- Jewellery and Adornment -
In La Tene II and III the decorated belt-chain becomes much more widespread,
and is worn by females from the Marne to Hungary. Though in some cases the chain
is just a series of linked rings, in many there are decorated elements which involve
the use of red enamel in patterned cut-out areas.
BODY DECORATION
Given the wide range of personal adornment represented by these artefacts,
and the increasing evidence of colour and design incorporated into textiles and
clothing, it is not unlikely that some people painted or tattooed their bodies. There
are hints of this in the classical literature, and at a similar time in Siberia there is
archaeological evidence of highly decorative tattooing from frozen iron age tombs
where the skin has survived (Rudenko 1970). Although these particular environ-
mental circumstances are not available in the areas of Europe under discussion
here, other preservative environments, such as bogs, are, and increased cutting and
utilization of these landscapes has begun to yield iron age bodies. The most recently
discovered, 'Lindow Man', had no evidence of tattoos, but there remains the possi-
bility that the recorded use of woad was as a regular and decorative form of body
adornment.
CONCLUSION
In the past the sometimes spectacular objects associated with personal adornment in
the Iron Age have frequently been studied as art objects, largely divorced from their
context and function. Recent work has shown the potential for using such finds
in studies of status, gender, family relationships, craft organization and political
structures. This enhances rather than diminishes our appreciation of them, and
allows a deeper understanding of the society whose specialists produced them and
whose members wore, displayed and eventually deposited them.REFERENCES
Lorenz, H. (1978) 'Totenbrauchtum und Tracht. Untersuchungen zur regionalen Gliederung
der fri.ihen Latenezeit', Bericht Romisch-Germanische Kommission, 59: 144.
--(1980) 'Bemerkungen zur keltischen Tracht', in L. Pauli (ed.) Die Kelten in Mitteleuropa,
Salzburg, 133-I.
Martin-Kilcher, S. (1973) 'Zur Tracht und Beigabensitte im kcltischen Graberfeld von
Mi.insingen-Rain (Kt. Bern)' Zeitschrift fur Schweizerische Archaologie und Kunstgeschichte
30: 26.
Rudenko, S. (1970) Frozen Tombs of Siberia, London.
Spindler, K. (1983) Die fruhen Kelten, 265-99.