Level 3 - Life in late Iron Age Sussex

The Evidence

Interpretation of Iron Age society is notoriously difficult, and is often in danger of widespread geographical and chronological generalisation. As the societies within pre-Roman Gaul and Britain were essentially non-literate, there are no indigenous written accounts, and we must instead rely upon the works of Greek and Roman writers, together with informed interpretations of the archaeological remains.

Classical Writers

Perhaps the best and most well known of the classical sources is Julius Caesar, whose commentaries on the Gallic Wars included a semi-ethnographical account of the Gallic peoples he conquered. Although there are considerable problems of selectivity and propaganda, his writings, de bello Galli (The Gallic Wars), can be used to help piece together a general account of how society may have been structured in the 1st century BC. Writing a century or so after Caesar, the Roman Tacitus provides an intriguing account of people and events in Britain during the 1st century AD. Like Caesar, Tacitus also had certain personal motivations that influenced the selectivity of his work, but it remains one of the few commentaries to provide some insight into the structure of British society.

Julius Caesar

Archaeology & Numismatics

Only rarely do the classical literary accounts mention people or events that are directly relevant to Sussex. Instead, it is archaeological fieldwork and interpretation that provide the main base of knowledge for informing us of how people may have lived in this region. The widespread use of coinage during the late Iron Age is particularly important. They were issued by British kings, and by studying their distribution patterns it is possible to determine their political sphere of influence. Additionally, recent studies into the iconography of coins have demonstrated that significant social information can also be extracted.

Reverse of a coin of Caratacus