek world (Piggott 1983: r65, 214). All these naves
imply lathe-turning on a massive scale, initial shaping with adze and chisel, as the
unfinished nave from Glastonbury shows (Earwood 1988 : 89; 1993).
The question of wooden horse-yokes for paired draught is a little obscure. In the
seventh-century Hallstatt C there was a short-lived fashion for very elaborate
bronze-studded, leather-covered wooden yokes, but in the following century they
were unknown. The maplewood yoke from Hochdorf is a simple affair with bronze
bands and a pair of little cast bronze horse figures. The finely carved yoke from La
Tene and simpler versions from Ezinge and unassociated bog finds have all been
classed by Fenton as ox-yokes but an equine use is not excluded for some, at least
(Piggott 1983: 218).
The body of the 'Celtic' chariot above its axles is, as we have seen, wholly
unknown except for inferential double-hooped screens of some material suggested
by representations on the third-century Be Padua reliefs and Roman coins of 50-60
Be.
Figure 18.1 Reconstruction model of a chariot, based on fittings from Lynn Cerrig Bach,
Anglesey. By courtesy of the National Museum of Wales.326