- The Nature and Function of Celtic Art -
oppida by Julius Caesar, and as large as most medieval towns. This phase is charac-
terized by extensive renewed trade between Mediterranean civilizations and the
north, and increasing contact with the Romans is reflected in the greater naturalism
of Celtic art of the period. The establishment of a 'common market' right across
continental Europe is seen in a greater degree of standardization and a reduction in
the range of fine objects produced. Objects in precious metals became comparatively
rare save for a number of gold and electrum torques found in isolated contexts in
western Europe, almost always with native coinage (Furger and Muller 1991). Such
local coinages, based on a range of Hellenistic, Greek colonial and Republican
Roman prototypes, began in the Balkans in the late fourth century and spread
westwards from the end of the third century until the establishment of the Roman
Empire. Like other manifestations of stylistic borrowings in the European Iron Age,
coins exhibit that typical tendency to reduce natural forms to a complex and abstract
patterning.
BRITAIN AND IRELAND
As far as insular Celtic art is concerned, the problem of establishing firm dates is even
more difficult than on the Continent, since even Mediterranean imports are lacking
as chronological markers until late on. In Britain and Ireland a new art style, related
to the styles of continental Europe, appeared at least as early as the beginning of the
third century Be (Raftery I983, 1984; Stead 1985, 199I; Megaw and Megaw I986). A
number of isolated finds in eastern England, and Ulster, notably decorated shields
and sword scabbards of basically early La Tene form, exhibit elements of both the
'Vegetal' and 'Sword' styles (Figure 20.5). Only in north-east Yorkshire, however, is
such material found in closed contexts, notably in the rich graves of the so-called
'Arras culture' which include cart or chariot burials similar but not identical to those
of the Marne (Dent I985; Stead I979, 199I). Despite indications of the influence of
continental styles and burial customs, there is, however, no such certain evidence
for major groups of new settlers. Links between Britain and Ireland seem highly
probable and direct links with the Continent from both areas possible. New art
styles may represent the introduction of new belief systems and certainly, in view of
the evidence for a continuity of settlement patterns in Britain from the previous Late
Bronze Age, one may envisage a process whereby native communities adopted,
through the agency of a few foreign - or at least foreign-trained - missionaries and
craftworkers, a new range of symbols of spiritual and temporal power.
From the second century Be until the occupation of southern Britain by the
Romans in the mid-first century AD a number of regional stylistic groups develop,
although it is not until the late first century Be that there are firm archaeological
contexts, such as datable graves or settlements, for such specialized classes of objects
as horse harness or engraved bronze mirrors (Figure 20. I (7)). In the later Iron Age
of Ireland, untouched by Roman settlement but exhibiting sporadic trading contacts
with the new overlords of Britain from the first to the fifth centuries AD, the fine
products of the 'Ultimate La Tene' period lack datable context but are not likely to
be much later than the second century AD.353