Iron Age Manufacturing: Production of Needed and Desired Goods

Gussage All Saints, Dorset, a typical excavation with plenty of posthole evidence, which produced little structural understanding

Sketch Plan of the Late Iron Age building at Gussage all Saints.

Most buildings are missed because archaeologists are looking for specific things; at Gussage All Saints, Geoff Wainwright was looking for roundhouses, so he missed the main late Iron Age structure. It. The Gussage All Saints building belongs to a class of annular roofed structures with ancient antecedents and has a massive timber outer wall set in a trench, topped by an annular roof. It is defensive in character, and in common with structures of this type, it’s not clear how the central space was treated. It could have been open, but it’s also the ideal place for the stairs.

Most Iron Age communities produced their own basic ceramics for food preparation and storage, textiles for clothing, and everyday implements of wood, bone, and antler. Many smelted local ore to make iron. In some regions where high-quality ore was abundant, larger-scale, specialized production developed early, as in parts of Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany.

Since the constituents of bronze, copper and tin, are available in only very limited locations, for communities to have access to bronze to make personal ornaments, the metal had to be brought in from outside. Bronze objects are abundant in graves throughout the continent, showing that most communities had means for acquiring the metal, through the network of connected settlements. Molds for casting ornaments are relatively common on settlement sites, and their presence indicates that in many communities, someone knew the techniques of casting the metal. The molds were most often made of sandstone, and they may have been crafted by specialists and acquired by many communities for their own use.

The scale of iron production grew substantially during the Iron Age. By around 500 or 400 BC (it varied by region), iron had replaced bronze for tools, and by the time of the oppida in the final two centuries BC, very large quantities were being produced. Sizable numbers of iron implements are found at sites such as Manching and Stradonice, and extensive slag heaps attest to major production at many sites, including Kelheim on the Danube River in Bavaria. Metallographic analyses show that from the beginning of the Iron Age, some blacksmiths had learned how to make steel blades by alloying carbon with iron. By the final two centuries BC, a large proportion of the cutting tools were being produced of high-quality steel.

Until the time of the oppida, almost all pottery in western and northern Europe was handmade. Limited use of the wheel is evident at some Early Iron Age centers, but the technology was not further developed at that time. Only during the last two centuries BC do we find substantial proportions of pottery made on the fast-turning wheel, both on the continent and in southern Britain. This change indicates that pottery production shifted from a domestic craft to a highly specialized one, probably practiced by full-time potters. The fine, wheel-turned ceramics supplied not only the inhabitants of the centers, but also people in the smaller settlements in the countryside.

Recent excavations at many small settlements have produced important evidence that economic processes that had been believed to be largely restricted to the oppida, such as making pottery on the wheel and minting coins, were in fact carried out by numerous small communities. At Berching-Pollanten in southern Bavaria, a village community produced wheel-made pottery, fibulae, coins, and substantial quantities of iron, rather than depending for those goods upon the industries at the nearby oppida of Manching or Kelheim. In southern England, residents of a small farming community at Gussage All Saints cast ornate bronze ornaments for chariots and horse harness fittings. Such discoveries necessitate fundamental rethinking of ideas about how the Late Iron Age economy operated.

OPPIDA

The oppidum of Camulodunum (Colchester, Essex) protected by a series of massive dykes, constructed at different periods during the late Iron Age. In the north-west corner of the map is the earlier oval hillfort of Pitchbury.

In a number of places in eastern and southern Britain large new open settlements were appearing, loosely called oppida. The hillforts in these areas were for the most part abandoned, although a few larger ones were adapted. There is little precise agreement on what constituted an oppidum. For some they were settlements of large size, often on low-lying ground and protected by linear dykes. Suetonius, writing of Vespasian’s campaign in AD 43, refers to the capture of 20 oppida in the Dorset area. Such a comment can only refer to large hillforts. It would seem that they were semi-urban sites, minting their own coinage, producing a variety of commodities and trading in imported goods of many kinds. They are often referred to as administrative and royal capitals. Some two dozen large oppida recognized in southern Britain include Verulamium (St Albans, Herts), Colchester (Essex), Chichester (Sussex), Bagendon (Glos) and perhaps hillforts like Maiden Castle (Dorset). In the north it seems reasonable to see Stanwick (Yorks), Traprain Law (East Lothian), and possibly Eildon Hill North (Roxburgh), as related sites. Some smaller, lowlying sites, which seem to have replaced local hillforts, might also be considered. Dyke Hills (Oxon) seem to have replaced Wittenham Clumps (Oxon) for example.

In a number of cases British oppida are characterized by large scale linear dykes though these were unknown on the continent. At Colchester, Silchester, Chichester and Verulamium these dykes cover a number of kilometres, not always in a pattern comprehensible to modern eyes. They may indicate phases of expansion. The area within them was not totally occupied with settlement. Many different activities were taking place, with fields and enclosures separating them. Evidence so far available does not really suggest a close-knit urban community, and yet the presence of many imported goods, rich burials and the minting of coins, Iron Age shrines and rectangular buildings all point to something bigger than just a local market centre.

A complex of dykes marks the landward side of Colchester (Camulodunum), Essex, where development probably began around the Gosbeck’s farm site and then expanded northeast to take in Sheepen. Excavations have revealed circular and rectangular buildings and a ritual site, surrounded by pits and drainage ditches. Much imported pottery and amphorae were found, together with clay moulds indicating the remains of a mint. The imports may well have reached Colchester by way of a port on the River Colne. Metal working and pottery making were amongst the local industries represented.

Occupation at Verulamium (St Albans, Herts) began at the end of the first century BC on a plateau west of the later Roman town, known as Prae Wood. Here Mortimer Wheeler found traces of a rather primitive settlement with many circular huts, pits and gullies enclosed by strong boundary earthworks and larger linear dykes, one of which still runs between the Ver and Lea valleys. Outside the settlement were at least two Aylesford-type cemeteries and the site of a mint in the vicinity of the later Roman forum.

At Braughing (Skeleton Green, Herts) initial settlement, perhaps as early as the third century BC, might have centred on a small earthwork known as Gatesbury Wood. By about 20 BC occupation had expanded rapidly to the south and west of Gatesbury, on both sides of the River Rib, until it covered about 100 ha. (247 acres). Analysis of fragments of coin moulds shows that silver coins were minted at Braughing. Linear dykes are missing; only small-scale enclosure ditches are known. Natural features may have taken their place. The scattered nature of the excavations has revealed isolated areas of settlement, which include rectangular buildings, roads, storage pits and the inevitable gullies. A very wide range of imported pottery, including Gallo- Belgic wares, was found, together with metalwork and Celtic coins.

Whether some of the large hillforts should be considered as oppida is open to question. Although the majority efforts were abandoned by the first century BC some were increased in strength and, as Wheeler describes at Maiden Castle (Dorset), ‘the whole enclosure was packed as closely as might be with dwellings and storage pits; the place was wholly urban in the density of its population and had nothing of the straggling character of village settlement’. At South Cadbury (Somerset) Leslie Alcock has similarly written, ‘within the defences, storage pits and timber round-houses proliferated. The settlement can no longer be considered as a village, still less as a hamlet, it is reasonable to describe it as a town.’ Clearly both these forts had become industrial and commercial centres, as well as providing permanent residential facilities. Caesar describes defeating Cassivellaunus at an oppidum somewhere in Hertfordshire. From his account he is clearly describing a hillfort such as Ravensburgh near Hexton (Herts). In northern England, Stanwick (Yorks) is by far the largest of the oppida to have been identified. Though small in comparison to Colchester, it is 300 ha. (741 acres) in extent. Its size and the nature of the terrain would have made it ideal for cattle production. Like the sites in the south it was also most probably a centre for the import and distribution of fine, continental pottery, amphorae and glassware.

In Scotland two hillforts have been singled out as being of oppida potential, though their minute size shows that they are not in the same class as those in the south. Traprain Law (East Lothian) increased its size during the late Iron Age, eventually reaching 16 ha. (39.5 acres) by the Roman conquest. It seems to have been the capital of the local tribe, the Votadini, and continued to be used during Roman times. The identification of Eildon Hill North (Roxburgh) is even more doubtful (plate 61). It is a complex site also covering 16 ha. (39.5 acres) on the top of a great dome-shaped hill. It was enlarged at least three times and eventually enclosed over 500 hut platforms that may have housed up to 3,000 people. This was the headquarters of the Selgovae, and appears to have been abandoned after the arrival of the Romans in AD 79. No particular hillforts in Wales have been singled out as oppida, but a dramatically sited hilltop fortress such as Tre’r Ceiri (Gwynedd) might be a serious contender. Probably dating from the end of the first century BC until the fourth century AD, it is packed with 120 stone-built huts, most of which belong to the later years of occupation.

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NORICUM

Oppidum (plural oppida) is a Latin word meaning the main settlement in any administrative area of ancient Rome. The word is derived from the earlier Latin ob-pedum, "enclosed space," possibly from the Proto-Indo-European *pedóm-, "occupied space" or "footprint." examples above

Julius Caesar described the larger Celtic Iron Age settlements he encountered in Gaul as oppida, and the term is now used to describe the large pre-Roman towns that existed all across Western and Central Europe. Many oppida grew from hill forts, although by no means did all of them have significant defensive functions. Oppida surrounded by earthworks are known as enclosed oppida. The main features of the oppida are the architectural construction of the walls and gates, the spacious layout and commanding view of the surrounding area.

The development of oppida was a milestone in the urbanisation of the continent as they were the first large settlements north of the Mediterranean that could genuinely be described as towns. Caesar pointed out that each tribe of Gaul would have several oppida but that they were not all of equal importance, perhaps implying some form of hierarchy.

In conquered lands, the Romans used the infrastructure of the oppida to administer the empire, and many became full Roman towns. This often involved a change of location from the hilltop into the plain.

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Noricum, in ancient geography, was a Celtic kingdom (perhaps better described as a federation of, by tradition, twelve tribes) stretching over the area of today's Austria and Slovenia. It became a province of the Roman Empire. It was bounded on the north by the Danube, on the west by Raetia and Vindelicia, on the east by Pannonia, on the south by Italia and Dalmatia. It roughly corresponds to the greater part of modern Styria and Carinthia, and part of Austria west of Vienna, Bavaria and Salzburg.

Characteristics

The original population appears to have consisted of Pannonians (a people kin to the Illyrians), who after the great emigration of the Gauls became subordinate to various Celto-Ligurians tribes, chief amongst them being the Taurisci, probably called Norici by the Romans from their capital Noreia (Neumarkt in der Steiermark).

The country is mountainous and the soil relatively poor except in the southeastern parts, but it proved rich in iron and supplied material for the manufacturing of arms in Pannonia, Moesia and northern Italy. The famous Noric steel was largely used in the making of Roman weapons ("Noricus ensis," Horace, Odes, i. 16. o).

The inhabitants were a brave and warlike people, who paid more attention to cattle-breeding than to agriculture, although it is probable that the Romans, by draining the marshes and cutting down timber, increased the fertility of the soil. Gold and salt were also found in considerable quantities; the plant called saliunca (the wild or Celtic nard) grew in abundance, and was used as a perfume (Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia xxi. 20.43). Noricum was the southern outpost of the northern or Celtic peoples and the starting-point of their attacks upon Italy during the second half of the Iron Age when the celts become powerful over another cultures as illyrians. It is in Noricum that we first hear of almost all these Celtic invaders. Archaeological research, particularly in the cemeteries of Hallstatt, less than 40 km from Noreia, have shown that there was a vigorous civilization there centuries before recorded history, but we need to be careful because the Hallstatt civilization were an cultural manifestation previous to the celtic invasions and are close to the illyrians who were the real inhabitants of this region. The Hallstatt cemeteries contained weapons and ornaments from the Bronze age, through the period of transition, up to the fully-developed Iron age in fact the first half of the Iron Age have as principal manifestation on central Europe to the "Hallstatt culture" with their particular plastic style different from the late celtic style from "La Téne" culture. Ridgeway has made a strong case for the theory that the cradle of the Homeric Achaeans was in Noricum and neighbouring areas.

Language

The Noric language was a Continental Celtic language. It is attested in only two fragmentary inscriptions, which do not provide enough information for any conclusions about the nature of the language to be drawn.

Roman rule

Noricum was incorporated into the Roman Empire in 16 BC. For a long time the Noricans enjoyed independence under princes of their own and carried on commerce with the Romans. In 48 BC they took the side of Julius Caesar (circa 100 BC-44 BC) in the civil war against Pompey (106 BC-48 BC). In 16 BC, having joined with the Pannonians in invading Histria, they were defeated by Publius Silius, proconsul of Illyricum. Thereafter, Noricum was called a province, although it was not organized as such. It remained a kingdom with the title regnum Noricum and was under the control of an imperial procurator. It was not until the reign of Antoninus Pius that the legion II Pia (afterwards called Italica) was stationed at Noricum, and the commander of the legion became the governor of the province. Under the reign of Emperor Claudius (41-54) the Noricum Kingdom was ultimately incorporated to the Roman Empire apparently without offering resistance.

Under Diocletian (245-313), Noricum was divided into Noricum ripense ("Noricum along the river," the northern part southward from the Danube) and Noricum mediterraneum ("Noricum nearer the sea", the southern, more mountainous district). Their border with each other ran along the central part of the eastern Alps. Each division was under a praeses, and both belonged to the diocese of Illyria in the Praetorian prefecture of Italy.

The Roman colonies and chief towns were Virunum (Maria Saal near Klagenfurt, medieval Clagenfurtum, Celovec), Flavia Solva (near Leibnitz), Ovilava (Wels), Celeia (Celje), Juvavum (Salzburg), Lauriacum (Lorch), at the mouth of the Enns, the ancient Anisus).

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