Gallic Items Question

[Gaius_Caligula]

Welcome!

Half of those images appear to be 19th Century French bronze and brasses.

I am not sure about the last couple of images which appear to be a spear point but it doesn't appear to be La Tène, I can't imagine a La Tène spear point would appear in an attic.

I very much doubt that anything there is Gallic in origin or even pre-modern.

I forgot an important detail I guess - the person who found all this was a hobby archaeologist in the early 1900, and found several gallic items. His biggest find was a buried gaul with his chariot and lots of fine items. They were later donated to a museum where they tragically "disappeard". Other items I found were gallic human remains and a lot of pottery.

[Brennus]

That's all very good but it still doesn't dispute the fact that the majority if not all of these items are not Iron Age. If Gordon Childe were to find a spoon in his back garden it wouldn't make it prehistoric.

The first image shows a bronze or brass medallion with four heads imposed over a fasces with a phrygian cap over the top of it, a common image in revolutionary France for Liberty. It is certainly not Gallic as Gallic coins were either gold (as in the case of the northern Gallo-Belgic types) or silver (as in the case of the Avernian issues) witht he exception of lower value "potins".

The second image depicts a bronze or brass knife (i don't what what it was for) with a geometric floral decoration on the handle, again 18th-19th century. If it were Gallic it's unlikely you would have a handle (it would have been organic) or the handle would have some anthropomorphic character to it.

The third item is a fish knife, again 18th-19th century in style. Gauls didn't eat alot of fish (I can give you the reference if you like: Meniel 2001. Les Gaulois et les Animaux: Elevage, repas et sacrifice) certainly not enough to warrant producing a specialised knife.

And as for the fourth image Gauls only depicted chariot use on coins, not on brass wall plaques.

Sorry if I sound rude, I am struggling to my thesis and its proving more difficult than expected.

[Maeran]

I'd suggest that the knives and wall brasses are entirely plausible as household decorations for an antiquarian. That they end up mixed up with his collection of coins and other objects (it does look like a spearhead, but I'm not an expert and can't say that it's not a decoration from a railing for example) is not surprising.