Artisan's Lodging

Many Roman writers attempted to reduce the Celts to a crude people who lived for war and little else. When describing the Celts of the Po Valley, Polybius commented that “their lives are very simple, and they had no knowledge whatsoever of art or science”. Due to archaeological finds we know this to be an oversimplification of a very complex society, and beautiful examples of Celtic art found all over Europe tell a very different story. Items like the Gundestrup Cauldron and the Desborough Mirror show that the Celts had excellent metalworking skills, an artistic eye and the ability to tell stories through their art. The intricate detail on the cauldron was preserved by the peat bog in which it was discovered. The glass used in the figures' eyes gives us some idea of the excellent artistic and craft abilities of the men who made the Cauldron.