Technologies of enchantment: Celtic Art in Iron Age and Roman Britain
Duncan Garrow, Chris Gosden, JD Hill, 2009. https://doi.org/10.5284/1000086. How to cite using this DOI
Data copyright © Duncan Garrow unless otherwise stated
This work is licensed under the ADS Terms of Use and Access.
Primary contact
Duncan
Garrow
Department of Archaeology
University of Liverpool
Hartley Building
Brownlow Street
Liverpool
L69 3GS
UK
Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 933
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1000086
- How to cite using this DOI
Overview
The project team compiled a comprehensive database of all Celtic art found in Britain to date.
The database was constructed in such a way that each object occupies one 'row', whilst the information about that object is contained in multiple 'columns'. The information relating to each object divides, along with date, into these categories:
Object description: Information about what kind of object each entry refers to (e.g. tubular torc, scabbard chape-end, etc.), the material(s) it is made from (copper alloy, gold, etc.), and its condition (complete, fragment, etc.). It also includes a lengthier written description of the object, detailing any outstanding or defining features, the type of decoration used, etc.
Location: information about both the contextual and geographical locations in which each object was found. Contextual information, if sufficiently detailed in the original source, is recorded at several different levels. An object's location might, for example, read 'hillfort', 'hut circle' or 'within stone wall' in different columns. The geographical information provided in most original sources generally detailed the nearest farm, village or town to the findspot, along with the county. For the purposes of the project, it was necessary to transfer this information into a co-ordinate system which could be used in GIS.
Sources/references: information about where each object has previously been published, and where it is currently held. In the case of the former, the information included in the database is not comprehensive, but details the relevant catalogue numbers in all original sources (e.g. Jope (2000), where further references to the original find/site reports can be found. Details about the current location of each object are provided, as is the museum accession number (where stated).
For a full description of how the database was constructed see:
D. Garrow, The space and time of Celtic Art: interrogating the Technologies of Enchantment database. In D. Garrow, C. Gosden & J.D. Hill (eds) Rethinking Celtic Art (Oxbow, Oxford, 2008).
The data was compiled using the published and unpublished sources listed below. In all cases, information was transcribed into a format appropriate for a digital database (except for those taken directly from the pre-existing PAS database).
Sources used in compiling the database
Clarke, R.R. 1954. The Early Iron Age treasure from Snettisham, Norfolk. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 20, 27-86.
Hill, JD. pers. comm. (personal files held at British Museum)
Hunter, F. pers. comm. (personal files updating MacGregor 1972 at National Museum of Scotland)
Hutcheson, N. 2004. Later Iron Age Norfolk: metalwork, landscape and society. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports British Series 361.
Jope, M. 2000. Early Celtic Art of the British Isles. Oxford: Clarendon.
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. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 28, 17-57.
MacGregor, M. 1976. Early Celtic Art in North Britain. Leicester: Leicester University Press.
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. Edinburgh: Department of Archaeology.
Palk, N. 1992. Metal horse harness of the British and Irish Iron Ages. Unpublished DPhil thesis, University of Oxford.
Portable Antiquities Scheme. Accessible at http://www.finds.org.uk/.
Spratling, M. 1972. Southern British decorated bronzes of the Late Pre-Roman Iron Age. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of London.
Stead, I. 1991. The Snettisham treasure: excavations in 1990. Antiquity 65, 447-464.
Stead 1991b. Iron Age cemeteries in East Yorkshire: excavations at Burton Fleming, Rudston, Garton-on-the-Wolds and Kirkburn. London: English Heritage.
Stead, I. 2006. British Iron Age swords and scabbards. London: British Museum.
