72574 S5004016

[ Cmns and potuer w Lau Iron Age Rruam 30

musi be madę. We should be wary of making too strong an association betwcen distribution arras and circulation zunes. Most of ihe gold lound was not (r um settlemeut sites at all, but as individual or muliiple finds m isolated lucations. This suggcsts chat much of che gold ended up in che ground chrougb delibcrate votivt acta. If this is che case, che distribution may be showing the extent uf oommuoitiec which madę propiriatary metalwork deposits, in contrast to the communitics of the Wessejc chalklands, where different propmaton acts took place in disused gram storagc- j >ite. Sucb a suggeshon could be reinforced by the large nutnber of metalwork deposits found in the Thames, whicb include swords, shields and other artefacts which probably datę to the later Iron Age (Fitzpatrick 1984). So the distribution of \ ouve contexts should not always be directly equated with circulation areas. This cauuon n, underlined by the fact that the best stratihed early potin comes not from the core distribution area at all, but from Maiden Castle in Dorset, and also by the fact that Briush A2, B, C and D, same of the earliest British issues derived from GaUo-1'jgic C, are found not in the lower Thames Valley but completely outside this area t -ng the southem coast in Hampshire and Dorset. I would suspect that Gallo-Belgit-C had been present herc, but the propmaton' traditions which led to the larger- cale deposition of metalwork elsewfaere oniy gradualły spread into this area.

So coinage arrived, but how did peoplereact to this new medium? Herc it is -_>rth examming Gallo-Belgic B a little morę closely. Their original description as Gallo-Belgic coins' by Allen is a sligfat misnomer. Whereas the ąuarter staters of GtJio-Belgic B are found in approxunately equal numbers on either side of the channel, the staters are oniy secureh* provenanced in Britain (Fitzpatrick 1997:7). Nash (1987:110) and Haselgrove (1987:79) would both be quite happy to see them as being British issues (as maybe some of the Gallo-Belgic A), however the marne has now stuck. If Gallo-Belgic B are the earliest British issues, then their imagery is particular-ly lmportant. Gallo-Belgic B were minted using old obverse dies of Apollo from Gallo-Belgic A coins, together with freshly cut reverse dies of horses. Yet the Apollo dies had been deliberateły defaced with a senes of slashes. It is almost as if the image of the horse was acceptable, but the image representmg a human was unacceptable. This is a very strong statement. After all, if new dies could be cut for the horse image, new Apollo dies could have been cut as well, had the will been there. Is this firsi indigenous gold coin a reaction to polmcal developments elsewhere within Britain? Could it be a statement against the symbolic appropriation of the horse, which was taking place as suggested above? In the long run, resistance was useless; all of the subsequent Briush issues followed the head/horse model slavishly, with the excep-tion of oniy a few sporadic uniface issues.

Alongside Gallo-Belgic A-C, other issues appeared in Britain. Gallo-Belgic D (Sch.i3:VA65-69:SE4-5) had a far morę Coastal distribution than A-C. At an unknown datę, but probably in the early first century BC, a series of coins arrived from Armorica (Cunliffe and de Jersey 1997) which had a similarly Coastal distribution, with an emphasis on the south. It is curious that these two series had such a different depositional pattem from the rest, but then they also had a different form of imagery. The Armorican issues had unfamiliar, human-headed horses, whilst the

Gallo-Belgic D had an ubbcurt patiem uhmondy denved from oAer Gallo-Belgic coinc, but very different to them. The lad' uf the dawne bcad^,bone image familiar to a British audienne perhaps resiricted the use of theae turni

Gold cum was not the oniy new aymbuhe medium m tłuc power gamę. A becund which arrived tn Britain alongside com, was the gold torc. In Gaul we ftnd theae occasionalh hoarded together from the later second cerrtury onwards, for oample in Ac Tayac ¹ Gironde>, Lc Gatilion (Jersey) and Beringen hoards 'Limburg, GBoudet 1987; Fitzpatrick and Megaw 1987; Van Impe et al. 1997). In Britain there are not at many; nowever, a com was bmh mto the terminal head of one of the large Snettisham toroa ■ Sealey 1979)- The two farma of gold wat probabh nmmaieiy rełated. łn the Tayac noard Ac torc weighed o.762 kg- ix tira-t the mean weigfat of rhe local gold Ktaten 'Kellner J970; Haseigrove 19842:86; Perhaps coins wat occasionalły mehed down to be madę mto tum, or the other way aroundł Despite this metrological fink, che two could also serue wety different purpones. Tores were retained and wam to Abplay the status of the leader, whereas com could be distribuzed to articulate sociai relatłons. Both forms of goić reiated to different easpresnons af power and status. The amval of thete new medi2 musi have had a strong sociai impact My readmg m uuld wiew tores as the insignia of kmgsinp. or at least af the paramoum imeage-■ hiist coinage represented ponable and transferabk symbok af that authamy. łf ths a truć, then the second cenzury sram. have been a remarkabie transi ormation m the outward display and amcnlahon af authanry.

In Britain the largest number af tores have been found m Basi Anglia, pamcularh at Snettisham (Norfolk) (Ciarkę 1954: Sealey 3979). at the north-wesi bp af land overlookmg the ńdal mięt af the ^ ash. Not too far from these were other finds at Nonh Creakr, Sedgeford and Bawsey. Other mułnpłe finds come from Ips»icfa Suffolk) and Ulceb}’ (T .incornsbire). aiso boifa by the coast. These were all ahnosi certami} deHberate vonve deposits. Other tores havr been found at odd snes across the country, from Netherund in Scotland down to Hengstbury on the souA coast, and possibh also Westhampnen Trrzpamck 3997197,. The ⁴value' locked up m these tores could be esrremely large; the 1990 Snettisham finds alone would haue producedin excessaf3000 staters' worcnofgold ^rStead 1990;Lane 1991;Northowrr 1992:268).

Other artefacts conraming gold arc rare, largely imuteri 10 gold thread m doming, from a select number of high-status graves discussed further in chapter 7. This sudden arrival of gold clearly would have allowed power to be displayed and arncu-lated in new ways.

The development of coinage in Britain

Although Ac produebon of gold com in Bntain probabh' began wiA same af Ac Gallo-Belgic A-C issues, Ac firn clearly indigenous gold coin was British A, found an Ae souA and east ofBritain. These imitated Gallo-Belgic C, Aough the image of Ae horse had by Ais stage become cven morę disjointed. Later issues devełoped Ais form of abstraction, umil eventually a series of regional coin tradicions developed The entire relational sequence can be envisaged as a fiamily tree; one reconstrucoon