The Celtic World (Routledge Worlds)

(Barry) #1

  • Chapter Twenty-Four -


AD (Deyts 1983; Webster 1991: 200-9). The recently excavated examples from
Montlay-en-Auxois (Cote d'Or) were found in wooden catchment pools dated by
dendrochronology to AD 86-119 (Dupont 1990: 154).
On the other hand, cult activity occurred from the early post-conquest period at
many springs: Luxeuil and St-Marcel (Indre), Avord and Sagonne (Cher), Vichy
(Allier), Chateauneuf-Ies-Bains (Puy-de-Dome), and Coren and Vic-sur-Cere
(Cantal) have all produced early post-conquest coins or ceramics (Audin 1985). There
are two ways to consider this phenomenon: either by the retrospective inference
that such sites are close enough in date to the Roman intervention to suggest they
represent the survival of pre-conquest practices; or as a veritable post-conquest
phenomenon. On present evidence, the balance is in favour of the latter.


Lakes

Poseidonios, who visited Mediterranean Gaul in C.IOO BC, refered to sacred lakes
(h~vm tepm) as repositories for treasures among the Tectosages of Toulouse (Strabo
Iv.I.13). This passage is often cited as evidence for a widespread use of sacred lakes
by Celtic peoples, but the text is clearly specific to the Tectosages. Archaeological
evidence for lakes in cult contexts is, however, more widespread. The deposition of
high-value metal in watery contexts, including lakes, is well attested archaeologi-
cally in Atlantic Europe (Tobriigge 1971; Fitzpatrick 1984; Wait 1985: 15-50). This
practice increased during the Iron Age in Britain, though on the Continent it
declined after the second century BC (Wait 1985: 49). Numerous lakes are interpreted
as depositional cult foci, including Llyn Cerrig Bach (Anglesey: Fox 1946: 58) and
Carlingwark (Scotland: Curle 1932). A similar interpretation was originally advanced
for the lake site at La Tene, Neuchatel, Switzerland), where thousands of weapons
and tools, and some jewellery and coins, were found (Piggott 1968: 76).

Bogs


Bogs also served as foci for metalwork deposits. This practice was not restricted to
Celtic peoples, and features for example in Germanic cult (Glob 1969; Todd 1975:
163-89). The Gundestrup Cauldron, widely seen as the quintessential 'Celtic' cult
artefact, was in fact found in a bog in Himmerland, Denmark (on the possible non-
Celtic origins of this piece see Taylor 1992). Human remains are mainly known
from Germanic contexts, but sometimes occur in Britain and Ireland. The Lindow
bog body (Lindow Moss, Cheshire) is a recent example. Dating of the body is
problematic (Gowlett et al. 1986; Otlet et al. 1986), but radiocarbon dates from the
most recent analysis cluster around the first century AD (Ross and Robbins 1989: 17).
Lindow man suffered a threefold death (by axe blows, garrotting and cutting of the
throat). Whether or not he was a victim of human sacrifice (as Ross (1986) main-
tains), this triplication suggests a death with ritual links. Where datable, however,
British bog bodies are mainly of bronze age or Roman date (Turner and Briggs 1986:
63), and their ritual associations unclear. The extent to which such deposits represent
an iron age ritual phenomenon is thus uncertain.

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