- Resources and Industry -
the third century Be. They are frequent in women's burials (Figure 12.6, nos. 1 and
2), and fragmentary rings are numerous on settlement sites (Gebhard 1989; Venclova
1990). Sapropelite bracelets are common burial goods and occur in fragmentary form
on oppidum settlements (Rochna 1961).
Chain belts made of bronze links are a form of ring jewellery. Like the glass
bracelets, they are common in women's graves (Figure 12.6, no. 7) of La Tene C
(about 250-120 Be). The decorative hooks are often ornamented with enamel.
Belt-hooks of both bronze and iron are common in men's and women's graves.
Many are highly ornamental, especially in the earlier periods. Like other categories
of personal ornament, they were worn in visible locations on the body and probably
served to communicate information about the wearer.
Glass beads of many different forms, sizes and patterns are common, especially
in graves of women (Figure 12.6, no. 6) and children, but also on settlements
(Haevernick 1960; Venclova 1990). Amber was also a favoured material for beads, as
were bone and antler.
THE ORGANIZATION OF RESOURCE PROCUREMENT
AND INDUSTRYIn order to gain information about the organization of resource exploitation
and industry during prehistoric Celtic times, we need to examine available archaeo-
logical evidence at the production sites, and consider it in the context of economic
and social patterns. For discussion here, I divide the Celtic Iron Age into three
periods, Early (600-400 Be), Middle (400-200 Be) and Late (200 Be-Roman
conquest). During each of these periods, most Celtic communities across Europe
shared certain features of economic and social organization. Common types of
objects found, and similar settlement and burial patterns throughout much of Celtic
Europe, suggest roughly similar economic, social and political structures. In every
period, each household carried out craft activities to fill the needs of the family unit.
My concern here is rather with community-level production.
Early Celtic Iron Age (600-400 Be)
The clearest evidence for production in this period is at the salt mines at Hallstatt
and at the Diirrnberg. In both places, the evidence indicates large-scale, specialized
mining. For both sites, the question of leadership and command is difficult to answer.
Although there are variations in the wealth of individual graves, in neither cemetery
are there any exceptionally richly outfitted burials, as might befit a potentate who
gave orders and profited from the enterprise. The skeletal evidence at the Diirrnberg
shows that the people buried in well-equipped graves were the ones who did the
physical labour. This physical anthropological evidence supports Pauli's (1978) use
of the analogy of medieval mining communities in central Europe, where the miners
were free workers who contracted out their labour to landowners in exchange for
a share of the profits. Maier (1974: 338) interprets the evidence from the two salt-
mining sites to indicate the existence of family enterprises operating side by side at
the two locations.