S5004029
Coins and potuer in Late Iron Age Britain 52
and some other areas have only gone so far as to demonstrate the presencc of ‘entoptic forms’ as thcir evidence. The argument above goes significantly beyond that by demonstrating the presencc of ALL the dassic stages and metaphors used for trance imagery in the MIA/LIA ardstic repertoire.
If ASCs informed visual language, that begs two ąuestions: who was having trances, and how were they achieving that State? I shall deal first with ‘how*. Narcotics are one obvious way of having a mind-altering experience, but they are by no means the only way. Any form of sensory deprivation can lead to hallucinations. In the Irish vemacular literaturę one of the highest forms of protest or statement an individual could make was to fast, and this can lead to ASCs. Light deprivation or dancing to a constant rhythmic beat can have the same effect. Some hallucinatory experiences can be achieved as a by-product of fimgal infestation of food products. For example, ergot infection of rye crops has been used to help explain phenomena such as the Salem witchcraft trials (Matossian 1989; Camporesi 1989). For all of these causes our chance of finding archaeological proof is minimal. Nonę of these activities need leave archaeological remains. Only in the most uncommon circum-stances is evidence found. In both the Tollund and Grauballe Man bog bodies, traces of ergot were found (Helbaek 1950; 1958), but such cases of preservation are rare indeed. The most obvious possibility, however, is the deliberate selection and use of specific plants. The most available substances in Britain are Mandrake (M. officinarum) and Henbane (JHyoscyamus niger). Henbane has been found occasionally in archaeological contexts from the Neolithic onwards (e.g. Barclay and Russell-Whitc 1993:109). Whilst it occurs naturally in Britain, it was found in large quantities in the Lale Iron Age and Roman levels at Farmoor, an area of the Thames gravels wherc it is uncommon today (Lambrick and Robinson 1979:114). The opium poppy (papaver somniferum) was also grown in Britain, and is best known in the south from the large numbers of seeds found in an early first millennium BC context at the waterfront uf Wallingford (Oxon.) amongst spelt wheat (Mark Robinson, pers. com.). Ukewisc hemp (cunnabis) was present in Britain, and was ccrtainly known for ith prupcrtics by the Bronzc Age. Shernitt (1987) has argucd that cord decoration on Bronzc Age pottery is indicutive of the cultural role of hemp. La ter cxamples are morę scarce, though outside of Britain traces of cannabis were found in one of the Hallstatt buriuls (Hochdorf: Sherratt 1991:52). U is only a numer of timc before a pi oper programmc of rcsiduc analyui begins to place on a solid rather than anecdotal footing the use of psycho-active plants in British prehistory. The problem then becomcs Im mg thetn mto a aocial contczt.
1 shouki make it elear that I im not arguing that the people who manufactured coin diet cominually had trances. That would be unsustainable (though the link between metalwurker* and shamans madę above by Budd and Taylor should be kept in mtnd). Vhc imagery on the cotnagc conforms to the serial tradition which means that innovauon on any scalę by any tndhridual was cnremcly rcstrictcd. Yet nonctheless, ov«r tune we have scen chat dilTercnt areas did move away from the PhtUipui prototyp* towanis vcry dłstinctive regional trsdiuons. which espreased in ditfcrent ways the meuiduMs of the trance worki. And ttus doca rcquirc that the die-cutter bc
awarc of the visual experience of the trance world, either directly or indirectly. So who was engaging in mind-aliering espcriences? There need not have been many people in a social group undergoing ASCs for the visual language of the dme to soak up its metaphors and ideas, but the experience would have to have been ardculated. This tends to happen in any case when a specialisi group undergoes trance experiences. Since they have access to ‘the spirit world' (or however they conceive it), they need to convev this power to a broader audience to enhance and maintain their presumed status.
In a world where sacral leadership existed might the leader himself, or tnembers of his family, have communicated with the other-world? Reconstrucrion without tur-ther evidence is difficult. What evidence we have from the MIA suggests a very structured and ordered world, one where roundhouses faced cosmologically signifi-cant directions (Oswald 1997), where the highly structured deposirion of artefacts took place in ditches and old storage pits (Hill 1995), and where specific ‘ritual’ gcar, such as spoons and anthropomorphic short-swords, eusted with their astral signs (Fitzpatrick 19963). These factors suggest that there could have been plenty of scope for full-time ritual specialists, to ensure communities stuck to pre-ordained proce dures. If they existed, then a rangę of bronzc ‘crowns’ have been found which might represent their regalia (Stead 1995; Fitzpatrick W9Ób)
There were, of course, sets of specialists on hand in Late Iron Age Britain and Gaul, as mentioned by Caesar, Posidonius and other authors. These were the dmides, vaies and bardoi. Banioi were basically tellers of stories; tum translates as someihing like ‘seers’ or ‘prophets’; and dniidcs were the oflicianrs at sacrifices. judges, and all-round significant ligures who trained for many years to pertect their oift and leaming. Dmides are well trodden ground, and I do not wish to repeat too much on them here. Suffice it to say that they existed in Britain and Gaul. Włulst recruited from elite families, they also appear to have been in some set aport from the rest of society. It is, however, a shanie our classical sources never elaborated upon the vaics, as ‘seers’ or ‘prophets’ would have been of pardcular interest to tłus discussion. Religious castcs, of course, may not have been idcntical all over northem Europę, but druidism did appear to be a very real phenomenon which the eari> emperors took seriously, and took various steps to countcr.
I aies, dmides and bardoi are vcrv rcnunuciai ot the kand of learned diiKi which we have Information about from Irish society. where a whole rangę ot pruleistoaslo sometimes hereditary. specialists ensted and attachcd themsehes 10 the retmues of kings. Here they were called aUamhs, and their actiutn could be aa divene aa ław, history, poctry, 1 cechcraft or musie (SiffiflK 19S7) But we should noc be tempced to make hard and fast dinsions betwren roto u» society. IMb procewc* ol pruductioo were to taiły imbued with ntuahstu owrtonci* ihcu in li\*o Agv pcrccpńon there may have been no conceptual differcncc between a niuai yeiubt and a mrtałwoefcrr.
In condusion, if n\<nu«vha| were aa thoroughh inirnwad with ntual and metaphors of lifc and dcath aa Hia^cy (>997) argues (hen ■ ■ wtorły that the productaan of ao lytnbuk and p«weitul I medium aa oom waa noc aha> thoroughly nad up with rriaiod tysnbobc mraningi I bchewe the huneoun image denotea the
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