CLT3140 The Celtic Iron Age 1

From Bronze Age to Iron Age  The Bronze Age  Circa 3500 to 1000 BC  Characterized by the use of bronze tools and weapons 2

From Bronze Age to Iron Age  Typical of the 3 rd and 2 nd millennia  Mining of raw materials such as gold, silver, copper, tin, amber, jadeite  Iberia: copper, silver, gold, tin  Brittany and south-west Britain: tin, gold, copper  Ireland and NorthWales: copper  Ireland: gold 3

From Bronze Age to Iron Age The demand for copper and tin increased dramatically in the early Bronze Age as copper alloys were increasingly used in tools and weapons (3 rd millennium). Bronze is a hard alloy of copper and tin, very durable, and consequently well suited to the manufacture of weapons and tools. 4

From Bronze Age to Iron Age From the Bronze Age through to the early Iron Age the mining of metals intensified as witnessed by the large quantities of artefacts such as tools and weapons that have survived. 5

From Bronze Age to Iron Age As the Bronze Age gave way to the Iron Age, bronze continued to be used widely in manufacture and the demand for copper and tin actually increased as the Mediterranean region developed an appetite for both metals. 6

From Bronze Age to Iron Age Why was this so? The copper and tin ore are not readily available in all geographic regions but the resulting bronze made much stronger and more suitable weapons and tools than stone which would be more available to many regions. 7

From Bronze Age to Iron Age Artefacts manufactured in one region are frequently found in another region suggesting a healthy trade pattern and a commonality of elite tastes. As artefacts would arrive in one region from another, local smiths would copy styles adding their own distinctive touches. 8

From Bronze Age to Iron Age Hoards of Bronze Age weapons have been recovered from lakes, rivers, and bogs giving rise to the speculation that such hoarding represented votive offerings to chthonic deities in thanksgiving for the blessing of natural resources which allowed these regions prosperity but not also Cunliffe’s more economic interpretation. 9

From Bronze Age to Iron Age The idea of the Feast was central to elite societies bordering the Atlantic. The feast established the social hierarchy amongst the elite and acted as the occasion to transact alliances. War booty would have been distributed to (1) augment the prestige of the leaders, and (2) attract new warriors into the leaders’ camps. Gifts would have been exchanged between leaders to cement alliances. The feast centred on the preparation of food and the accoutrements of the feast included cauldrons, spits, meat hooks which together comprised the feasting sets. 10

From Bronze Age to Iron Age Among the gifts exchanged there would have been weapons, jewellery, religious cult objects and other luxury items that spoke to a superiority of wealth and status 11

From Bronze Age to Iron Age By about 1200 B.C. ironwork began to supplant bronze as the metal of choice, naturally occurring in many regions and from many sources, it was more widely available and kept a better edge than bronze, although bronze continued to be the metal of choice for decorated objects. 12

From Bronze Age to Iron Age The similarity of feasting sets and weaponry along the Atlantic seaboard suggests shared behaviour and belief systems in the region. 13

From Bronze Age to Iron Age As Cunliffe puts it, “What we are perhaps seeing here is not just the exchange of artefacts but the transmission of concepts of value.” 14

From Bronze Age to Iron Age By the dawn of the Iron Age these relationships and networks of obligation would have solidified amongst the elite to a certain extent and this becomes apparent in the... 15