Iron Age Flashcards
Iron Age date
500 BC - 400 AD
Name of people
Celtic people
Designs
La Tène style
Iron Age Artefacts
- Turoe Stone
- Castle strange stone
- Corleck head
- Tandragee idol
- Broighter collar
- Loughnashade trumpet
- Petrie crown
The Celts
- 500 BC - celts from mainland Europe started settling in Ireland
- Introduced mining + working iron
- Celtic language
- Romans happy to trade, never invaded - celtic culture survived in Ireland
La Tène style
- Developed by Celts in Switzerland, France, Germany ~500 BC
- Influences of Greek + Etruscan plant motifs
- Style named after lakeside site at La Tène, Switzerland where Celtic artefacts were found
La Tène motifs
Spiral Leaf Shape Pelta Scroll Trumpet shape Triskele Stylized bird's head
Turoe Stone - Form
- Rounded Connemara granite boulder
- 1.68m in height
- Deposited by a glacier
- Vertical sides + spherical top
Turoe Stone - Function
- Pagan rituals?
- Quality of decoration suggests importance
Turoe Stone - Decoration
- Stepped pattern around base
- Curvilinear La Tène decorations
- Four separate panels
- Motifs inc: leaf shapes, triskeles, spirals, circles, trumpet ends
Turoe Stone - Stone Carving Techniques
- Partly smoothed surface w/ iron chisels (‘dressing the stone’)
- Bg around motifs carved away - contrasting positive + negative shapes
- Stepped pattern around base has been incised
Turoe Stone example
Co. Galway
Loughnashade Trumpet example
Co. Armagh
found in a bog where ancient lake of Loughnashade had been found
Loughnashade Trumpet - Form
-Consists of mouthpiece, decorative disk around bell rim, two curved tubes joined by a ring
Loughnashade Trumpet - Function
- Offering to pagan gods?
- Used during pagan rituals?
- War trumpet?
Loughnashade Trumpet - Decoration
- Only disc is decorated
- Raised curvilinear La Tène motifs
- Disc divided symmetrically into 4 quarters (mirror images of each other)
- Spiral motifs end in raised bosses
Loughnashade Trumpet - Metalworking techniques
- Made from sheet bronze rolled into 2 cylinders
- Sealed lengthwise by rivets
- Attached to band of bronze on inside
- Decoration applied using repoussé
Broighter Hoard
Consists of Broither Collar, two gold chains, bowl of beaten sheet gold, small model boat, two twisted torcs
Chasing/Embossing
Opposite of repoussé. Refine front by sinking metal Eg. Petrie Crown from Iron Age
Broighter Collar example
Limavady, Co. Derry
Broighter Collar - Form
- Consists of two semicircular cylinders
- Hinge once joined two cylinders
- Two-part locking device at terminals
Broighter Collar - Function
- Ornamental collar worn to indicate status
- Fastened around neck by locking device
- Possibly worn for pagan rituals/going into battle
- Offering to sea god Mannanán/other deity
Broigther Collar - Decoration
- Curvilinear La Tène style with interlocking S-shaped scrolls + trumpet motifs
- Spirals + stylised foliage
- Textured cross hatching in bg
Broighter Collar - Metalworking techniques
- Rectangular gold sheets decorated using chasing technique - rolled into a cylinder + soldered together at seams
- Some of spiral-like projections soldered on
- Bg hatching incised using pointed scriber/compass tool
Petrie Crown example
???
Petrie Crown - Form
- Two linked rectangular pieces of a band, may have gone around a person’s head
- Two flat circular discs in each rectangle
- Two concave circular discs attached to band at base in front
- Comical horn behind one of discs
Petrie Crown - Function
- Small holes on band suggest - originally stitched to leather
- Elaborate headdress?
- Fertility rituals?
Petrie Crown - Decoration
- Repetitive symmetrical decoration
- Crown in curvilinear La Tène style
- Red enamel stud on raised central boss of one disc
- Enamel studs/beads originally would have been placed in eyes of stylized birds’ heads
- Spirals on horn, base band + two concave discs
Petrie Crown - Metalworking techniques
- Sheet bronze cut to shape
- Horn folded into conical shape + secured with rivets & solder
- Birds’ heads have holes drilled into eyes
- Outlines raised by chasing around them
