Of all the artistic achievements of the Celtic world, none has impressed observers more powerfully than the metalwork. The gold torcs worn by aristocrats, the silver cauldrons of sanctuary and feast, the bronze brooches that fastened the cloak, the iron swords of the warrior elite, and the great hoards of precious metal deposited in bogs and rivers together form a tradition of extraordinary technical sophistication and aesthetic power. To study Celtic metalwork and jewelry is to enter the world of the Celtic smith, a figure of magic and authority in his own society, and to examine the objects through which the warrior aristocracy of the early Iron Age expressed its wealth, its identity, and its relationship with the divine. These objects are the most spectacular surviving evidence of the broader tradition treated in Celtic art and craftsmanship, and they are the principal source for our knowledge of the Hallstatt and La Tène art styles that gave them their distinctive visual form.
The Celtic metalworking tradition developed in close relationship with the broader European Iron Age world and absorbed influences from the Mediterranean and the older Atlantic Bronze Age, yet the result is unmistakably Celtic. From the eighth century BCE to the Roman conquest and beyond, Celtic smiths produced objects of a quality and an originality that rivaled anything in the contemporary Mediterranean, and the surviving corpus remains one of the great treasures of European prehistory.
The Materials of Celtic Metalwork
Celtic craftsmen worked a wide range of metals, with gold, silver, bronze, and iron all playing major roles. Gold, the most prestigious material, was used principally for high-status jewelry and for ceremonial objects. Most Celtic gold came from alluvial deposits in Ireland, Wales, central Europe, and the Iberian Peninsula, and the great gold mines of the Roman period were often continuations of earlier Celtic workings. Theophrastus and Diodorus Siculus both record the enormous quantities of gold available in the Celtic world.
Silver, less prestigious than gold but more abundant, was the workaday material of the Celtic smith, and the bulk of the surviving Celtic metalwork is in silver or in debased silver-copper alloys. The silver mines of the eastern Alps, the Massif Central, the Harz, the Erzgebirge, and the Iberian Peninsula supplied the Celtic world with much of its silver, and the great silver hoards of the late Iron Age document the wealth that flowed through the elite.
Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, was the most widely used of all Celtic metals, and the great majority of surviving Celtic objects are in bronze. Celtic bronzesmiths had access to abundant supplies of copper from the Alps, the Erzgebirge, the Slovak Ore Mountains, the Harz, the Massif Central, Cornwall, and the Iberian Peninsula, and the trade in copper and tin that supported the European Bronze Age continued into the Iron Age.
Iron, although the defining material of the Iron Age, played a smaller role in the surviving corpus of Celtic art, both because iron objects corrode and because the more prestigious objects of the elite were made of the colored metals. The iron swords, spearheads, and tools of the Celtic warrior and farmer are nevertheless of remarkable quality, and the technical mastery of the Celtic smith in working iron was admired by Greek and Roman observers.
The Torc: The Signature Celtic Object
Of all the forms of Celtic personal adornment, the torc, a rigid or nearly rigid neck ring, is the most characteristic and the most distinctively Celtic. Torcs were worn by men and by women, and they appear in the iconography of Celtic art from the Hallstatt period onward. The torc was a marker of status and a sign of religious dedication.
The earliest torcs are simple rings of twisted or braided metal, sometimes with hooked or expanded terminals. By the late Hallstatt period, more elaborate forms had developed, including the rod torc with disc or buffer terminals and the ribbon torc with shaped animal-head ends. The great La Tène torcs represent the height of the goldsmith’s art, with dense compositions of scrolling tendrils, stylized animals, and abstract ornament worked in high relief over a hollow gold core.
Some of the most impressive surviving torcs are continental in origin. The Torc of Trichtingen, found in 1909 in a field near Trichtingen in Baden-Württemberg, is a solid gold neck ring of nearly six kilograms, decorated with intricate openwork designs of stylized animals and human figures in a mixture of late Hallstatt and early La Tène style. The Reinheim torc, found in the famous Reinheim princely burial of the fourth century BCE in Saarland, is a gold ribbon torc with elaborate ornament including stylized female figures, ducks, and tendrils. The Mšecké Žehrovice head from Bohemia, a stone sculptural fragment of the late La Tène period, shows a male head wearing a torc with a clearly visible lyre-shaped terminal.
The British Isles produced some of the most spectacular torcs in the Celtic world. The Snettisham Great Torc, found in 1950 in a field at Snettisham in Norfolk, is a masterpiece of late Iron Age goldwork, made of electrum (a natural gold-silver alloy) and weighing more than a kilogram, with its tightly packed abstract designs of a quality that has been compared to the finest contemporary Greek and Etruscan work. The Sedgeford torc, also from Norfolk, is a similar but smaller example, and the Stirling torc, from the hoard found at the castle, is a magnificent piece of insular La Tène goldwork.
Brooches and Fibulae
The brooch or fibula, a decorative pin used to fasten clothing, was another of the characteristic forms of Celtic personal adornment, and the Celtic brooch developed through a series of distinct regional and chronological styles. The earliest Celtic fibulae are simple safety-pin types derived from late Bronze Age prototypes, but by the early Iron Age the Celtic smiths had developed a range of distinctive local forms, including the two-piece fibula with a separately made pin, the boat-shaped fibula, and the arc fibula with its characteristic arched bow.
The middle La Tène period saw the development of the La Tène I fibula, a distinctive form with a long, low bow, a foot that curves back on itself, and a spring at the head. This form evolved into the elaborate La Tène II and La Tène III fibulae of the late period, with their richly ornamented bows, their often zoomorphic or anthropomorphic terminals, and their dense coverage of curvilinear ornament. The continental Marnian fibulae from the great sanctuary of Ribemont-sur-Ancre in Picardy and the lake-dwelling fibulae from Switzerland are typical examples.
The brooches of the late Celtic and Romano-Celtic world continued the La Tène tradition but absorbed classical and provincial Roman elements. The dragonesque brooches of the late La Tène period, with their animal-headed terminals, are among the most striking examples, and the trumpet brooches of the Romano-British period show the persistence of older forms into the Roman provincial world. The most spectacular Celtic brooches of all, however, are the tara brooches of the early medieval Irish tradition, pseudo-penannular brooches of cast silver with elaborate filigree, amber, and glass inlay, that represent the continuation of the older metalworking tradition in a Christian context.
Swords, Scabbards, and Warrior Equipment
The sword was the most prestigious weapon of the Celtic warrior elite, and the surviving corpus of Celtic swords and scabbards important sources for our knowledge of Celtic art. The Celtic long sword, developed in the late Hallstatt period and refined throughout the La Tène period, was a weapon of some 60 to 85 centimeters in length, designed primarily for cutting, and accompanied by a decorated iron scabbard of bronze or iron with applied ornamental fittings.
The decoration of Celtic scabbards is one of the great achievements of Celtic metalwork. The continental anthropoid scabbards of the early La Tène period, with their human-figure ornament applied in openwork bronze, are among the earliest examples, and the middle La Tène scabbards of the Waldalgesheim period show some of the most elaborate curvilinear ornament of any Celtic objects. The famous Bermatingen scabbard from Lake Constance, the Weiskirchen scabbard from Saarland, and the Vienne scabbard from the Rhône are among the masterpieces of the genre. Insular La Tène scabbards from Britain and Ireland, although less well preserved, are equally elaborate, and the Wandsworth and Battersea scabbards from the Thames are typical examples.
The iron swords themselves are of remarkable quality. The technique of pattern-welding, in which strips of iron of different carbon content are forge-welded together to produce a blade of unusual strength and flexibility, was developed in the late Hallstatt period and perfected by Celtic smiths. The technique was later adopted by Germanic and Anglo-Saxon smiths and would remain a feature of European sword-making for centuries. The famous long swords and curved daggers of the eastern Celtic and Dacian regions, including the sica of later Thracian and Dacian tradition, show the degree to which Celtic smiths could adapt to and influence the traditions of their neighbors.
Cauldrons, Vessels, and Ceremonial Objects
The Celtic cauldron, a large vessel for the storage and serving of food and drink, was a central object in the social and religious life of the Celtic world, and the surviving corpus of Celtic cauldrons and fragments of cauldrons striking categories of Celtic metalwork. The most famous of the continental examples is the Gundestrup cauldron, found in 1891 in a peat bog near Gundestrup in Himmerland, Denmark. Made of thirteen separate silver plates, both worked in high relief and plain, the cauldron is decorated with images of Celtic gods, warriors, and sacrificial scenes that give an unparalleled insight into the iconography of late Iron Age Celtic religion.
Other notable Celtic cauldrons include the Brolos cauldron from Jutland, the Llyn Fawr cauldron from the Rhondda valley in Wales, and the cauldron fragments from the sanctuary of Ribemont-sur-Ancre in Picardy. The use of cauldrons in Celtic ritual practice, including the cauldron of inspiration in the Welsh and Irish mythological traditions, and the Dagda’s cauldron of plenty in the Irish tales, is well attested in the literary sources.
Other important categories of Celtic metalwork include the situlae of the Hallstatt period, the flagon or Schnabelkanne of the early La Tène period, the drinking horns of the late La Tène period, and the great bronze candelabra of the late Celtic sanctuaries, of which the Bouchaud plaque from Allier in central France is a particularly elaborate example.
Hoards and Votive Deposits
One of the most distinctive features of the Celtic archaeological record is the deposition of precious objects in bogs, rivers, springs, and votive pits. These deposits give us much of our knowledge of Celtic metalwork, and the patterns of deposition tell us a great deal about the religious and social life of the Celtic world.
The Broighter Gold hoard, found in 1896 in a sand dune near Broighter in County Londonderry, is a hoard of late Iron Age gold objects including a magnificent gold boat with mast, oars, and steering oar, a small gold torc, a gold bowl, and a set of gold ingots. The hoard was probably deposited in the first century BCE, and it gives a vivid sense of the wealth and the technical mastery of the late Iron Age Celtic aristocracy of Ireland. The Llyn Cerrig Bach hoard from Anglesey, found in 1943, is a hoard of more than a hundred items including weapons, tools, chariot fittings, and a series of slave chains, all probably deposited in the first century BCE as a votive offering to a local deity. The Stanwick hoard from North Yorkshire, the Polden Hill hoard from Somerset, and the Llyn Fawr hoard from Wales are other major insular examples.
Continental Celtic hoards include the Biber and Hüfingen hoards from southern Germany, the Ham Hill and Hounslow hoards from southern England, the Villers-Semeuse and Bouqueval hoards from northern Gaul, and the Türkheim and Manching hoards from Bavaria. The Manching treasure, with its thousands of Celtic coins, is one of the largest numismatic finds from the ancient world. Most hoards were probably votive offerings to deities of water, of the underworld, or of the local landscape.
Techniques of Celtic Metalwork
The technical mastery of the Celtic smith striking features of the surviving objects. Celtic metalworkers developed and perfected a wide range of techniques, including raising, sinking, repoussé, granulation, filigree, inlay, gilding, and enameling. The technique of raising, in which a thin sheet of metal is hammered over a form to produce a hollow vessel of regular shape, was used to produce Celtic situlae, cauldrons, and other vessels. The related technique of sinking, in which a sheet of metal is hammered into a depression to produce a dish or bowl, was also widely practiced.
The technique of repoussé, in which a design is hammered into a sheet of metal from the back to produce a relief on the front, was used to produce some of the most elaborate Celtic decorative panels, including those of the Gundestrup cauldron. The technique of granulation, in which tiny spheres of gold are fused to a metal surface, was used on many of the finest Celtic gold objects, including the Snettisham Great Torc. The technique of filigree, in which delicate wires of gold or silver are soldered to a metal surface, was also widely practiced.
The technique of enameling, in which colored glass is fused to a metal surface, was developed by Celtic smiths and used to produce some of the most spectacular Celtic objects of the late Iron Age. The Celtic enamel of the late La Tène period, including the Worlidge and Bucklesham objects from Suffolk, shows the technique at its height, with brilliant red, yellow, blue, and white enamel set into recessed cells in bronze. The technique was later adopted by Roman provincial craftsmen and eventually passed into the early medieval enameling tradition of the British Isles, where it contributed to the development of the Cloisonné enamels of the insular art tradition.
Related Topics
- The Hallstatt and La Tène art styles that gave Celtic metalwork its distinctive visual vocabulary are examined in their historical and regional context.
- The Celtic stone carving and high crosses represent a parallel tradition of monumental Celtic art.
- The Celtic knotwork and symbolism of later Celtic design is closely tied to the ornamental vocabulary developed in metalwork.
- The Celtic religion, mythology, and spirituality provides the ritual context for much of the deposition of precious metalwork in Celtic society.
- The history of the Celtic civilization places the development of Celtic metalwork in its chronological and political context.