Celtic art in a Vacuum
aka, I do pick the weirdest topics.
For may years the description of a famous artifact of the Celts has bothered me deeply. The item, commonly called the "Petrie Crown" (lower right hand of page
[link]) is listed as having no providence. All that is really known about it seems to be that one George Petrie found it, at the end of the 19th or beginning of the 20 centuries, and described it as a crown, and that it originally had scraps of leather attached to the metal.
I do not think it is a crown. I have a completely different theory.
Admittedly, there are objects which do appear to be headgear, and they do have horns attached to them, but they are shaped more like helmets, solid hemispherical structures.
My theory is this: the Petrie Crown is the metal pieces of a bellows. The Celtic people made beautiful objects that reflected their everyday lives. There is a gold encrusted bucket, which is often shown in close conjunction with the Petrie Crown, that is a good example of these everyday items. And smiths and their tools were very important to the Celts. This was high-tech stuff, a gift from the Gods, to the Iron Age peoples.
My problem is this: the only picture ever shown of the "Crown" is a side-on view. It shows a conical tube, attached to one of two metal panels, welded to another, untubed panel by a small metal band. Each of these panels is decorated with a concave disk, ornamented with very traditional Celtic scrollwork. Each of these panels is also edged with holes at the top and bottom, which would facilitate attaching it to the leather and wood of a bellows. But I cannot see any of the other pieces of the object, or any other perspectives. Is the tube actually hollow, from base to point? What was the nature of the leather attached to metal? Is there evidence of another weld attaching either flat panel to another, distinct, rectangular panel? Is there evidence of another tube, distinct from the existing one, attached to the left hand panel? Is there evidence that the connecting band, between the two panels, was ever bent, in the shape of a staple?
With our modern forensics it would be interesting to compare the various pieces of evidence, to determine what that "crown" actually is. I want to compare the minutia of the breaks and joints, to see if it can be determined that there definitely were other pieces to the object.
One of my professors in college told a story about a "ritual object" that was displayed in a case at a museum. I don't remember the details, and they really aren't important. One day, a man walked into the museum and began to laugh at the display. You see, he knew that the object, while ancient and truly unique, was something used every day by a roofer. It was a shingle throw, which is a device that spits shingle off of a larger piece of wood.
Even the best researchers do not know everything, and in the 19th century, George Petrie did not have access to the wealth of knowledge that is available today. I would love to see someone re-examine this object, to see if more information could be gleaned about it today than could be over 100 years ago.
It may not seem important, but it would have an impact on living history groups, and even modern pagans. An object that could be clearly defined as elevating the Smith trade to one worthy of gilded buckets and elaborately decorated bellows would impact these groups. We already define the time period as The Iron Age, because that was the most important technology available. Determining that another artifact from the time period was specifically used in a forge would bring this home to these groups and to other historians.
We often get wrapped up in all the other details, the clothes, the food, the decorative styles, the governments, the religions, the diseases, the list is is endless. But it was the Iron, and its working, that defined the age.
It's a big deal.
dA Love
