- Resources and Industry -
Similarly, the occurrence of sizeable amounts of bronze jewellery in women's
graves indicates ongoing production of personal ornaments. Much of the jewellery
shows highly skilled workmanship, suggesting part-time if not full-time specialist
bronzesmiths.
Late Period (200 Be-Roman conquest)
The final two centuries before Christ represent the culmination in resource extrac-
tion and industrial activity in Celtic Europe. The quantities of many materials
extracted from the environment, especially iron for tools and weapons and stone
and wood for the construction of oppidum walls, was much larger than ever before.
Many of the products of manufacturing activity indicate a level of specialization
that researchers believe results from a profound change in the organization of
manufacturing, from a largely domestic, kin-based system to one based instead on
specialized occupational activity (Meduna I980: I57; Audouze and Buchsenschutz
I9 8 9: 303; Gebhard I9 8 9: I85).
The oppida were centres for resource exploitation and industrial production of
goods. The evidence is most abundant at Manching, but similar results are emerging
from other sites, especially among the intensively researched Bohemian and
Moravian oppida. Serial or mass-production is first evident at the oppida with large
quantities of objects such as knives, axes, hammers, nails and clamps forged of iron
Oacobi I974). Gebhard (I989) interprets the great quantities of glass bracelets
manufactured as indicating mass-production aimed at export trade.
The fast-turning potter's wheel came into general use late in the second century Be,
and led to mass-production of ceramics at the oppida and to increased standization
of vessel forms across Celtic Europe (Arcelin I98I; Roualet and Charpy I987). In
the large quantities and striking uniformity of vessels at the major oppida, Pingel
(I97I: 82) sees evidence for centralized pottery production.
For Bibracte, Hrazany, Manching, and some other oppida, investigators have
interpreted spatial evidence on the excavated surfaces as indicating special areas
where production activities were concentrated (Capelle I979). Yet others challenge
this interpretation. For Bibracte, it is not clear whether the workshop quarter
belonged to the pre-Roman or to the post-conquest settlement (Duval I99I).
At other oppida, not enough evidence has been collected to speak confidently of
industrial areas within the settlements. Current results from Stare Hradisko (Meduna
I970; Cizmar I989a) and Zavist (Cizmar I989b; Motykova, Drda and Rybova I990)
seem to indicate instead many small-scale production areas within the oppidum. At
many sites, such as Hrazany in Bohemia Oansova I987: 7I), ironworking and
bronze-casting locations have been identified near gates in the walls, presumably
because metal production generates noxious fumes that people wanted to keep away
from the middle of the settlement. The accumulating evidence for industry at the
oppida suggests full-time industrial specialists at some sites. Since at present we know
little about the leadership structure at the oppida, it is difficult to suggest who
directed, and benefited from, the work of the specialists.
Fundamental to the growth of the oppida and of the industries that they
housed was the great increase in agricultural productivity during this period. The
225