Iron Age Amulets in Europe: From Hallstatt to La Tène
Amulets of the European Iron Age: Hallstatt pendants, birds and solar boats, Gaulish votive wheels, coral, amber and glass eye beads.
In central Europe the Iron Age begins around the eighth century BC with the Hallstatt culture and continues, from the fifth century, with that of La Tène, traditionally associated with the Celts. In the absence of local written texts, the amulets of these peoples are known to us almost entirely through archaeology: bronze pendants, miniature wheels, glass beads, coral and amber placed in tombs, sanctuaries and waters. Interpreting them therefore calls for caution and close attention to context.
The Hallstatt cemetery
The culture takes its name from Hallstatt, in Austria, where in the nineteenth century a vast cemetery linked to the exploitation of the salt mines was explored. Among the hundreds of graves investigated from 1846 by the mining official Johann Georg Ramsauer came swords, brooches, bronze vessels and a great many ornaments. Numerous pendants, with little chains and small jingling elements, suggest a use that combined decoration, sound and perhaps protection of the wearer.
Among the recurring motifs are stylised waterbirds and boats with bird-head prows, often associated with discs or circles, which already appear in the late Bronze Age. Scholars link them to beliefs about the journey of the sun, but their precise meaning remains hypothetical, because no contemporary text speaks of them.
Wheels and solar symbols
One of the most typical amulets of the European Iron Age is the small wheel of bronze or lead, called a rouelle by French archaeologists. Thousands have been found, above all in Gaul, in sanctuaries, settlements and graves, and their use continued into the Gallo-Roman period. The link with a sky god, depicted in Roman times holding a wheel and sometimes identified with Taranis, is plausible, but it rests largely on later evidence.
Coral, amber and glass
In the La Tène culture Mediterranean coral was highly prized and was used to decorate brooches, helmets and weapons. Pliny the Elder reports that the Gauls adorned swords, shields and helmets with coral, and that sprigs of coral hung at children's necks were believed to give protection. Baltic amber and coloured glass beads, often decorated with concentric “eyes”, completed the repertoire. Eye beads, widespread throughout the Mediterranean, are interpreted by many as defences against the evil gaze.
Objects between humans and gods
Many Iron Age amulets have been found in votive deposits, rivers and springs, as well as in graves. This suggests that the same object could serve as personal protection and as an offering to the gods. The close relationship between ornament, gift to the gods and defence against evil is one of the most evident features of European prehistoric religion, which we know above all through what it left in the earth and in the water.
Without texts to explain their meaning, Iron Age amulets call for cautious interpretation. Wheels, birds, coral and eye beads nevertheless show clearly that the peoples of prehistoric Europe, too, entrusted small objects with the task of accompanying and protecting life, from childhood to burial.