part0010

Holding us between repulsion and respect, terror and deference, we’re still, it would seem, affected by these gutted husks. Much like the mask of the gorgon, the skulls belong neither to this world nor the next, but to that wavering interface, that intermediary realm between being and non-being, the living and the dead. Threshold figures, they command passage.

(Gustaf Sobin, Luminous Debris )

It was about 1200 BCE when another life-changing technology swept Europe, starting at the eastern edge of the continent. [24] It was there that experienced and adventurous metalworkers figured out how to make a new material even stronger than bronze. Using iron ore collected by miners, these craftspeople discovered that by burning the ore at extremely high temperatures, they could remove the impurities in the mineral and purify liquid iron. It was the dawn of the Iron Age.

Iron formation was by no means as simple as crafting alloys of copper and tin. It required groups of metallurgists to build a thick clay oven and keep it stocked with charcoal over the course of several hours. If built and fueled properly, the fire inside those ovens could reach 1300 degrees Celsius (2372 Fahrenheit), a hot enough temperature to crack the iron ore and begin to break it down. When the iron ore was superheated, impurities were forced from the emerging metal and burned away. What remained behind was both iron and carbon, which began to pour out of a tap at the bottom of the oven. After several rounds of processing, eventually the carbon and other impurities were burned and hammered away, leaving behind large balls of red-hot iron. The waste material, called slag, was left behind in molten, ashy heaps.

Iron by itself was a rather hit-and-miss effort for prehistoric people experimenting with metallurgy. The best results were often not terribly tougher than bronze, and it was certainly more difficult to process. The advantage to ancient people was that iron ore was widely available throughout Europe, and it did not need to be mixed with another type of metal to create a workable material. There can be little doubt that the craftspeople of the Early Iron Age were confused about the irregular product that flowed from their iron smelting ovens. Dependent on the amount of carbon remaining within the smelted iron, the resulting metal could either be brittle or incredibly strong. Unfortunately, there were little those metallurgists could do to identify the superior pieces of ore.

The Hallstatt people, who were predominately agricultural, were some of the first to embrace the new iron technology, even though it was far from perfect. At first, they almost exclusively used iron for sword making while maintaining their bronze capabilities for daggers and swords. [25] Ironically, for most of the Iron Age, bronze remained the most important metal available to Europeans, who used the material for weapons and a variety of farming tools. Silver and gold were mined alongside tin, copper, and iron ore, but given their extreme flexibility and relative weakness, these were only used decoratively. Of course, the very existence of decorative statues, embellished tools and weaponry, and jewelry denotes the emergence of the wealthy class. It can also show the existence of an emerging hierarchy, whereupon the authority of the ruling chieftains rested.

Elite members of the Hallstatt culture tended to live in what is now eastern France and southern Germany. There are two kinds of elite burial sites located in this region: those of warriors and those of political leaders. The former was buried in full bronze armor and the latter with heavy chariots. North of the Alps, powerful local leaders fought their way to the top of the political system, thanks to the employment of hired mercenary armies from other parts of the continent.

By trading directly with Greece, the Hallstatt people were able to create a great deal of wealth when they resold goods to the people of the west. Greek goods were very popular for two main reasons: the Greeks were more advanced than the rest of Europe and therefore trendy, and their Mediterranean resources were vastly varied and met both basic and luxury desires. As normal life became peppered with luxury, so too did the graves of the Hallstatt people. Burial chambers, usually built into small, concealed underground chambers and covered over by earthen mounds, contained more and more items over the course of the next millennium.

Cultural traditions were transformed by the influx of immigrants, Mediterranean goods, and the stratification of European civilization. People now had the wealth and worldly perspective to create their own spiritual organizations as a means to explain existence. Spirituality and religion became a central feature of collective culture, with dozens of different interpretations of the universe spreading across the continent. The Hallstatt people and other proto-Celtic peoples developed a fixation on skulls and heads of their lost friends and family, as well as those of their slain enemies. [26] It wasn’t unheard of for their hunter-gatherer and early farming ancestors to collect skulls, but the fixation became more acute as the Hallstatt people moved into the Late Iron Age; during this period, archaeologists hypothesize that skulls were venerated as personal power tokens. It was at that point they began to distinguish themselves to archaeologists as pre-modern Celts.

Violence as a way of life had a considerable effect on the people of Iron Age Europe, and in no way is this more archaeologically apparent than in the collections of skulls and embalmed heads of the Celts. The “Cult of Skulls,” as these various head-collecting people are often called, were powerful enough in terms of warfare and cultural influence that their customs were adopted by Mediterranean Europeans west of Greece and its Ionian islands. [27] It seems as if violence, being the primary means of obtaining land and goods as well as imparting culture upon one’s neighbors, came to be both glorified and worshiped.

Perhaps the most lasting image from Europe’s Iron Age is the use of an iron sword to separate the head of a Celtic enemy from his body. The heads were anointed with oil or wet clay and placed on altars within public temples, presumably as a display of superiority and power. While the severed heads of Celtic enemies—which likely included many Celts—were often embalmed and put on display so, too, it seems were the heads of lost loved ones. Both types of skulls seem to have had a spiritual and emotional importance to the most dominant people of the European Iron Age. Within a thousand years, examples of the Cult of Skulls were found from the British Isles to the Baltic Sea.

Though the skull worshipers were directly linked to chariot warfare, they were also founded on a civilization of agriculture. Superior iron smelting techniques didn’t just lead to the manufacture of iron swords for war but also heavy, sharp iron plows. Farmers kept their fields aerated and sown to capacity, fully aware that it was their crops and livestock feeding the chieftains, kings, and armies that kept away enemies. While farming families worked hard to provide food for themselves and their protectors, the growing walls of skulls reminded them what was at stake.