Colin Haselgrove

British Iron Age Coins in the British Museum

This catalogue publishes the British Museums collection of over 4500 coins minted at the end of the Iron Age in the first century BC and before the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43. Each piece is illustrated and indexes are provided for the inscriptions and symbols which appear on the coins.

Coinage and Complexity: Archaeological Analysis of Socio-Political Change in Britain and Non-Mediterranean Gaul During the Later Iron Age

In 1944, the late D.F. Allen published his now classic paper, “The Belgic dynasties of Britain and their coins”, in which he used inscribed coinage, supplemented by the evidence of the classical texts, to write what might loosely be called a political history of late Iron Age Britain. According to his analysis, the sixty year period preceding the Roman invasion was one of political complexity, involving frequent transfers of power at particular centers and shifting patterns of territorial control. Various rulers are recorded as having fled to seek the protection of the Roman emperor. Against this background of disharmony, a trend towards greater centralization is nevertheless apparent: the expansion of a polity based on Camulodunum, modern Colchester in south-east England, to the extent that its ruler, Cunobelinus, was referred to as ‘Britannorum rex’ (Suetonius, Caligula 44, 2).

Marie-Pierre Koenig (ed.) Le gisement de Crévéchamps (Lorraine). Du néolithique à l’époque romaine dans la vallée de la Moselle (Documents d'archéologie française 110). 467 pages, 214 bw 978-2-7351-2081-9 paperback €55.

one of the most debated issues is the age of the lowest stratum (VII) of the Ushki cluster. N.N. Dikov dated it to c. 14 300–13 600 BP, while T. Goebel and colleagues suggested a younger interval of c. 11 300– 10 700 BP. Here, the authors state that it is quite possible that both views are valid because different parts of this large site cluster were sampled for radiocarbon dating. The Mesolithic (i.e. pre-pottery Holocene) sites—Podgornaya, Naivan, Kheta, Uptar, Kongo and Siberdik—are dated to c. 9800–8300 BP.