01-25-2008, 10:26 PM
Talking of "Celtic" in this context is quite difficult IMO. It´s easy to talk of Gauls, or Britons and so on. The term "Celtic" lets one always think that this was a coherent group of people sharing genes and culture, which was not the case. They shared mainly culture, but not all aspects of it (like language, e.g.) everywhere to the same extent.
As these cultures, IMO better named by their tribal names, had no standing armies as e.g. the Romans had, most soldiers equipped themselves, and thus the majority probably didn´t have a helmet or even a sword. In this they were probably similar to the Vikings, where the on-site-long-term archaeology has shown, that armour and certain weapons were rather rare, and only for the well-to-do
Viking settlement of Haithabu brought forth for the years 793-1066
with an estimated continuous population of 1500 inhabitants only 40 swords. So how many people would have had a sword simultaneously? Same for helmets (for the whole of Viking culture only one helmet was found in a grave (Gjermundu) so far(!)) and chain mail.
People in the mediterranean at the time the helmet above was made may have been a bit richer, but nonetheless, we can guess that helmets were expensive to start with. Since working time of craftsmen wasn´t necessarily so expensive for various reasons (e.g. slave culture), it is not so astonishing that most helmets we have from this period are extremely well made and decorated.
I´d say that rather the very simple and "cheap" pieces are an exception.
Look at Dan´s great sites:
www.sas.upenn.edu/%7Edpd/italica/armor/c-panoplies.html
www.sas.upenn.edu/~dpd/italica/armor/panoplies.html[/img]
As these cultures, IMO better named by their tribal names, had no standing armies as e.g. the Romans had, most soldiers equipped themselves, and thus the majority probably didn´t have a helmet or even a sword. In this they were probably similar to the Vikings, where the on-site-long-term archaeology has shown, that armour and certain weapons were rather rare, and only for the well-to-do
Viking settlement of Haithabu brought forth for the years 793-1066
with an estimated continuous population of 1500 inhabitants only 40 swords. So how many people would have had a sword simultaneously? Same for helmets (for the whole of Viking culture only one helmet was found in a grave (Gjermundu) so far(!)) and chain mail.
People in the mediterranean at the time the helmet above was made may have been a bit richer, but nonetheless, we can guess that helmets were expensive to start with. Since working time of craftsmen wasn´t necessarily so expensive for various reasons (e.g. slave culture), it is not so astonishing that most helmets we have from this period are extremely well made and decorated.
I´d say that rather the very simple and "cheap" pieces are an exception.
Look at Dan´s great sites:
www.sas.upenn.edu/%7Edpd/italica/armor/c-panoplies.html
www.sas.upenn.edu/~dpd/italica/armor/panoplies.html[/img]
Christian K.
No reconstruendum => No reconstruction.
Ut desint vires, tamen est laudanda voluntas.
No reconstruendum => No reconstruction.
Ut desint vires, tamen est laudanda voluntas.
It´s a lot of work.
