‘Celtic’ art

Celtic knotwork is beautiful, its an aesthetic I am 100% here for, but interestingly its not ‘celtic’ at all. Well not in an archaeological sense. Iron Age art work is far more abstract, with beautiful loops and swirls.  

This is the Battersea Shield, dated to middle-late Iron Age. Lots more pretty pictures under the cut.

This style is known as La Tène, and it was prominent in France and Southern Britain in the Iron Age. Here are some other lovely examples of  La Tène metalwork

This is a mid-late Iron Age shield boss, also from London. The design is often interpreted as birds.

Late Iron Age Torc from Ipswitch. Look at the patterns on the ends, its almost hypnotic.  You know what does look like ‘Celtic’ knotwork? Anglo Saxon and Early Medieval art. Its about 5 centuries after the end of the Iron Age in England

This is a page from the Lindisfarne Gospels, dated to c. 700 AD. Much more what the lay person thinks of as Celtic right? 

This is an Anglo Saxon Brooch from the  Pentney Hoard (Norfolk) dated to 800-840 AD.  Look at the scrollwork on the edges. Classic knotwork pattern.  I’m not sure how the styles ended up being so mixed up in the vernacular, but I’m inclined to blame the Victorians, as well as the general confusion about the word ‘Celtic’. 

What I imagine happens on Iron Age sites*

Archaeologist 1 - “Ok, so we found this pit, seems to be a disused grain storage pit that has been repurposed-”

Archaeologist 2- “FOR A FERTILITY CULT”

Archaeologist 1 - “Well I suppose those animal bones could be sacrifices. Right well we also have these postholes forming a structure I think it might be for -”

Archaeologist 2 - “ A FERTILITY CULT”

Archaeologist 1 - “I guess it does kinda look like Romano-British temples if you squint. Right so what about this -” Archaeologist 2 - “FERTILITY CULT” Archaeologist 1 - “You didn’t let me finish” Archaeologist 2 - “Ya but lets be honest. Its always a fertility thing” *I have dug Iron Age sites, I’m just also grumpily reaping the rewards of doing a PhD on Iron Age ‘ritual’ deposition. NOT EVERY THING IS FERTILITY, LOOKING AT YOU CUNLIFFE 

It is very hard to take my research seriously when the site I am reading about is called Wetwang Slack. 

Composite Mummies: Or Why Bronze Age Scotland is Metal as Fuck

So normally when people mention mummies, minds go straight to Egypt, possibly with a detour to Peru. But mummification, the practice of  preserving corpses, was practiced in Bronze Age Scotland! Specifically on the  island of South Uist.

This picture might just look like a skeleton, but DNA testing showed its actually a combination of six different skeletons. The bodies were submerged in a peat bog for long enough to preserve them, stitched together and were reburied about 100 years later. The bodies used to make the mummies weren’t always contemporary either, one of them showed that there was c. 100 years in between some of the individuals used.  We know it must have been mummified because the skeleton is fully articulated -the bones are in the places they would have been in life - which means the soft tissue must still have been present when the person was buried.  There aren’t many confirmed examples of this phenomenon, DNA testing is expensive and destructive, so normally only one element would be sampled unless there is a very good reason to. 

I have started going through the Historic Environment Records to identify sites for my PhD. I am starting to understand why people don’t often use commercial data. 

I think my favorite entry so far has been “ One of the linears was dated to either the middle Iron Age or the Saxon period “ Because the difference between 400 BC and AD 500 is of course trivial.

Commercial data is really valuable, and I do think most commercial units do a very good job, but we clearly need more funding so that companies don’t skip out on things like hiring a god-damned pot specialist to date your site (I had this argument with my bosses regularly on watching briefs and evals when I used to dig). 

Necromancy literally translates as divination from the dead. As an Osteologist I am getting information from skeletons. Hence forth I shall be referring to myself as a Necromancer. I will not be taking further questions at this time

In other news the PhD is going great and I have in no way started asking bones "What the !@&# are you". 

In my defense Zooarch is far harder than human osteo. 

Me: Not everything is a fertility cult! Iron Age Carlshalton: 

(Picture shows two dog skeletons that have been arranged as if they were mating, the interlaced legs and position of the baculum indicate whoever arranged these bodies was quite thorough. The dogs have been deposited in a disused grain storage pit) Me: Ok, that one might be

Photo taken from:   Powell, A.B., Higbee, L., Fitzpatrick, A., Smith, R.S., 2017. Animal bones and broken objects: symbolic deposition at an Iron Age to early Romano-British settlement at Queen Mary’s Hospital, Carshalton. London Archaeologist Spring, 5.  

What are we doing today? The same thing we do everyday! Trying to come up with a better word than ritual to describe weird shit!

I am slightly concerned that typing in the key words "Human Sacrifice" into my university’s library website yielded a self help book.

Out of context academic quotes

“Corpses might even have been placed on the roofs of houses, on convenient rocks or in near by trees - the possibilities are endless” (Dyer 1997)

Today in am I a scientist or a necromancer

Archaeothanatology is one of my main methodologies.

And here I was thinking I was fourth house, not sixth. 

Today I am reading about Roman ideas of Necromancy. I fucking love my field.