- Chapter Twenty-One -
seem to tell us. No less impressive is the spacious round assembly-place or feasting-
hall at Navan near Armagh in Ulster, constructed about 90 Be (Lynn 1991; Moscati
et at. 1991: 610-11, 614-15), its floor evidently swept free of the discards
that would have told us so much (d. Cadbury-Camelot six centuries later (Alcock
1982», though for Navan the nearby finds of the great sounding-horns (Fox 1946:
pI. XII) on the edge of Lough-na-Shade make high ceremonial practice among this
community very clear.
Sacred works for temple or shrine could reach out to a wider clientele, and
this was to be greatly expanded in the Christian era in the dichotomy of wealth in
secular and church hands, where the church's power over the whole populace was
intended to fascinate and embrace even the humblest.
The imposing artworks of the sixth-fifth centuries Be in south-west Germany and
eastern France, both exotics of distant origin and more local Celtic products (often
just as sumptuous and maybe more intriguing (e.g. Megaw 1971: 10, 15; Megaw
and Megaw 1990; Jacobsthal 1944: passim), reveal a confident, hierarchical society,
probably with widely accepted conventions of prestige gift-exchange (Kromer 1982);
it is even suggested that exotic raw materials - coral, etc. - might have travelled as
exchange gifts (Megaw 1984: 160-1). But within this display of often overweening
elitism, actual markers asserting ultimate authority are elusive, at least until the
second century Be, when the minting of coinages in the name of specific rulers
indicates the emergence of statecraft (Nash 1976). Among the 'princely' tombs of the
seventh-sixth centuries Be, for instance, we might be tempted to see authority shared
(or agreed) among near equals (Frey in Moscati et al. 1991: 74-92), though we do get
an occasional hint of individual authority, as with the one very large iron drinking-
horn hanging with four pairs of smaller drinking-horns in the Hochdorf tomb
chamber (Moscati et al. 1991: 86; Bittel et at. 1981: 123), though here perhaps is an
uneasy hint of a leader with a band of high-class brigands. Hodson also finds
difficulty in identifying supreme authority at Hallstatt, though he comes close to it
(Hodson 1990: 82,99-100; G.259 helmet).
Yet continuity of strong authority there must have been, to devise and organize
the massive constructional works such as the Heuneberg or Mont Lassois (Moscati
et at. 1991: 114-23) and maintain extensive tribute and distant trading systems or a
trading and noble-gift-exchange protocol. Some substantial material emblem might
be expected to mark the status of 'kingship' (like the crown of state in later times)
and indeed the resplendent gold-covered iron helmet of the fourth century Be found
at Agris in the Charente (too far west for the Arverni) (Gomez de Soto 1986; Moscati
et al. 1991: 292-3, reconstituted in Mainz) might be a candidate - it seems too
magnificent to be the insignia of a mere 'domain' (d. Frankenstein and Rowlands
1978: 82f£.), especially as it was found not in a burial (where it would have been lost
as a symbol of immediate succession) but in a grotto. For just this reason, burials
cannot be expected to clarify this problem of succession insignia very much, and
most often fine helmets of this age come from tomb groups Qacobsthal 1944: pI.
75-89; Moscati et at. 1991: 224, 250-1). Hencken (1952) argued that helmets and
body armour were royal prerogatives, but this could have extended to the royal
bodyguard.
The rich tomb 953 in the Benacci cemetery at Bologna with its crown of gold