Having spent much of last week engrossed in historical matters I intend to spend the next few days just kicking back and making art works for myself. This period of relaxation/change was kicked off by this little sketch of the one time political journalist Andrew Marr. I was watching his highly disappointing “History of the World’ series and just had to make a sketch. Who knows what I will produce over the next few days?
Sent from my iPad
Having thought a little about the people of the Iron Age it is now the turn of there beasts of burden – in this case the pony. It is doubtful that the great unwashed of Iron Age society had access to what we would describe as a horse. This was the preserve of the elite – instead they would have had access to ponies which would have carried heavy loads over any distance. These creatures wouldn’t have been the pampered playthings of the pony club but rather tough hardy ponies you would find on Dartmoor today.
As to how these beasts were used is really unclear. They probably had panniers strapped to their backs and so anything they carried would have to have been restricted as to how it could be fitted into the panniers. This, however, does leave a lot of scope for exactly they would carry. The use of ponies would then place limits as to how far an Iron Age person might travel in a day – perhaps 15/20 miles. At the end of each day there had to be some form of graving and water for the ponies and of course this in turn would increase the number of ponies were being used. Again this would potentially limit the number of ponies that might be used. It would also mean that there must have been some form of communal hospitality for such travellers, either at individual farmsteads or perhaps even more formal stop off areas. It might be too fanciful to call these places inns but if there was a constant stream of travellers then who knows. If these places did develop then all of a sudden we are starting to see a more complicated societal structure where specialists are supported in someway. Suddenly Iron Age society becomes a lot more recognisable than some strange distant figures looking fierce on a hill side with blue woad but they are us dealing with problems that we would recognise. And all this from a quick sketch of a pony.
Sent from my iPad
One of the problems with a lot of Iron Age illustration I have looked at over the last few days is that, well, they are not that realistic. Now I have to be very careful here because, in truth, we don’t really know what Iron Age people actually looked like. Perhaps the most realistic are the bog bodies which, of course, are actual Iron Age people. However, they have been pickled by the bog as well as being executed which tends to flavour the resultant look and feel of the person.
A lot of the illustrations also tend to be what one might call, the i spy book of… style, where the people tend to be idealised, perhaps projecting what we want them to look like – the noble savage. In truth the Iron Age people were us, in fact are us, so we need to look to modern faces and features to try and give these people life. The one thing that they would have, especially the women, is a careworn expression. A person who knows grief and death only too well. She would, no doubt, have lost more than one child in her young life and would also be fearful of being pregnant as this could also lead to her own death during child birth. Add to this a hard life working the land in all weathers and perhaps being abducted during some raid then you would get a woman who would be naturally suspicious and careful as to how she conducted herself. Of course the flip side to this that a woman could have it all. She could be the leader of the polity and sit right at the top of her society, and be honoured with all riches that her society could produce in death. And that would be considerable – nonetheless to be a woman, however grand still had the great fear of child birth and whether she would survive. She would also have the strength of character to be able to lead armies into battle as well as deal with all the political infighting that comes with any human society. In short she would also be careworn but for different reasons. Anyway, that was some of the ideas that went into making this sketch.
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What is in a name? Well for me it starts to give something substance, in this case an Iron Age man. Cartivelios is the name of what is described as a sub King, a local big wig of the Corietltauvi polity in the late Iron Age period. His name appears on coinage in this period. Whether this is was his actual name or some Latinised version is moot. So is this the portrait of the local war lord, our terminology? Well no, it is supposed to be the portrait of an ordinary trades or business man who plied the salt ways of the Iron Age transporting salt. However there is no reason why an ordinary person wouldn’t also have the name of the local great and good after all how many Charles are there?
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So a few facts, such as they are. Iron Age man was lucky to reach 40 – let alone 50. Women fared even worse – due to child brith – most wouldn’t see beyond 30, however by that time they may well have produced 5 or 6 children. Nowadays we don’t think that 40 is old at all and so wouldn’t expect to look like this chap – however most of us don’t spend all our life in the open, fighting the elements and so wouldn’t have the weathered faces that our iron age ancestors would have. To give some idea what they might look like you only have to look at the faces of farmers or fisherman and you will soon realise how soft we have become. That being said I wouldn’t swop my life for the life of an Iron Age man, as beyond the effects of a life in the open you also have to add in the possible of a brutal attack from other communities, slavery after all appears to have been a major factor in the Iron Age economy, and you usually acquire slaves by force. One final thing, facial hair appears to have been a big thing as well and perhaps even some form of tattoos as well.
So by the time you get to 40 you would have been worn out and there is more than a good chance that wear will show on your face – hence our friend here.
Sent from my iPad
So you have this bright idea – how on earth do you progress it? Well that is the first question that needs to be addressed when starting to think about the Prehistoric project. Fortunately I know something about Iron Age Britain so this might help but not at the moment. Instead I have decided just to sketch out some basic ideas – an Iron Age fort, an Iron Age man and the so on. Just how these all fit together I haven’t got a clue at the moment but somehow they will.
Beyond the artistic I have been researching the Iron Age quite extensively over the past few months so that may well give me some clues. I suspect I may well be spending some time in the cotswolds – especially around the Gloucestershire, Oxon, Warwickshire borders. The more I think about this the more interesting it gets.
Sent from my iPad
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