Greetings Europa Barbarorum fans.
Today we are proud to present The Pritanoi Preview Appendix.
The first thing that you must know is that there is no new game related material to see. Rather, the purpose of this appendix is to make Iron Age Britain more familiar to you, both to give you a fuller context to the Pritanoi faction that you will be playing, and also purely for your edification.
A great deal of research, time, and effort went into determining how best to represent the peoples of Iron Age Britain in the form of one faction in EB II (an essentially impossible task). A lot of the material that we collected was of only indirect use, as it went far beyond the limits of what the Total War game can show - yet pushing those limits is what Europa Barbarorum is all about. So that the work should not be in vain, and for your interest and amusement, we present a thread dedicated to information about the way of life in the Celtic Iron Age.
Reenactment Groups and Living Archaeology
These groups are neither endorsed by or themselves endorse the Europa Barbarorum team: you are expected to use your own judgement regarding their quality. I have found them useful and interesting.
Vicus
Brigantia
Britannia
Butser Ancient Farm
Gallico Belgae
Leuki
Les Ambiani
Tumultus Gallicus
Discussion Forums &tc.
The same caveat applies as above. On the discussion forums, you might possibly recognize some familiar names.
Roman Army Talk
Kelticos
Redrampant
Kernunnos
Sheshen-Eceni
The La Tene Celtic Belgae Tribes in England: Y-Chromosome Haplogroup R-U152 – Hypothesis C
A Genetic Signal of Central European Celtic Ancestry: Preliminary Research Concerning Y-Chromosome Marker U152
Roman Britain.org
This last deserves a special mention as it is an excellent repository of almost all the historical detail we have from Roman Britain, including many interactive maps and other important resources. In itself, its period of focus is a little later than that of Europa Barbarorum, yet it is nonetheless one of the most complete online sources for Iron Age Britain that can be found.
The Britain of the Pritanoi was a beautiful and fertile place, and a land already full of natural wonders and man-made marvels. Many of these, like Stonehenge, are already sufficiently well-known to not require further explanation here, but a less famous feature of ancient Britain and Ireland are the extensive systems of roads and trackways that they built for trade and travel - in many cases, thousands of years before the Romans laid the first brick of the Appian Way.
For at least 5000 years travellers have used the Ridgeway. Originally connected to the Dorset coast, the Ridgeway provided a reliable trading route to The Wash in Norfolk that originally stretched more than 250 miles, although what remains today, northwest of London, is only 85 miles long. The high dry ground made travel easy and provided a measure of protection by giving traders a commanding view, warning against potential attacks. The Bronze Age saw the development of the White Horse along with the stone circle at Avebury. During the Iron Age, inhabitants took advantage of the high ground by building hill forts along the Ridgeway to help defend the trading route. Many of Britain's most famous historical sites are connected by the Ridgeway; Stonehenge, Avebury, Uffington Castle and the White Horse, Silbury Hill (the tallest prehistoric human-made mound in Europe), and through intersection with other ancient trackways like the Sweet Track (one of the oldest engineered roads known and the oldest timber trackway discovered in Northern Europe), the Icknield Way, Watling Street (only paved by the Romans - Britons had used it for hundreds of years), the Harrow Way, and the Tarr Steps, among others, the Britons were able to walk easily in ancient times among Britain's mountains green.
Geography and Climate
A line drawn from the mouth of the river Exe, in Devon on the southwest coast, to the mouth of the river Tees on the east coast north of the Humber is often used to divide the geography of Britain. North of that line are mountains, hills and highlands, south of it flatter, dryer lowlands and fens.
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The Cliffs of Dover
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Wasdale
The landscape is determined mainly by the different types of rock underlying it. In the south, chalk has produced the gently rolling hills of the Downs, while hard granite is the basis for the mountains of the north and the high moorlands of Dartmoor and Exmoor in the south-west.
Much of the land in England is flat (low lying) - less than 1000 metres above sea level, forming meadowlands and pastures and less than 10 percent of the area is covered by woodlands. Upland areas are generally confined to northern England: the exceptions are the upland moors of Dartmoor and Exmoor in the south-west. The Southwest is a long peninsular with bleak moorlands and rocky outcrop. The wide expanse of Salisbury Plain occupies most of the central part of southern England. In the Southeast, a horseshoe-shaped ring of chalk downs surrounds the formerly wooded area of the Weald. The southeast corner, from Dover to Eastbourne, has dramatic chalk cliffs bordering the English channel.
The landscape of England is more rugged in the north and the west. The highest elevations are in Cumbria and the Lake District in the west. The highest point in England is Scafell Pike, 978 metres, part of the Cumbrian Mountains in North West England. The area of the Cumbrian mountains is the most rugged in England and is more commonly known as the Lake District after the many lakes there. The Pennines, a large chain of hills with moorland tops rising to between 600 and 900 metres, splits northern England into northwest and northeast sectors. They run down from the Scottish border to the river Trent about halfway down the country.
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Ben Nevis
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The Black Cuillin, Isle of Skye
Geographically, Scotland can be divided into three distinct areas: the Southern Uplands, the Central Lowlands and the northern Highlands and Islands.
The Southern Uplands are the fertile plains and hills bordering England. The region boasts magnificent scenery, albeit of a gentler nature than that found in the Highlands: the highest peak in the area is only 2763 feet (815 metres) high.
The Central Lowlands stretch from the Firth of Forth in the east to the Firth of Clyde in the west. Today, this area contains the nation's main industrial belt and the country's two largest cities, Glasgow in the west and Edinburgh, the capital, in the east.
The Highlands comprise dramatic mountain ranges of sandstone and granite, which rise to their greatest height at Ben Nevis, which at 4406 feet (1343 metres) is Britain's highest mountain. Although this region accounts for more than half the total area of Scotland, it has few major population centres apart from the cities of Aberdeen, Inverness and Dundee.
The Highland Boundary Fault - often referred to as the Highland Line - is a geological rock fracture running diagonally across the Scottish mainland from Helensburgh in the west to Stonehaven in the north east. This feature forms a natual divider between the mountainous Highland region to the north and west of it and the Lowlands to the south of it
Of Scotland's 790 islands, 130 or so are inhabited. The major groups include the Inner and Outer Hebrides off the west coast, the Orkneys and the Shetland isles, both of which lie to the northeast of the mainland.
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Snowdownia
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Pistyll Rhaeadr
Wales has a varied geography with strong contrasts. In the south, flat coastal plains gives way to valleys, then to ranges of hills and mountains in mid and north Wales. The largest mountains in the north are part of the Snowdonia range, with the largest mountain being Snowdon at 1,085 metres. There are over 1300 kilometres of coastline ranging from long flat sandy beaches to towering cliffs.
Though the climate of the British Isles had changed from warm and dry in the Early Bronze Age to wetter and colder by the Late Bronze Age, it is generally thought that by 300 BC, the climate was very much like that of modern times, that is to say, temperate, with mild temperatures and a lot of rain.
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Our picture of the pre-Roman climate landscape is increasingly detailed. Pollen evidence, derived from cores taken from lakes and peat bogs, provides dated sequences of landscape change. Macroscopic analysis of plant remains (typically carbonized seeds) illustrates the range of both cultivated plants and weed species. Rare survivals of structural timbers and charcoal residues can indicate species present and whether woodland management was practised. Analysis of animal bones likewise provides species lists, and some measure of their relative abundance, but also vital additional data relating to comparative size, physical characteristics and age at death (often indicative of whether the animal was raised primarily for meat or for secondary products such as dairy or wool). Finally, the material culture of farming leaves many traces: ploughshares, scythes, rotary grain mills, wool combs are easily recognizable for what they are. Built farmyard structures can be equally diagnostic whether they be byres, granaries or corn-drying ovens.
From a consideration of the environmental data, it is now clear that land clearance and farming were much more advanced in prehistoric Britain than archaeologists once believed. These new data reveal the large scale and broad range of Iron Age farming and its relative sophistication. Iron Age landscapes were once believed to have been characterized by small areas of human settlement and farming, separated by tracts of dense woodland and marshes, providing a convenient explanation of gaps in the settlement data. Improved environmental knowledge and increased information on rural settlement patterns have demonstrated this image to be false. The major phase of woodland clearance, according to the pollen record, was in the late Bronze Age, over 3,000 years ago. This process continued in many parts of Britain throughout the Iron Age and the instances of Roman date where tree/ shrub pollen counts first fall below 50 per cent of recorded pollen are by far outnumbered by those of the late Iron Age.
Regional differences in vegetation history can increasingly be traced. The south-east of Britain saw progressive woodland clearance throughout much of the Iron Age, building on substantial clearance of Bronze Age date. There is ample evidence for agricultural activity, extending to substantial grain storage facilities at many sites, extensive field systems, and so on. East Anglia saw continuing woodland clearance in the Fens and some appearance of cereals before a major phase of marine incursion reduced human activity there. A pollen core from Breckland in Norfolk hints at a more heavily wooded landscape that was giving way to heathland in the late Iron Age. South-west England has produced a varied record, with the Somerset Levels for instance remaining more heavily wooded for longer into the Iron Age. The great moorland massifs of the far south-west such as Dartmoor, Bodmin Mooor and Exmoor had all been substantially cleared of tree cover in the Bronze Age, and there are indications that the late Iron Age landscape was a comparatively open one, with numerous settlements practising both stock-raising and agriculture. Pollen samples from the Midlands generally reflect substantial woodland reduction through the Iron Age, though some locally important stands evidently remained. Both north-west and north-east England have produced evidence of major woodland clearances of later Bronze and early to mid Iron Age date. A large group of pollen cores from the area of Hadrian's Wall suggests that the landscape clearance accelerated in the late Iron Age. There are botanical data that also demonstrate a considerable extension of agriculture at that date, especially in the north-east at sites such as Thorpe Thewles. Both Scotland and Wales show evidence of substantial woodland clearance in the Bronze Age, with an accelerated or revived rate of clearance in the late Iron Age and/or Roman period. Cereal pollen appears in many samples from all the upland areas of Britain.
The cumulative picture of the Iron Age landscapes is one of mixed woodland and open land by the late Iron Age. Areas of denser forest were comparatively rare and in a few areas woodland had been reduced to a very low threshold. There is some evidence from waterlogged sites to suggest that woodland management took place in the form of coppicing. Perhaps the greatest change in the rural landscapes of Britain involved the extension of farming on to more varied soils, indicating a whole range of agricultural improvements. Far from being a country of primeval forest and limited agricultural development, it is now clear that farming was evolving rapidly and dynamically in many regions.
Farming in Celtic Britain
The people of Britain began farming about 5,000 years ago during the Neolithic period. The Bronze and Iron Ages witnessed a number of advances in farming. Iron Age Britain consisted almost exclusively of settled farming communities who tended their crops and livestock. The earliest written information about Britain records that the tribes of Southern and Eastern Britain were skilled arable farmers. Archaeological evidence indicates that a mixture of pastoral and arable farming was practised throughout Britain. Nevertheless, the balance between these farming methods in any given area would have been dependent, to some extent, upon the geographical location and trading relationships of the different tribes.
Undefended settlements have been found in a few upland areas and these are thought to have been summer settlements. The movement with the pastoral herds in the summer continued with the hafody in Wales until relatively recent times. However, most farming communities were settled in lowland areas during the Iron Age. In many areas hill forts had an associated second enclosure with birch fencing for coralling their cattle and other livestock. In the case of multivalate hillforts the livestock may have been herded in between the inner and outer defences to protect them from warring parties and cattle rustlers. Julius Caesar informs us that when he attacked Cassivellaunus at Bigbury Hill that they found great quantities of cattle there.
Strabo wrote that Britain:
Most of the land was under management across the south of Britain with very few areas left untouched. The land around each farm was under the plough and producing a large range of crops very efficiently. The outer field boundaries were either wattle fencing or live hedges. Where the cultivated area extended up the hillsides, over a period of time the soil in each field slipped down the slope, and at the lower boundary it created a terrace called a lynchet bank. Further out from the farm, the surrounding hills and open land was used to graze a variety of animals. The land alongside any rivers was used for meadows, hay making in the summer and water-meadow grazing in the winter. Any area of woodland within reach was used to produce the timber required by pollarding and coppicing.Quote:
Produces corn, cattle, gold, silver and iron. These things are exported, along with hides, slaves and dogs suitable for hunting. The Gauls, however, use both these and their own native dogs for warfare also.
Cultivation
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Celtic field system - Burderop Down, Wiltshire.
The fields were cultivated by either digging by hand, or ploughing using cattle as the motive power. All crops were sown by hand and then raked or harrowed to cover the seed. Various phases of grain processing can now be recognised from the chaff and weed remains and two types of husbandry of grain have now been recognised. One was intensive, probably based on heavy manuring and spade cultivation and produced emmer wheat and barley, and the other was extensive using a plough with little weeding of the crop with barley and rye as the main crops. During the British Iron Age, large tracts of land in Southern and Eastern Britain were used to produce crops and the people who lived there were skilled arable farmers. Pytheas of Massalia visited the Southern coast of Britain around Kent and the Thames in about 322BC. Unfortunately there are no surviving copies of his journal 'Peritou Okeanou' (About the Ocean) but later classical writers have quoted his work and they provide us with the earliest written account of Britain: "he saw plenty of corn in the fields in the south-east but also noted the gradual disappearance of various kinds of grain as one advanced towards the north". Strabo also repeated what Pytheas reported from Thule which he said was bordering on the frozen zone (perhaps the Shetlands): "...and he noticed that the farmers gathered the sheaves into large granaries, in which the threashing was done. Threshing floors being useless on account of the rain and want of sun." Thule was also described as being "destitute of the cultivated fruits, and almost deprived of the domestic animals; and the food of the inhabitants consisted of millet, herbs, fruits, and roots. When they had corn and honey they made drink of them".
Just as today farming practices were not uniform throughout Britain. In some areas small granaries were raised above the ground on four posts but underground pits were more commonly used to store the surpluses of grain. These underground pits were timber-lined and their excavation, at places like Danebury, has revealed that offerings to the gods were placed at the bottom of the pits before harvest and possibly after a good harvest. Religion and farming were closely linked in Iron Age Britain. The classical author, Diodorus Siculus, was probably quoting the earlier writer, Posidonius, when he stated: "In reaping their wheat they cut off the ears from the stalk, and house them in pits under ground; then they take and pluck out the grains of just enough of the oldest of them to last for the day, and after they have bruised the wheat make it into bread." Farming methods remained substantially unchanged amongst the British peasantry from the Iron Age to the seventeenth century.
An organised system of land mangagement can be traced in Britain throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages. The high level of organisation can be seen in the way that the fields and paddocks were laid out in a structured way and on a vast scale. Celtic Britain, which spanned much of these periods, was an organised agricultural community and the 'celtic fields' of the Iron Age saw the introduction of a pattern of regular rectilinear fields. The evidence for this is clear from aerial photographs of land which has remained undisturbed. Demand for land was great and even the slopes of hill sides were cultivated.
In the later Iron Age (about 100 BC) woodland was cleared at an unprecedented rate and some heavier soils were drained and made into farming land. By the first century BC the advanced Belgic tribes of Southern Britain certainly had an improved ard (simple plough) which had an iron ploughshare to move the soil to one side. The Romans are usually credited with introducing the coulter to Britain but the earliest example of an iron coulter, recorded in northern Europe, was found at the Iron Age fort of Bigbury in Kent. In fact, Pliny noted that the Celtic plough was superior to the Roman type which replaced it.
Experiments with ploughing are done using Dexter cattle that approximate to the size of animals of the Iron Age, the bos longifrons which are now extinct. The ard (the plough) can either be attached to a yoke at the neck or by the horns. The ard cultivated the top nine inches of the soil which is the growing zone and the seed was planted into it after the clods had been broken up, perhaps with a hoe. Barley was a common crop, along with emmer and spelt wheat, Celtic beans (Vicia faba minor) and fat hen (melde). Also grown were vetch for cattle food and woad for dyeing. Fields were probably manured by the cattle after harvest and from the farmyard manure heap since sherds from broken pottery are a common find on Iron Age fields.
Arable Crops
Oats, rye and millet are thought to have been introduced to Britain during the Iron Age. Spelt wheat was introduced around 500 BC which is the Middle Iron Age and together with Emmer wheat became the one of the most important crops of the Iron Age. However, the farmers of this period also continued to grow barley and the less productive Einkhorn wheat. The productivity of ancient crops is studied at Butser Iron Age Farm. At this experimental farm it has been shown that good crop yields were probably achieved by the Iron Age farmers. Some of these varieties may also have been more nutritious.
Cereals
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Celtic image of wheat - shown on a British Coin minted by Cunobelinus.
Several varieties of wheat were grown, and include; Emmer, Einkhorn, Rivet and Spelt. Wheat was grown for the production of bread, and the excess traded out for luxury goods. Oats were grown mainly for animal feed but were consumed by humans in the poorer areas. Rye is another grain used for baking as bread. Two varieties of barley were grown and one of them, a six-row barley, was used to make malt for the brewing of beer. The method of storing grain in pits has been extensively experimented with at Butser. The theory of storing grain in pits is straightforward. Sprouting grain uses up oxygen and gives off carbon dioxide in its normal respiration. If the grain is put inside a sealed container it will quickly use up all the oxygen present. Then it stops growing and becomes dormant until more oxygen is introduced. The storage pit works like that, keeping the grain in a sterile atmosphere. A hole is dug into the rock (usually chalk) sometimes up to two metres in depth and a metre in diameter. It is filled with grain and a seal of moist clay covered by loose soil put on the top. The loose soil keeps the clay moist and stops any penetration by rain. Inside the pit bacteria and fungi have been trapped with the grain but they will not survive if deprived of oxygen which happens as soon as the pit is sealed. Experiments have shown that grain stored in this way will still grow extremely well and is also edible. But, during the Iron Age, the food corn is likely to have been stored in above ground granaries because it was not wise to keep on re-opening the pit. Beans might have been stored in the same way in pits and perhaps other foodstuffs as well. Silage could have been made in these pits; grass piled inside and covered with stones to compress it would soon 'cure'. And of course pits of this sort could become rubbish pits or loo pits.
Vegetables
Few vegetables were known in Britain prior to the Roman Invasion of the country. However, Celtic beans and fat hen were grown and a kind of primative parsnip was found in Britain at that time. Herbs would probably have been the main way to get your 'greens'. Later, primitive varieties of the following vegetables were grown to supplement the diet; Peas, Beans Onions, Garlic, Carrots, and Cabbage.
Dye Plants
The three principal plants that were grown for the production of colour dyes were;
Woad - Blue dye. Fermentation of the first years leaves extracts a dye of the indigo family.
Madder -Red dye. The roots of the five year old plant are crushed and boiled in water. It is possible that true madder dye was a Roman introduction.
Weld -Yellow dye. The whole plant can be boiled to extract the dye.
Water Meadow
Water meadows are low laying land around a river, creating a flood plain. During the summer when the land around the river was dry, the grass was cut to produce hay. This was used as winter feed for the animals. During the winter, the cattle could be grazed on it. The act of the river flooding also fertilised the land with silt from the river.
Woodlands
The trees in the woods were managed by pollarding and coppicing to maintain an output of timber.
Pollarding is the removal of the branches from the top of the trunk of a tree and then allowing the tree to re-sprout. The tree can be pollarded every 15-20yrs and the timber produced can be used for the construction of buildings,fence posts, charcoal and firewood.
Coppicing is a similar process, but the tree is cut close to the ground. The re-growth is harvested every 5-7yrs and the wood used for wattle fencing,hurdles, building construction and charcoal.
Both of these methods enabled small areas of woodlands to produce a large and consistent output of timber over a long period of time.
Osier Beds
An area of wet land can be planted with willow rods (cuttings) which root easily. The growth of willow can be cut every 1 to 2 years and the withies used for making baskets and fish-traps.
Livestock
We know from the archaeological evidence the size and shape of the animals from Iron Age sites. We can make comparisons with modern breeds to give an indication of the livestock farmed at that period. The open grasslands supported a wide range of animals, both domestic and wild. The domestic stock included cattle, sheep and goats, whilst the wild animals included deer, hares, birds and aurorch (a wild cattle).
Cattle
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Dexter Cattle - descendants of Celtic Shorthorn
The nearest breeds that we have are the Dexter and Highland cows. The cattle were used for motive power for pulling ploughs and carts, as well as for production of dairy goods and meat. Cattle were highly prized and represented a person's status and wealth. Cattle was king in the Celtic world and a man's wealth was measured by the number of his herd. The Celts introduced, the now extinct, Celtic Shorthorn cattle to Britain. The cows would have provided good milk and the bullocks would have been slaughtered for meat. From the archaeological remains of bones, found at Danebury Hill Fort, it has been estimated that two-thirds of the meat eaten by Iron Age Britons was beef.
Sheep and Goats
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Soay Sheep
The Soay, Manx, Hebridean and Shetland breeds of sheep which are still found on these islands are the direct descendents of the ancient sheep farmed in Iron Age Britain. They are quite goat-like in appearance and don't provide a great deal of meat. Their main use would have been to provide milk and wool. Unlike modern breeds of sheep their wool can be pulled from their backs without shearing. Woolen garments such the British hooded cloak (birrus) were a major export in the Iron Age. Wool and animal skins were used to make clothing during the Iron Age. In the early Iron Age the sheep were small and hardy with a wool that was plucked off every year, very similar to the soay sheep of today. By the later pre-Roman period larger sheep had been bred, with a longer wool that required shearing. It is difficult to distinguish the difference between early sheep and goats, as the bones are similar. However, goats were kept for milk and meat, and can forage for food better than sheep. From the number of butchered bones of differents animals found, at Danebury, we see that the consumption of meat from sheep overtook that of pig. Butchered sheep bones, dated to this period, indicate that most sheep were not butchered as lambs, for meat. Rather, they were kept alive for wool production and when finally butchered, at a mature age, were prepared as mutton. Mutton and some lamb meat accounted for about a quarter of the total consumption of meat.
Soay sheep are bred at Butser. They are a breed that has survived on the remote island of St Kilda and are of the prehistoric type, much smaller than modern domesticated sheep, similar to goats and with wool that has to be plucked off. They will provide milk but are not big enough to be a good source of meat.
Pigs
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'Iron Age Pigs' A reconstituted breed which are a cross between Tamworth and Wild Boar
The Britons kept a domesticated pig which like other domesticated animals of the Iron Age were smaller than its modern counterparts. It may have looked something like a cross between the contempory Tamworth pig and the ancient wild boar which roamed the woodlands of ancient Britain. It was a hardy animal and was herded through the woods with great success. Pigs were common animals in the Iron Age and the wild boar may have been a cult animal for it is represented on metalwork and by small metal models. The animals were always food animals and may have been used by farmers to tear up grassland in preparation for planting crops. Pig bones or tusks appear in some of the Arras graves and these deposits could have had ritual significanace. The domesticted pig rather than the wild boar would have provided the British Celts with most of their ham, sausages and bacon which together would only have accounted for about one tenth of the total meat consumption.
Horses
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Exmoor Ponies
Horses in the Iron Age only appear in special contexts like the pits at Danebury, not on farms, but Caesar describes how they were harnessed in pairs in chariots for warfare and horse equipment is found in Arras graves. Representations of them appear on Iron Age coins. They were the size of an modern Exmoor pony but there is no evidence of them having been used for agriculture. Studies of tooth enamel show that horses were widely traded.
Dogs
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An English Mastiff, often cited as a direct descendant of British Iron Age Dogs, although proof is somewhat lacking
Another animal that may have had some ritual significance was the dog for dog burials appear in places like the entrances to settlements and hillforts and they are often found in farming communities. Strabo, the Roman writer, tells us that the British exported 'clever hunting dogs' which presumably means that they were specially trained.
Much of the information on farming was taken from the Butser Ancient Farm website, but there were other sources.
Coins
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The coins of Iron Age Britain are the subject of much scholarly work in themselves, and we make no attempt to even scratch the surface here. As we saw elsewhere, more than 15,000 coins have been found in Britain, and the analysis of their composition, styles and distribution is a major component of our understanding of pre-Roman history. It is generally agreed that coins as a means of exchange were introduced to Britain no earlier than 120 BC, although prior to that, there is evidence that currency 'bars' (a piece of bronze or lead shaped rather like a miniature sword) were used, and stone weights found in Winklebury and Danebury, along with the possibility that grain storage pits were dug to a standard size, together indicate that even before money was introduced, the Britons had developed a system of exchange within an ordered economy.
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Round Houses, Crannogs and Brochs
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Reconstructed Iron Age roundhouses at Castell Henllys.
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Wattle and daub walls - whitewashed and painted.
The ‘roundhouse’ is the classic Iron Age dwelling. Typically, between 6 and 15 metres in diameter, the walls were constructed from whatever materials were most convenient – it could be stone, timber or wattle and daub. It is assumed that the walls would have been at least chest height, to allow maximum use of the enclosed space. It is also assumed that, since the walls were round, the roof would have been conical. It would have had a timber framework and a covering of thatch (or possibly turf, which, being heavier, would require more support). Often, the house's entrance, which might have a porch, faces east or south-east – away from prevailing westerly winds, but, perhaps more importantly (for reasons of belief), towards the rising sun. At the centre of the house was an open-hearth fire, which would have been maintained at all times. A bronze cauldron might be suspended from a tripod, by a chain, over the fire.
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Reconstructed crannog on Loch Tay, Scotland
In Scotland, loch-dwelling, on artificial islands called ‘crannogs’, has a history spanning thousands of years – from around 3000BC, in the Neolithic Age, until the 1600s AD. It does appear, however, that the Iron Age was their heyday. There are two basic types of crannog: true islands, with solid bases built up from the loch floor (where possible, taking advantage of natural rock outcrops); or wooden platforms, raised above the water on timber piles. Generally, a single building tops the crannog, and the whole structure is joined to the shore by a walkway.
There are the remains of eighteen crannogs in Loch Tay. On the largest of them, Priory Island (oval, approx. 70 metres by 50 metres), the substantial ruins of a stronghold, constructed by the Campbells of Glenorchy in the early-16th century AD, can be seen. (The island itself is known to have been there in the early-12th century, but how far back its origins lie is not known). In contrast, Oakbank Crannog is a totally submerged mound of around 25 metres in diameter. It has been explored by underwater archaeologists since 1980. Oakbank is a wooden platform crannog, radiocarbon dated to c.600–400BC, the structural timbers of which have been remarkably well preserved. Based on this evidence, a reconstruction has been built, some four miles from the original's site. Amongst the objects which survived at Oakbank are: a wooden dish with butter sticking to it; a fragment of woven woolen cloth; a turned wooden disk (the waste removed from the base of a bowl once it has been taken off the lathe); an ard.
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In the wild, rocky, landscape of north-western Scotland, the Northern Isles and the Western Isles, drystone-walled roundhouses (today, called ‘Atlantic roundhouses’) began to be built c.700BC. The early types, ‘simple Atlantic roundhouses’, had solid walls – sometimes quite massive: in the region of 4 metres thick. From c.400BC, they began to acquire architectural features, such as galleries and stairways, within the thickness of the wall. These are classed as ‘complex Atlantic roundhouses’. Traditionally, Atlantic roundhouses are, in general, called ‘duns’. The word ‘dùn’ is Gaelic for ‘fortress’, but it seems likely that they were actually family homes. Some are constructed on rocky-based crannogs, and these are known as ‘island duns’.
The imposing drystone towers, traditionally called ‘brochs’, fall under the heading of ‘complex Atlantic roundhouse’. Broch towers were probably fully developed by c.200BC. They are entered by a single, low, doorway and have no windows. This somewhat featureless exterior, combined with the slope of the wall, has led to them being likened to power station cooling towers. The entrance passage usually has a, so called, ‘guard-cell’ to one side, within the wall's thickness. There is general agreement that the towers would have had a number of wooden upper floors, and a, conical, thatched roof. Indeed, typical features of ‘broch architecture’ are ‘scarcements’ – stone ledges around the inside of the tower which probably provided support for the internal timber structure. It is conjectured that the upper floors provided the main living accommodation, whilst the ground floor may have provided a refuge for livestock during severe weather, or in times of conflict. The name ‘broch’ is derived from the Old Norse ‘borg’, meaning ‘fortress’, and these substantial towers would, no doubt, act as a stronghold when raiding parties attacked. They are, however, very prominent in the landscape. They were, clearly, built to be impressive. It does not seem unreasonable to see them as status symbols – blatantly advertising the wealth of the family who lived there. Their heyday would appear to span four hundred years, the last two centuries BC and the first two AD.
Broadly contemporary with the brochs, and found in the Western Isles and Shetland (but not Orkney), is a completely different class of circular drystone building: the ‘wheelhouse’ – named from its distinctive floorplan. Arranged radially around the interior, like wheel spokes, are a number of stone piers. The central hub area is left open. The wall and piers supported corbelled stone roofs, which domed above each of the inter-spoke cells. At Cnip, on Lewis (Western Isles), the corbelled roofing of a wheelhouse is partially intact. The domes' apexes would have been something like 6 metres above floor level. Whereas brochs made lavish use of timber, in an area where its supply was very limited, wheelhouses only required timber to construct the framework of a thatched roof over the hub area. The example at Cnip had an interior diameter of 7 metres, it had eight spokes, and the hub diameter was in the region of only 3½ metres. An example at Sollas, on North Uist (Western Isles) was 11 metres in diameter, it had 13 spokes, and a 7 metre hub diameter. Frequently, wheelhouses are sunk into machair (sand-based grassland), so don't need massive walls to hold them up – Cnip and Sollas are both like this. Only the roofs would have projected above the land surface.
Some foods introduced by the Romans to Britain
The Roman invaders contributed to the long-term improvement of the British diet by introducing proper vegetables to the island. The list of vegetables introduced to Britain includes garlic, onions, shallots, leeks, cabbages, peas, celery, turnips, radishes, and asparagus. The leeks' importance as a part of the staple diet of the British population is illustrated by its later adoption as the national emblem of Wales. Amongst the many herbs that they introduced to Britain were rosemary, thyme, bay, basil and savoury mint. They also introduced herbs that were used in brewing and for medicinal purposes.
The Romans also brought new farming practices and crops. They introduced more productive grains and bread became a more important part of the British diet. Walnuts and sweet chestnuts were another Roman introduction. They also introduced a wider variety of fruit that was brought into cultivation rather than growing wild. This included apples (as opposed to crab apples), grapes, mulberries and cherries. There was a period when the Romans prohibited the establishment of vineyards outside Italy, in order to safeguard its wine trade, but in the third century the emperor Probus granted permission to Britain, Spain and Gaul to re-establish them.
The Romans introduced new breeds of farm animals, such as the prized white cattle. Archaeological evidence suggests that guinea fowl, chickens and rabbits were probably introduced as farmyard animals. The rabbits, which they introduced, were a Spanish variety that would not have survived for long in the wild as the British winters were too cold. The Romans also brought new species of game into Britain including the brown hare and pheasants. Samian bowls, which were popular at the Romano-British dining table, often depicted scenes of dogs hunting hare or deer. Wild boar and oxen were native animals that were also hunted. Food finds from archaeological excavations confirm that a wide range of meats contributed to the diet of some Romano-British people. However, the degree of difference, which the Romans made, to the diet as a whole, was dependant upon which social group you belonged to.
Roman Food - The Poor
The Celtic peasantry, who formed the mass of the population, would have seen the least change to their diet. They would not have dined on fine Roman cuisine but even they did benefit from the introduction of some of the new vegetables and herbs. They would have added these to the stews and broths that they cooked above the fire, in the traditional Celtic manner. Some natives were re-settled into new Roman towns, such as Caerwent, and amongst them was a new class of urban poor. Some of those who lived in town apartments would have been without proper cooking facilities. Instead of cooking for themselves they would have eaten, the ancient equivalent of 'fast food', at Roman taverns and snack bars. This included beer and probably kebabs!
Roman Food - The Rich
There is archaeological evidence that British chiefs and warriors drank imported wine, even in remote or anti-Roman tribal areas. The consumption of Roman wine and other Roman products had actually become popular, amongst the British elite in Southern and Central Britain, even before the Roman invasion. This familiarity with Roman produce and traders was a factor that greatly contributed to the rapid Romanisation of the elite, following the Claudian invasion. One way for the new Romano-British elite to demonstrate their high status was to invite their aristocratic neighbours to dine lavishly on food imported from around the Roman Empire.
Roman Food - The Roman Army
The Vindolanda tablets provide a good source of information about the dietary requirements of the Roman Army stationed at Hadrian's Wall. It is especially informative about the food ordered for the Commanding Officer who like other rich Romans enjoyed meats such as venison and wild Boar. The following tablet, found at Vindolanda, contained a 'shopping list'; of the food that was probably intended to feed the garrison.
The Roman Army consumed a healthy combination of simple high-energy food. Bread was their staple food and grain production was increased throughout Britain to meet the demand from the army. Large 'beehive' bread-ovens were positioned all the way around the Legionary Fortress at Caerleon. A lead bread stamp, reading ‘Century of Quintinius Aquila’, found in the Fortress suggests that each Century of soldiers baked and consumed their own bread. Accounts from Vindolanda indicate that Roman soldiers also ate a lot of bacon. Every group of eight soldiers had a frying pan that folded away in their pack and enabled them to have a fry-up even on campaign. They also ate porridge and stews would have included meat and vegetables. Soldiers snacking at the Fortress Baths in Caerleon certainly ate lots of chicken and bones discovered there had been boiled white. Wild boar was another favourite treat that the soldiers could have bought from the bathhouse vendors. Once the Roman occupation of the lands of the Silures was secure the soldiers would have been able to dine-out in the restaurants and towns that surrounded the fortress.Quote:
... bruised beans, two modii, twenty chickens, a hundred apples, if you can find nice ones, a hundred or two hundred eggs, if they are for sale there at a fair price. ... 8 sextarii of fish-sauce ... a modius of olives ... To ... slave of Verecundus.
Much of the information on food was taken from an article written by Nigel Cross @ resourcesforhistory.com
Technology and Iron Working
Tools and weapons made with iron are not an improvement on those made with bronze. It was not until the discovery of carbon steel in the nineteenth century that bronze was bettered but iron is the commonest mineral on earth and can be found in a large number of forms that may be described as oxides, carbonates and sulphides. One of the oxides, haematite, is an earth pigment, much used as a colouring for painting. The ores that were likely to have smelted for iron manufacture in the past are the oxides and the carbonates. Instead of having to obtain two metals, tin and copper and have the trouble of alloying them to make bronze, the iron metalworker now needed only one that was easily obtainable. This is the reason why iron became the favoured metal for common metal objects. Iron objects on excavation often come up in the form of a featureless lump of rust. But corrosion products ‘grow’ out of an iron object leaving a void in the centre of the lump that is the exact shape of the original object. X-rays can reveal this hidden shape and a cast can be made and extracted.
Simplest and easiest furnaces for smelting iron were bowl furnaces - hollows in the ground lined with clay, but they do not turn up very often in excavations in Britain. Ore and the fuel (charcoal) were placed inside and covered with a lid of clay through which tuyères (nozzles) were inserted and the temperature brought up to around 1100ºC by the use of bellows. Iron sank to the bottom of the furnace as a bloom while the unwanted metals in the ore, the slag or gangue, remained above. After this, the next stage is the hotworking of the iron bloom is forging which is the job of the blacksmith and involves alternately heating and hammering the iron to remove the remaining slag and shaping it into the finished artifact. The earliest shaft furnace so far found in Britain has been excavated at Priors Hall in Northamptonshire. It was one of three dating to between 100 BC and AD 50 and a surprising find since it had been thought that shaft furnaces were introduced by the Romans.
But bronze continued to be used widely for decorative and better-class metalworking. In fact, during the Iron Age, we have more bronze than iron objects surviving in our museums because the bronze objects were prized and handed down as heirlooms. Iron was more easily reforged so that broken or outdated objects were fashioned anew. Also iron does not survive very well in the ground unless the context is an anerobic one, that is, wet and airless, which also preserves organic materials. So we cannot make a proper estimate of the proportion of iron in use in the past. It is probably safe to say that it was a great deal more than we have evidence for.
In this country iron objects in the shape of an iron version of the bronze leaf-shaped sword appear during the seventh century. We do have one of the earliest iron objects, a sickle, that was actually made in Britain, thus marking the beginning of British iron metallurgy. This artefact comes from a hoard of metal objects found at Llyn Fawr in South Wales deposited in a lake round about 600 BC. The hoard contained twenty-four objects, most of bronze, including two cauldrons and two sickles. A third sickle had been copied in iron by the smith and the hoard is dated by a spearhead and a portion of a Hallstatt C sword. It is possible that this collection is an example of a votive hoard that was deposited in a sacred spot as an offering to the gods.
Most of our metal finds from the Iron Age, whether of iron or bronze, but mostly of bronze, for the reasons outlined above, are found in votive hoards or ritual deposits in rivers or bogs. There is little in settlement sites of the period and we do not have many Iron Age burials accompanied by metal objects so votive hoards or deposits contain by far the finest metal goods from the Iron Age and it is a measure of the piety of the age that this should be so. Their gods so bountifully addressed were the ancient deities that were still thought to be responsible for natural phenomena and other things that have influence on human beings like good health.
Although ironworking began as early as the seventh century BC, it was not until the fourth or third century that there is widespread evidence for smelting and the forging of iron objects. Most areas of Britain lie relatively near to supplies of iron ore. Exactly how the ore was distributed is not at present clear, but it seems likely that smelting took place near the source and that ready-smelted ingots were transported to consumer blacksmiths. The most likely candidates for such ingots are the so-called currency bars found in two basic shapes: sword-shaped bars and spit-shaped bars. Much has been written about these bars and their possible use as mediums of exchange. They almost all derive from the areas where a settlement hierarchy can be discerned in the south and east, and over one third of all examples known come from hillforts, often in hoards. The fact that some have been found sawn up into pieces as if awaiting forging may suggest that they simply relate to the distribution of raw material.
A few blacksmiths’ tools such as tongs, punches and hammers are known from sites widely scattered around the country, but the main source of evidence for smithing comes from the presence of iron slags and forging waste. Actual smelting furnaces are known at Kestor, Dartmoor, and West Brandon, Durham, and in both cases comprise small pits about 0.5 metres (20 inches) across with a rest for a pair of bellows. Blacksmiths produced a variety of tools for other crafts and farming, as well as ornaments, pins and brooches.
Gold and silver were not extensively worked between the seventh and the second centuries BC, although in the first century BC/AD there was renewed interest in these metals. Bronze continued to be worked, possibly by part-time metalworkers/farmers. Crucibles and waste casting debris is known from a wide range of sites but perhaps the most fully investigated is the farmstead enclosure at Gussage All Saints, Dorset. Here both ironworking and bronzeworking were carried out in the second century BC, but the bronze worker specialized in the manufacture of horse harness fittings including terret rings, bridle bits, linchpins for securing wheels to fixed axles, strap ends and various other loops and fasteners. These objects were clearly being made for exchange or redistribution of some kind since the quantities involved were far in excess of the needs of the resident community. As an example of the way in which some bronze objects were distributed, mention may be made of the bronze brooches of Wessex type made in imitation of La Tene types fashionable on the Continent, in this case with incised lines and dots on the bow. Some 15 almost identical examples are known, and all were found within a 50 kilometre (31 miles) radius of Salisbury, although the exact place of manufacture is unknown.
Smaller personal items such as ornaments were made wherever the availability of materials permitted. On the south coast at Kimmeridge a major shaleworking industry developed and many sites in the area, for example the enclosure at Eldon’s Seat, Dorset, yield evidence of shaleworking. In the north of England jet was worked in similar ways. At Glastonbury, glass beads were manufactured, and boneworking to make handles for composite tools was another widespread activity. There is some evidence, especially in western and Atlantic Britain, that flint was still worked on a small scale for making edged tools.
Luxury goods continued to be made following earlier traditions. Of great importance were weaponry and parade gear. Again Continental influence was strong, especially with the major innovation of decoration on fine objects after the fourth century BC. This ornamentation comprised increasingly complicated curvilinear designs based on the ‘Celtic’ or La Tène style art. Amongst the earliest recipients of such treatment were the iron daggers which became very popular in the fourth century although they originated a little earlier. These daggers had bronze sheaths, and examples such as the one from the Thames at Richmond, now in the British Museum were covered in decoration. By the third century, when swords came back into fashion, the elaboration of weapons with intricate design work was well established, and by the second century there were numerous schools of local craftsmen in Britain producing finely ornamented cast and beaten metalwork. Among the most spectacular pieces are the Witham shield, from the river Witham in Lincolnshire, and the Torrs pony headgear from Dumfries and Galloway.
Overall, it is clear that no particular classes of site were exclusively the focus of particular crafts or industries, although larger settlements with higher populations naturally provided the setting for a wider overall range of crafts. At Danebury, for example, potting, leatherworking, textileworking, woodworking and metal working were undertaken. In southern and eastern England at least it seems that farmer-specialists may have been active, producing a restricted range of products for redistribution over relatively small areas. Barry Cunliffe has suggested that hillforts may have played a vital role in this redistribution, not only providing raw materials such as iron and salt to outlying farms but also taking in specialist produce and either redirecting it to where it was needed or using it in inter-regional exchange. It is indeed possible that the exchange of fine objects was restricted to a high level of society.
The section on iron working is cribbed from Cunliffe, Iron Age Communities...
Religion
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A reconstruction of the Hayling Island Shrine
Diodorus SiculusQuote:
The Gauls are terrifying in appearance and speak with deep, harsh voices. They speak together in few words, using riddles which leave much of the true meaning to be understood by the listener. They frequently exaggerate their claims to raise their own status and diminish another's. They are boastful, violent, and melodramatic, but very intelligent and learn quickly. They have Iyric poets called Bards, who, accompanied by instruments resembling Iyres, slng both praise and satire. They have highly-honoured philosophers and theologians [those who speak about the gods] called Druids. They also make use of seers, who are greatly respected. These seers, having great authority, use auguries and sacrifices to foresee the future. When seeking knowledlre of great importance, they use a strange and unbelievable method: they choose a person for death and stab him or her in the chest above the diaphragm. By the convulsion of the victim's limbs and spurtinp of blood, they foretell the future, trusting in this ancient method. They do not sacrifice or ask favours from the Gods without a Druid present, as thev believe sacrifice should be made only by those supposedly skilled in divine communication. Not only during peacetime but also in war, the Gauls obey with great care these Druids and singing poets, both friend and enemy alike. Often when two armies have come together with swords drawn these men have stepped between the battle-lines and stopped the conflict, as if they held wild animals spell-bound. Thus even among most brutal barbarians angry passion yields to wisdom and Ares stands in awe of the Muses.
Strabo, Geography, 4.4.4Quote:
As a rule, among all the Gallic peoples three sets of men are honoured above all others: the Bards, the vates, and the Druids. The bards are singers and poets, the vates overseers of sacred rites and philosophers of nature, and the Druids, besides being natural philosophers, practice moral philosophy as well. They are considered to be the most just and therefore are entrusted with settling both private and public disputes, so that in earlier times they even arbitrated wars and could keep those intending to draw themselves up for battle from so doing and it was to these men most of all that cases involving murder had been entrusted for adjudication. And whenever there is a big yield from these cases, they believe that there will come a yield from the land too. Both these men and others aver that and the universe are imperishable, although both fire and water will at some times prevail over them.
Divisions between the sacred and the secular were very indistinct throughout the pre-Roman Iron Age. Most religious activity would probably either have been fully integrated into daily life, or else have taken place among natural settings such as rivers and bogs. Religious practices revolved around offerings and sacrifices, sometimes human but more often involving ritual slaughter of animals or the deposition of metalwork, especially war booty. Weapons and horse trappings have been found in the bog at Llyn Cerrig Bach on Anglesey and are interpreted as votive offerings cast into a lake. Numerous weapons have also been recovered from rivers especially the Thames but also the Trent and Tyne. Some buried hoards of jewellery are interpreted as gifts to the earth gods. Disused grain storage pits and the ends of ditches have also produced what appear to be deliberately placed deposits including a preference for burials of horses, dogs and ravens. The bodies were often mutilated and some human finds at the bottom of pits such as those found at Danebury may have had a ritual aspect. At Glastonbury Lake Village, two roundhouses had a child's skeleton in the floor, a further seven children had been buried between buildings, and one was found in the peat outside the perimeter palisade. There were no other inhumations, so it seems that these were ritual deposits, though there is no indication of sacrifice. On the other hand four adult skulls, associated with the perimeter, were damaged by sword blows. These might be the heads of sacrificial victims, or they could, possibly, be the heads of vanquished enemies:
Strabo, Geography, 4.4Quote:
... when they [Gallic warriors] depart from the battle they hang the heads of their enemies from the necks of their horses, and, when they have brought them home, nail the spectacle to the entrance of their homes. At any rate, Poseidonius says that he himself saw this spectacle in many places, and that, although at first he loathed it, afterwards, through his familiarity with it, he could bear it calmly. The heads of enemies of high repute, however, they used to embalm in cedar-oil and exhibit to strangers, and they would not deign to give them back even for a ransom of an equal weight of gold. But the Romans put a stop to these customs, as well as to those connected with the sacrifices and divinations that are opposed to our usages.
When the main hillfort on Bredon Hill, which lies on the border of Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, was excavated in the mid-1930s, a line of six skulls was found within the ruins of the entranceway. They were believed to have been trophy-heads, which had been mounted above the gate. The head does, indeed, seem to have been a focus of especial interest. At several occupation sites more skull fragments have been found than those of other human bones, and there are examples (e.g. at All Cannings Cross, Wiltshire) of skull pieces being shaped – sometimes perforated so they could be worn – to produce, what would appear to be, charms.
Towards the very end of the Iron Age, a small number of specialized built shrines began to appear across parts of southern Britain. The reason for their development may lie ultimately in the functions of such sites, and the perceived need for them among certain members of the native elite. The increase in political hierarchy had undoubtedly led to a desire to display visual symbols of status, and the construction of religious sites in prominent locations may have been one way of expressing this status.
The very concept may well have derived in part from Roman Gaul, where cult sites were quite common features, especially in those areas with a higher degree of socio-political complexity. There is little evidence for constructed religious sites within Britain, with the only likely example being a small concentric wooden structure located near to a later Romano-Celtic temple at Lancing Down. Hayling Island in Hampshire is perhaps the best example of an Iron Age temple in Britain. Here, a circular shrine dating to the mid 1st century BC was surrounded by a number of enclosures, and contained large quantities of votive offerings. It was quite similar to a number of sanctuaries in north-eastern Gaul, and indeed has been linked to the arrival of Commius, the renegade Gallic leader, although this might be wishful thinking. A large quantity of material – coins, currency bar fragments, brooches, shield binding, iron spearheads, horse trappings and some fragmentary human remains – had been deposited at the site. Its status as a shrine being confirmed by the construction of a, stone, Roman temple, on top of and to virtually the same plan as the earlier wooden structure, in the later-1st century AD. At other sites, structures have been identified as shrines because of their obvious differences from normal domestic buildings. For instance, single rectangular buildings within a village of roundhouses, as found at both Heathrow (Middlesex) and Stansted (Essex) airports, are interpreted as shrines.
Most of the British Iron Age is notoriously silent on its treatment of the dead. In the south-east especially, there is very little evidence to suggest how the majority of the population was disposed of. However, cremation cemeteries did begin to appear in the late Iron Age, and one of the most important excavated so far is at Westhampnett, in West Sussex. The burial ground consisted of 161 cremation graves and a number of pyre sites surrounding a circular cleared space. It was probably used by a number of small settlement groups from the surrounding coastal plain during the mid 1st century BC.
Death in Iron Age Great Britain seems to have produced different behaviours in different regions. Cremation was a method of disposing of the dead although the chariot burials and other inhumations of the Arras culture of East Yorkshire, and the cist burials of Cornwall, demonstrate that it was not ubiquitous. In fact, the general dearth of excavated Iron Age burials makes drawing conclusions difficult. Excarnation has been suggested as a reason for the lack of burial evidence with the remains of the dead being dispersed either naturally or through human agency.
It may be that 'official' cults of individual gods did not develop until later, but deities such as Camulos, Sulis, Belenus, Epona, Brigantia, Nemetona, Belisama, Alauna, Rigantona and Lugus are known from toponymns and inscriptions.
Concerning Druids, an awful lot of total nonsense has been written. In fact, although we can be certain that Druids existed, along with Bards and Vates, we know virtually nothing serious about them. Classical authors like Diodorus Siculus, Pomponius Mela, and Caesar all agree that Druids were involved in human sacrifice, and recent bog body discoveries like the Lindow Man are taken by many to be confirmation of this - but truthfully, it is very difficult to separate the truth from the accretion of legend and propaganda. It is true that human and animal remains have been found at the bottom of grain pits and other structures, and that some sites, like Alveston cave in Britain, where 150 skeletons show signs of violent death, or the headless corpses at Gournay-sur-Aronde, have been interpreted as ritual activity. However, in many cases it takes an observer pre-disposed to finding evidence of the Druids to see proof of them in archaeological record. We will leave the question open for now.
Caesar, De Bello Gallico, Book 6
Tacitus, Annals, Boook 14
One interesting artefact is this coin:
Dating from the time of Tiberius, it shows a nude figure holding a crooked staff and an odd headpiece with a chin-strap. He gazes skyward and holds something in his left hand. This image is often taken to be that of a Vate, or seer, although since it is so late (ca. 25 AD), it is possible that it is just a copy of Roman iconography.
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