- The Technology of Metalwork -
hoards there was clearly a hierarchy of torques from the most elaborate gold
creations to basic bronze examples. The aim of the smiths was to make sure that the
most prestigious items always had the most golden appearance, both by reserving
high-quality gold scrap or withdrawn coins for these pieces, and by the employment
of such techniques as depletion gilding; the ultimate expression of this process may
have been the mercury gilding of base metal and, for silver, the silver-alloy plating of
copper (Northover and Salter 1990). At the same time the coinage alloys used by
those tribes still issuing gold coins underwent a major reform, with a raising of the
standard to 40-45 per cent gold and the use of a red, copper-rich alloy rather
than the earlier white alloys. The Iceni, the tribe in whose territory Snettisham lay,
at this stage abandoned the use of a gold coinage.
We cannot leave any discussion of the Snettisham treasure without considering
its function or functions. The recent excavations have shown that the great majority
of it was concealed in a series of pits carefully excavated into the subsoil. Several
possibilities can be offered and it is probable that the whole structure of the find
involves several of them. The tubular torques, by analogy with some of the conti-
nental examples, may imply an element of ritual deposition. The large caches of
scrap, including stock alloy bars (the 'ingot' bracelets - in fact billets) and remains of
work in progress (e.g. freshly cast ingots and crucible waste), point to a close con-
nection with a nearby workshop. The way in which the other objects were deposited
suggests a desire for long-term security rather than a reaction to a short-term
emergency. It could be the caches were designed for periodic access and reuse on
ceremonial occasions. The alloys in the ingot material are some of the most debased
and, taken with the whole range of intact torques suggest continuing manufacture
over a lengthy period. The occasion for making a new torque may have been a
ceremonial one, i.e. a particular event demanded one. This was achieved by recycling
whatever bullion was made available, adding silver and bronze, and then rendering
the product as golden as possible by, for example, depletion gilding. This torque
could then be added to the store. How long this process of extending the life of a
finite bullion supply went on is not at all clear, possibly for only a few years. What
is certain is that no red golds comparable to the reformed coinages of other tribes
occur in the treasure.
THE AFTERMATHThe Snettisham treasure is the final point in the use of gold alloys for large objects
in the La Tene tradition. From then on in southern England gold was almost entirely
reserved for the coinage, while across the English Channel in romanized Gaul there
was a transition to Roman styles of jewellery. Celtic-style fibulae might be made of
silver but any large pieces of plate used by the kings and princes would now be
Roman. The torques themselves did not entirely pass out of sight: a second century
AD jeweller's hoard from Snettisham contains small fragments of torc as well as the
Roman silver coins which were his main source of silver. Meanwhile, Celtic artistic
traditions continued in the north and west of Britain but the only use of gold is for
gilding.