- Resources and Industry -
Figure 12.3 Map showing the principal distribution of graphite-clay pottery of the Late Iron
Age (shaded areas) and natural deposits of graphite-clay (black areas). (Adapted from Kappel
1969: 40, fig. I I and map 2.)
weapons for fighting, and pots for holding food. The other purpose was expressive
- to communicate information (Douglas and Isherwood 1979). Fibulae and bracelets
were often highly ornate and individualized -no two were exactly alike. Pauli (1972)
has shown that particular items of personal ornamentation were associated with
specific categories of persons, a pattern conforming to what we know about the role
of costume in folk traditions (Bogatyrev 1971). Tools in iron age Europe are rarely
ornamented, yet Rybova and Motykova (1983) have presented arguments for
interpreting hoards of iron tools as votive deposits, used to communicate with super-
natural powers rather than for purely utilitarian purposes. Weapons, especially
swords, frequently bear decoration. Both pottery and metal containers are often
ornamented in ways that communicated information.
Tools
Most of the tools that survive from the Iron Age are made of iron. By the time of
the oppida, in the second and final centuries Be, some 200 distinct types of iron tools
can be identified, serving a wide range of purposes Qacobi 1974). These include
metalworking, carpentry, agriculture, mining, fishing, hunting, textile production,
leatherworking and cooking. Other implements include medical instruments,(^217)