- Chapter Eighteen -
barrel is shown on the well-known Gallo-Roman relief from Langres, a huge cask,
perhaps a couple of metres long, mounted on a mule drawn-wagon and usually taken
to indicate the bulk transport of wine (Eydoux 1962: fig. 2}2). Such casks have been
found reused as well linings in Roman Gaul and Britain (e.g. at Silchester). A series
of late iron age stave-built vessels, often with decorative bronze bindings, occur in
the Celtic world of Britain and the Continent. The great straight-sided stave-built
vessel from Marlborough in Wiltshire, 60 cm in diameter and height (Fox called it
a 'vat') has elaborate repousse bronze decorative hoops and panels, and may be a
Gaulish import, but unquestionably insular are stave-built tankards, banded or
sheathed in bronze (e.g. Trawsfynydd and Shapwick), with decorative lathe-turned
bases (Fox 1958: 68-70, 108-10). A distinctive series of stave-built buckets with
hoop handles and decorative bronze mountings, in which three or four staves are
prolonged into feet, are known from Belgic Britain (e.g. Aylesford and Baldock)
and the Continent (Luxembourg) (Megaw and Megaw 1989: 184-7). Fragments of
undecorated vessels of this type come from Glastonbury. From this site too come
fragments of the walls of boxes made from very thin (3-5 mm) split and adzed strips
of wood bent into a cylinder up to I 5 cm in diameter and with incised geometric
ornament. The technique was known in bronze age Denmark.
An important branch of wood technology in the Celtic world was that of the
wheelwright and builder of four-wheeled wagons and two-wheeled carts or their
specialized versions, chariots for parade and war. The writer surveyed the subject on
a European basis twelve years ago and, where not otherwise documented, detailed
references will be found in this source (Piggott 1983). It should be noted at the outset
that our knowledge of Celtic vehicles from the sixth century Be to Roman times is
very unequal and largely consists of wheels alone. The four-wheeled carriages
from the Hallstatt D princely graves in the sixth century can be reconstructed in
some detail (Pare 1992) from their elaborate bronze or iron sheathing and ornamen-
tation, which allowed full-sized replicas to be built (Barth 1987), whereas our factual
knowledge of the Celtic chariot, despite recent excavations of chariot graves in
Belgium (Piggott 1983: 205) and Yorkshire (Stead 1991) depends on soil stains of the
basic plans, and assumptions based on two or three representations on coins or
sculpture (Piggott 1983: figs 127-9).
The earliest wheeled vehicles, from 3000 Be, were ox-drawn wagons and carts
with simple disc wheels, either one-piece or of tripartite plank construction. Both
demand adze and chisel work of heavy timber split on the chord: a single-piece,
90 cm diameter wheel, as in the Dutch Neolithic, would need a plank of 3 cubic
metres weighing }22 kg. The wheel of three dowelled planks, the central twice the
width of the lateral members, was early achieved and lasted not only throughout
prehistory but until the 1950S in rural Ireland (Piggott 1983: 19-26).
In the Celtic world tripartite disc wheels presumably associated with heavy
ox-drawn vehicles occur, as in the Nordic world beyond the Celts (Piggott 1983:
197-9; Schvosbo 1987), as early as 490-430 Be at Doogarymore in Ireland, 530 Be
in Nordic Dystrup. Celtic examples continue on the Continent (200 Be at
Mechanich-Antweiler, second-first century Be at Ezinge in Holland).