Posted on 03/13/2008 2:23:59 PM PDT by blam
Silver of the Iceni
The traditional image is of backward, hostile, bluepainted hordes led by a red-haired fury. Unlike the Celtic sophisticates of the South East, with their wheel-thrown tablewares and imported wines, the Norfolk Iceni were rural primitives. Or were they? Megan Dennis, specialist min Late Iron Age metalwork, pays tribute to the high culture of Boudica’s people.
The Iceni are famous forn two things – Boudica and gold. Little else is known of this society that existed in the shadow-lands between the Iron Age and the Roman periods in Norfolk, Suffolk, and north-east Cambridgeshire. Archaeological evidence seems to suggest they were bumbling and backward compared to their southern neighbours. They lived in uniform agricultural communities. Their settlements were unenclosed. Their way of life was simple. They still used locally produced handmade pottery.
This picture is one-sided. New research on Late Iron Age East Anglia has revealed evidence for a complex society, fascinating politics, and above all a lively and fast-changing relationship with near neighbours, with the Continent, and with Rome. Past interpretations of the Iceni were based on the evidence of occasional Roman writings and limited archaeology. The Romans wrote very little about the Iceni. Julius Caesar described them as the Cenimagni or ‘Great Iceni’. Most Roman writing about them, of course, concerns their most famous ruler: Boudica.
Barbarians or sophisticates?
‘In stature she was very tall,’ says Dio Cassius, in a passage designed to chill his readers’ spines, ‘in appearance most terrifying, in the glance of her eye most fierce, and her voice was harsh. A great mass of the tawniest hair fell to her hips. Around her neck was a large golden necklace. And she wore a tunic of divers colours over which a thick mantle was fastened with a brooch.’ This short description is the only evidence we have for the physical appearance of the woman who has coloured the interpreation of the Iceni since they were first discussed by the antiquarian William Camden in 1586.
But what about everyone else? For information about the Iceni as a whole we depend entirely on archaeology. Certainly the pottery was basic. Made from local clays and formed by hand without using a wheel, it is neither pretty nor technologically advanced. Nor did the Iceni build grand monuments like the hillforts known in other parts of Britain. Archaeologists have argued, therefore, that the Iceni were marginal – unimportant in the bigger picture and pretty backward in terms of technology and social development. When the Romans appeared on the scene, it seems, the simpleminded Iceni were first gulled into a political contract with them, then got shafted, and in response exploded into a furious rebellion under Boudica.
But if the Iceni were so backward, so removed from trade routes and contact, where did they get the raw materials for their beautiful objects? What the Iceni were good at was working gold and silver into torcs, brooches, bracelets, and coins. But where was the raw material coming from? And how did the Iceni get the knowledge and skills to work precious metals into such beautiful artefacts?
Gold had been in use for thousands of years and is likely to have been recycled from earlier objects. But the Iceni made East Anglia’s first ever silver artefacts. There are no silver deposits in the region and the metal must therefore have been imported. To understand where the Iceni’s silver came from we need to look closely at the objects themselves.
Torcs, coins, and ornaments
One of the most common types of silver objects made and used by the Iceni was the torc. These large rings were worn around the neck like a type of rigid necklace. They were made in all sorts of different designs – from a very simple type made from a few twisted bars of silver with the ends looped round to form terminals, to a much more ornate item made from many twisted wires and with elaborate terminals decorated with graceful, swooping designs.
The Iceni also made a series of silver coins depicting different animals and people important to their society. You can see faces, horses, boars, and more abstract patterns on Icenian coins. Some even have writing on them – the first writing in Britain. We are not sure what all the words mean, but we can identify a few of the references. ECEN, for example, denotes the Iceni, and RI PRASTO must be King Prasutagus, the client-king who was Boudica’s husband, and whose death precipitated the events leading to rebellion. These coins are tiny – only a centimetre across. The ability to create this beautiful art in such small spaces must not be underestimated.
The Iceni also created silver pins, bracelets, brooches, and religious items. They used silver as decoration on everyday objects like brooches to make them look posher. So we know that their silversmiths were manufacturing a wide range of often highly accomplished and elaborately decorated artefacts. And we know that this had never happened before in East Anglia. So where was the silver coming from?
To answer this question we can look at the metallic ‘recipes’ the Iceni used in their silver. Most silver objects are not pure silver they are a mixture of silver, copper, and sometimes other metals. By identifying exactly what recipes the Iceni were using we might get closer to finding out where the silver was from. We can work out what ingredients are used in a silver coin or torc by using an electron microprobe. This instrument is really quite simple. It fires small particles (electrons) at a metallic object. These electrons interact with the silver and copper atoms in the object and excite them. The excited electrons have extra energy which they need to get rid of. They do this by emitting X-rays. The silver atoms emit a different type of X-ray from that of the copper atoms. By measuring the number of different types of X-rays thrown back from the object we can work out how much silver and other metals it contains.
After analysing over 100 Icenian silver objects and comparing the results with those of other scientists working on other material from elsewhere, we discover that late prehistoric silver objects tend to contain less silver the later in date they are. The original silver used by the Iceni was impure, and there seems little doubt that it was recycled. Then the Icenian silversmiths discovered for themselves that they could dilute the metal by adding copper. So far so good. But where was the source of the silver used in the earliest Icenian artefacts?
Boudica: a would-be Roman queen?
The very earliest coins – roughly mid 1st century BC – have a silver content identical to that of Continental and Roman coins made at the same time. The Iceni, it seems, were importing Continental and/or Roman coins to melt down and make their own objects. We can only speculate as to how it arrived – whether through trade, gift-exchange, plunder, or payments to mercenaries fighting in Gaul. The theory is strengthened if we look at the types of images used on Icenian, Continental and Roman coins. Many of the early Icenian types can be matched to similar types from Northern France. It is unlikely that similar coins were made using similar recipes and images on the Continent and by the Iceni merely by chance. The Iceni were not only importing coins from Europe, melting them down, and making their own objects. They were also copying European designs.
What does this mean for the old argument that the Iceni were backward and marginal, with little contact with the rest of the world? It means it is wrong. Boudica did not grow up without external contacts. She was part of a wide social and cultural network that crisscrossed Europe. She did not hate the Romans because they upset her way of life or altered her outlook. The Iceni were, in a sense, part of the Roman world a century before she was born. Boudica was brought up in a society with strong connections and trading links to the Continent. She would have recognised and embraced the opportunities offered by the client kingdom. Her revolt should not colour the way we interpret the Iceni. It had specific, immediate causes; it was not rooted in deep cultural antipathy.
If we take a closer look at the archaeology, we see other hints of that European contact. More technologically advanced wheel-made pottery is now being found on East Anglian Iron Age sites. Small Iron Age enclosures have been identified on aerial photographs – Iron Age forts just like those in Southern Britain and in Europe. Recent excavation at one example at Bloodgate Hill, South Creake, by Kenneth Penn of the Norfolk Archaeological Unit has indicated construction around 280 BC. There is very little evidence for the domestic use of these forts. Just like some Continental hillforts, they are thought to have been ritual arenas, the internal space divided with areas set aside for ceremonial, political, and ritual activities. Swanky imported objects from Europe have also been recorded, including an Etruscan bridle bit and several examples of an Early Hallstatt type brooch (artefacts which may pre-date the Roman Conquest by centuries).
The archaeology of Iron Age East Anglia is rich and varied. There is no evidence for a uniform society with anti-Roman sentiments that was tricked into political alliance and rebelled at the first opportunity. Instead we find a complex history of connections with the Continent and Rome, and plenty of evidence for the positive way in which the Iceni embraced change and encouraged contact. Boudica and her rebellion lasted only for a year or two. We should not let her dominate our view. Indeed, perhaps we should banish her from view altogether – at least for a while – and begin to think of Icenian society as complex, forward thinking, dynamic, and eager to establish contact with the wider world at the earliest opportunity.
Source: Megan Dennis Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service
GGG Ping.
Red Hair down to her hips eh? But was she a go’er? Know what I mean. Nudge nudge, wink wink. this decendent of the Picts needs to know.
First of all, that "bo" is an honorific prefix identical to "mac", "mc", and "p'". The language that used this particular honorific eor was absorbed about 1300 years ago in Greater Brittany which was roughly modern Brittany plus Normandy plus and Beaujolais (Bojoly). The "bo" honorific was also used among the families who escaped to Wales in the 7th - 9th centuries.
One typical spelling has "Boudica" showing "Bouadica" or even "Bouaddica".
That "ad" in the middle means Arthur.
"dica" is feminine for "king".
Roughly, Boudica is QUEEN ARTHUR.
This, of course, explains why Arthur left Guinivere up to Lancelot!
The tradition in France is that the gentleman known as Merlin replanted all the grapevines in Beaujolais after their destruction in the Dark Ages.
After reading that first thread you now know why King (er Queen) Arthur was so popular with the guys, eh~!
No matter whether you would have Pict her, there is no doubt she was kilt by the Romans...
It’s a durned shame that the peoples north of Rome left no written records. Their histories are coming spoonful by spoonful.
I've never believed we were all the descendants of simpleton farmers who couldn't pour piss from a boot. The Romans didn't have a lock on intelligence, they just had a more robust public works campaign.
I would think that the citizens of Cantellodunum (sp?) and Londinium thought that the Iceni were a little TOO eager to establish contact. The layer of the burning is still obvious after more than 1900 years.
It’s all in the written language left. For too long, any culture that didn’t have a written language was considered primative, even though it may have in fact been a very rich one.
“The “bo” honorific was also used among the families who escaped to Wales in the 7th - 9th centuries.”
I always wondered about the “bo” in my name! Thanks for the info!
However, those records were written in Greek. It's long been thought they used captured Greeks to serve them as an intellectual class.
The Romans also had ther best army in ancient Europe
Where are those records? If they left written records then why do we rely on scattered Roman writings?
Say no more, say no more... No what I mean ehy?
At the same time there are ancient records in Carvajal (Galicia) in Spain and in Wales ~ they have frequently been used as source material for the King Arthur stories.
Have you been living in a cave for the last 1500 years or what?
Yeah, King Arthur stories are certainly good history.
Have you been living in a cave for the last 1500 years or what?
In my particular cave there are no first-hand accounts of the Britannic peoples. Some written records would help to remedy that.
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Thanks Blam. |
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