Technologies of Enchantment: Celtic Art in Southern Britain in the Middle and Late Iron Age

This project aims to investigate the artefacts found in Britain between about 300 BC and 150 AD which have come to be known as ‘Celtic Art’. The project seeks to understand why Celtic Art objects were made in the first place, how they were used and why they often seem to have been intentionally deposited in rivers or under the ground. The first task has been to compile a comprehensive database (in Excel, downloadable from the website) of all Celtic Art ever found in Britain. The database includes not only excavated finds, but also those recently reported by metal detectorists to the Portable Antiquities Scheme. The database was constructed in such a way that each object occupies one 'row', whilst the information around that object is contained in multiple 'columns'. The information relating to each object is divided into three categories: the object description, including the form and use of an object and the materials from which it is made; the location, using a co-ordinate system compatible with GIS as well as categorising the site types according to type of environment (lake, hillfort, Roman fort/ camp etc); and sources/ references, giving information about previous publications relating to the objects.

Project

Academic field

Affiliation

Project link

Technologies of Enchantment: Celtic Art in Southern Britain in the Middle and Late Iron Age

Funders

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

arts-humanities.net

Principal investigator

Dr Duncan Garrow

Principal project staff

Professor Christopher Gosden

Start date

Friday, April 1, 2005

Completion date

Monday, September 1, 2008

Era

Place

Source material

Clarke, R.R. 1954. The Early Iron Age treasure from Snettisham, Norfolk. PPS 20, 27-86. Hill, JD. pers. comm. (personal files held at British Museum) Hunter, F. pers. comm. (personal files updating MacGregor at National Museum of Scotland) Hutcheson, N. 2004. Later Iron Age Norfolk: metalwork, landscape and society. Jope, M. 2000. Early Celtic art of the British Isles. Joy, J. 2006. pers. comm. (personal files relating to his University of Southampton PhD on mirrors) MacDonald, P. 2007. Llyn Cerig Bach: a study of the copper alloy artefacts from the Insular La Tène assemblage. Cardiff: Universty of Wales. MacGregor, M. 1962. The Iron Age metalwork hoard from Stanwick. PPS 28, 17-57. MacGregor, M. 1976. Early Celtic art in North Britain. Megaw, V. 1971. A group of Later Iron Age collars or neck-rings from western Britain. In British Museum Quarterly 35, 145-156. Palk, N. 1984. Iron Age bridle bits from Britain. Palk, N. 1992. Metal horse harness of the British and Irish Iron Ages. Spratling, M. 1972. Southern decorated bronzes of the Late Pre-Roman Iron Age. Stead, I. 1991a. The Snettisham treasure: excavations in 1990. Antiquity 65, 447-464. Stead 1991b. Iron Age cemeteries in East Yorkshire. Stead, I. 2006. British Iron Age swords and scabbards. Portable Antiquities Scheme database (http://www.finds.org.uk/)

Data formats

Microsoft Excel Worksheet (XLS)

Publications

Garrow, D. & C. Gosden in prep. Technologies of Enchantment? Celtic Art in Britain during the Iron Age and Early Roman periods. Oxford: OUP. [to be submitted to publishers June 2010]

Garrow, D., C. Gosden & J.D. Hill (eds) 2008. Rethinking Celtic Art. Oxford: Oxbow.

Garrow, D. forthcoming. Technologies of Enchantment? Celtic Art, GIS analysis and the Portable Antiquities Scheme. In S. Worrell (ed.) A decade of discovery: the Portable Antiquities Scheme 1998-2007. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.

Garrow, D., C. Gosden, J.D. Hill & C. Bronk Ramsey 2010. Dating Celtic Art: a major radiocarbon dating programme of Iron Age and Early Roman metalwork in Britain. Archaeological Journal 166.