Blackwell Reference Online

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We know surprisingly little about social and political organization in Late Iron Age Britain. Most previous discussions have started from the few contemporary Classical sources and so tend to be couched in terms of Roman social and political categories, and their perceived modern equivalents. In many cases, we can doubt whether terms like rex (king) or civitas (tribe) were appropriate, while in other situations their use probably says more about the relationship of a specific community with Rome than it does about native institutions ( Wells 2002 ). This is equally true of some of the inscriptions found on Late Iron Age coins, the only significant written evidence we possess from pre-Roman Britain itself. The archaeological evidence poses further problems. Even basic questions about social or political organization are difficult to answer by archaeological means alone and crucial evidence is all too easily read in different ways according to the preconceptions of the interpreter. It is, however, clear from the considerable regional differences in the archaeological record that Iron Age Britain was not a uniform cultural or ethnic entity (Gwilt and Haselgrove 1997 ; Bevan 1999 ). As a result, the idea that the Britons and other north-west European peoples shared a common Celtic identity, customs and institutions has been challenged ( James 1999 ), and archaeologists have become ... log in or subscribe to read full text