The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

• 126 • Colin Haselgrove
As in the Later Bronze Age, many
craft activities are represented by only
a few specialized tools. Combs,
shuttles and needles made of bone
and antler, and fired clay spindlewhorls
and loom-weights attest to the
ubiquity of textile production and
leather-working, although the
restricted distribution of loomweights
within some aggregated
settlements could mean that, here at
least, particular households
specialized in weaving. With the
advent of iron tools, high quality
carpentry is evident in house and
vehicle construction, while finds from
wetland settlements indicate the range
of domestic wooden equipment:
stave-built, bent-wood, hand-carved
and lathe-turned containers are
present, as well as ladders, ladles,
hurdles and mallets. Meare housed
one of the few workshops for making
glass beads known in Iron Age
Europe.
The need for timber for
construction, fuel and conversion to
charcoal implies considerable
woodland management. Another
commodity in demand, for food
storage and perhaps in cooking, was
salt. Along the coasts of southern
and eastern England, production
sites abound. Produced by
Figure 7.9 Selected iron tools. 1. saw; 2. file; 3. sledge-hammer; 4. pick; evaporation from sea water, salt was
5. shears; 6. chisel; 7. adze; 8. bill-hook; 9. scythe.
carried inland in standardized bakedclay
(‘briquetage’) containers.
Sources: 1, 2, 6–8—Cunliffe, B.W., 1984. Danebury: an Iron Age hillfort in
Hampshire. The excavations 1969–78. London: CBA Research Report 52; Production and distribution
3—Cunliffe, B.W., 1972. ‘The late Iron Age metalwork from Bulbury,
networks are known as far north as
Dorset’, Antiquaries Journal 52, 293–308; 4—author; 5—Stead, I.M. and
Rigby, V., 1989. Verulamium: the King Harry Lane site. London: English the Tees valley. Inland brine springs
Heritage Archaeology Report 12; 9—Fox 1946
were also exploited. As early as the
fifth century BC, salt from various
West Midlands sources was being distributed up to 50 km away, rising to over 100 km by the
Later Iron Age (Morris 1994). At Droitwich (Worcestershire), brine tanks, hearths and vast
quantities of briquetage show that by the late first century BC salt production had become a
large-scale industry.
Other important crafts included quern and pottery production, and bronze-working. In southern
England, the relatively standardized Later Iron Age rotary querns from the Greensand quarry at