- Chapter Sixteen -
of continuity with Hallstatt traditions and techniques. The first of these concern
deposition. The rich Hallstatt graves are those of princes but, by the end of the sixth
century Be, a tomb with contents as elaborate as those from Vix was prepared for a
princess. This rite developed in the fifthlfourth centuries Be and graves such as
Waldalgesheim in the Rhineland and Reinheim in the Saarland, which contain truly
sumptuous gold jewellery, were also those of women of the highest status (Eluere
1991). Gold in male graves seems to be reduced to ornamental gold-clad plaques,
sometimes decorated with amber and coral, which may have been no more than a
military decoration. More elaborate examples of the same style can be seen in
the fourth-century Be helmets from Agris, Charente and Amfrt:ville, Eure, in
France, where gold cladding and filigree, silver rivets, coral and red enamel feature
in a kaleidoscope of materials (Eluere 1987a: pI. 99-100). These helmets seem garish
to modern taste and a more elegant application, this time of openwork gold sheet, is
the decoration of a wooden bowl from Schwarzenbach, also in the Saarland (Frey
1971 ).
The gold from the tombs of the princesses shows how the goldsmiths extended
the idea of more solid and three-dimensional objects; a key find is that of Waldal-
gesheim, a tomb group that is also important for defining a stage in the evolution of
Celtic art (for bibliography see Megaw and Megaw 1990). The buffer-terminal torque
and bracelets are elaborate gold versions of bronze examples which were also a
common offering in female graves. The hoops of these are solid with the deeply
moulded decoration cast with them, but the terminals are separate components
soldered on (d. Echt forthcoming). These same graves also show the revival of
torques with twisted bodies, either two bars twisted together or, as at Reinheim, a
flanged body reminiscent of bronze age examples. The Reinheim group is also
remarkable for having both torque and bracelets with terminals in the form of cast
human figures.
These torques and bracelets were among the last to be used as grave goods. From
then on deposition occurred either singly or, more often, in hoards, usually with
a strong sense of a ritual motive behind it. An early example is the Erstfeld hoard
from Switzerland, concealed late in the fourth century Be on a remote mountain
pass. The Erstfeld torques are also remarkable for their fantastic animal decoration
and the mortise-and-tenon fastenings with securing pins used to assemble their
hoops (Muller 1990). Later hoards, from the second and first centuries Be, were fre-
quently deposited with gold Celtic coins (e.g. Tayac, Gironde (Boudet 1987)).
The design of torques from then until the arrival of the Romans achieved
many variations. The solid, smooth bodies of the Waldalgesheim and Erstfeld
torques were replaced by tubes of gold sheet, either slender as at Niederzier in
Nordrhein-Westfalen Qoachim 1991), Germany, and Clonmacnois, an import from
Germany into Ireland (Raftery 1984: 175-80, or thick as at Mailly-Ie-Camp in
France, Frasne-Iez-Buissenal in Belgium, and Snettisham in Norfolk, England (for
bibliography see Eluere 1987b; Furger-Gunti 1982). Some of these torques were built
up over a resin/sand core supported by an iron armature, and several of the later
examples had bodies with elaborate repousse decoration. There is not space here to
go into all the details of their construction. Torques with twisted bodies increased in
prominence through the same centuries and several variations of the theme have