A small hoard or spill of Celtic bronze coins were found whilst metal detecting on our recent Dorset dig by Viv and Mick. These were found in a very small area and consist of four bronze coins and a possible silver coin. These are also known as bronze staters/units.
British Celtic coin history
The Celtic currency of Britain were the various items and coins used as currency between approximately 200 BC and AD 60. Coins were first imported in large numbers in around 150 BC and domestic minting began around 100BC.
Celtic Britain (The Iron Age – 600 BC – 50 AD)
Who were they?
In Britain, the Iron Age is known as the “Celtic Age.” A Celtic culture spread across the British Isles in the 500 years leading up to the first Roman invasion. Who were these Celts?
For a start, the concept of a “Celtic” people is a modern and somewhat romantic reinterpretation of history. The “Celts” were warring tribes who certainly wouldn’t have seen themselves as one people at the time.
The “Celts,” as we know them, exist mostly via the beauty of their art and the words of the Romans who fought them. The problem with Roman reports was that they were a combination of journalism and political propaganda. It was politically beneficial to portray the Celts as barbarians and the Romans as a tremendous civilizing force.
Where did they come from?
What we do know is that the Celts progressively infiltrated Britain throughout the decades between 500 and 100 B.C. For one thing, the Celts were so fractured and prone to warring among themselves that a concerted invasion would have been absurd.
The Celts were a loosely knit collection of peoples who shared a common language, religion, and cultural expression. They were not centralized and were just as willing to attack each other as any non-Celt. They were warriors who lived for the glory of war and pillage.
Celtic family life
The clan, a form of extended family, was the main unit of Celtic life. The term “family” is a bit deceptive, because the Celts practiced an unusual sort of child-rearing; they didn’t rear children, they hired them out. Foster parents actually reared the children. The foster father was frequently the birthmother’s brother.
