Along with the rest of the Iron Age peoples the Celts had an advanced culture, with established trade links covering most of the known world. Many of the Celts, were themselves the descendants of people from earlier southern cultures, displaced by the reduction of the land surface by the melting of the glaciers at the end of the last ice age in 12,500 BC. Towards the end of the Iron Age the “Roman effect” pushed together many tribes and created a tidal wave of fleeing tribes and individuals.
The Celts were part of a thriving economic and political structure with common religious beliefs and economic structures, the political structure was based around tribal systems were weaker family units would bind themselves to powerful families to created an enlarged tribe.
“By far the most civilized inhabitants live in Kent (a purely maritime district), whose way of life differs little from that of the Gauls. Most of the tribes in the interior do not grow corn but live on milk and meat, and wear skins. All the Britons dye their bodies with woad, which produces a blue colour, and shave their bodies except the head and the upper lip. Wives are shared between fathers and sons; but the offspring of these unions are counted as children of the man with whom a particular woman cohabited first.” – Julius Caesar 54 BC, The Conquest of Gaul V.15.1 14.
An incomplete Early Medieval (Anglo-Scandinavian) silver penny in the name of St Peter dating to the period c.AD 905 - 910. Two-line horizontal type. Cross pattee reverse. Mint of York.North Vol. 1, p.116, no.551.
Copper alloy and iron brooch. Cast headstud brooch, Headstud 6, cf.Mackreth 2011 Pl. 73 no. 11868. A tubular case for an iron axis bar which formerly retained a hinged pin is masked by short wings with two vertically Mackreth typeincised lines on the front of each and surmounted by an integrally cast loop. The wings […]
Copper alloy brooch. Cast bow and fantail brooch, Mackreth type undetermined [his CD H 6 includes fantails but none patterned as appears here]. Almost-plain tubular wings – the only decoration is a possibly incised line wandering up the front of each wing to the crest of the bow - clenched behind retain an axis bar […]
Copper alloy coin fragment. A scrap – perhaps one third – of a nummus of the House of Constantine (306-361), Gloria Exercitus issue of 335-341, Reece period 17.Obverse description: [bust] corrodedReverse description: two soldiers with one standard between themReverse inscription: (GLOR) IA E(XERC ITVS]Diameter (in excess of): 13.8mm, Weight: 0.79gms
Lead probable game piece. A cast object of slightly conical form with flat ends; the smaller bears an incised saltire or cross, here presumed to be the top. Patinated overall. This may relate to those game pieces of castellated form, which may thus have been distinguished from others. This might be required for the King […]
An almost complete cast lead or lead alloy pilgrims ampulla dating from the medieval period; circa late 13th - late 15th century (AD 1250-1500).The ampulla has a circular (scallop) shaped body with a narrowed neck. On the right-hand side of the object situated on the neck is a flattened semi-circular loop. There are the remains of […]
A complete copper-alloy buckle of medieval date, c.AD 1250-1500. Meols Type 2.The buckle is a single looped D-shape with a widened frame and a narrowed and offset bar. A wire pin remains fitted around the bar by an open loop.The metal has a dark brown patina and is in a worn condition. The buckle is 14.61mm […]
Addendum to an Iron Age sacred lake assemblage: a Late Iron Age bridle-bit and terret (50 BC - AD 75)1. Two-link bridle-bit, Polden Hill Subtype, bronze, complete Dimensions: maximum length 238.0mm; external rein-ring diameters (1)73.8-74.0mm & (2) 73.5-74.7mm; internal rein-ring diameters (1) 55.6mm & (2) 56.3mm; thickness rein rings – side to side (1) 8.3-9.0mm & […]
An incomplete lead-alloy pilgrim's ampulla of medieval date, c.AD 1350 - 1550.Only part of the body of the ampulla remains which is semi-circular with a worn break to the upper edge from which the neck would have extended. One side of the object is decorated with an eight-petalled 'compass-drawn' flower. The other side is too […]
