STARTER’S HANDBOOK AND KIT GUIDE

BRITAIN: 1ST CENTURY AD The period Dumnonika aims to re-enact is the first century AD, a period of great change for our small islands. While the first half of the century sees the people of Britain continuing life much as they had for the previous six hundred years or so, in AD43 the coming of the Romans changes everything, with a period of resistance and turmoil. Trade with Rome had been going on for some time, and in 55 and 54BC our shores had seen Caesar’s attempt at conquest, although beyond the tribes involved in the South East, this must have been distant news that hardly affected the lives of those that heard of it. However, we can see in the archaeological evidence signs that the peoples of Southern Britain were already taking on more and more aspects of Roman life, importing wine, jewellery and pottery. When Claudius’ legions landed in AD43 they focussed their efforts on the tribes of the South East, aiming for what they considered to be the capital of the most powerful tribe in Britain, Camulodunum of the Catuvellauni. Once victory was secured here, the Second Augusta, commanded at that time by the future emperor Vespasian, headed west, subjugating (according to Suetonius) “two powerful nations”, presumably the Belgae (Hampshire and Somerset) and the Durotriges (Dorset).

The Dumnonii Upon meeting the most westerly tribe, the Dumnonii, however, Vespasian’s advance seems to have come to a halt. There are no accounts of fighting the tribe, and evidence for Roman military presence in the territory is minimal, suggesting that they felt no need to stamp their authority on the tribe. The Legion stationed themselves at Isca Dumnoniorum (modern Exeter) and archaeological evidence in general seems to suggest that for the tribe, life continued pretty much as normal. Perhaps the Dumnonii, having seen the fate of the Durotriges, simply accepted Rome and were, as a result, allowed to live in peace. Before the coming of Rome, the Dumnonii (a name which appears to mean ‘deep valley dwellers’) seem to have been fairly isolated from neighbouring tribes of Britain, with strong cultural links to their Armorican cousins of what is now Brittany across the Channel. The tribe also seems to have lacked any central government, a number of small hillforts and defensible farmsteads instead pointing at a number of small tribes living in close proximity.

Dumnonika Using the old Celtic, ‘Dumnonika’ literally means ‘of the Dumnonii’. By covering the 1st Century AD we can present both the period preceding and immediately following the coming of Rome to Britain. By representing a tribe that was apparently so little touched by the arrival of the legions, we can show the colour and culture of the British people that existed even before Rome’s ‘civilising’ influence, or work alongside Roman groups covering the invasion. We aim to use what evidence there is available to present the most accurate portrayal possible to educate and entertain the public, opening their eyes to Britain before Rome!

USEFUL CONTACTS At time of writing the group is in a fledgeling stage, so really the only contact I can put in here is myself. As the group grows, someone please remind me to update contact lists… Drustan Durman (Drustanos): Currently Group leader, authenticity officer, membership officer, treasurer, military officer, evil mastermind dictator…. Tel: 0787 544 26 23 email: dru_felix@hotmail.co.uk

USEFUL LINKS Armamentaria: Supplier of (mainly Roman) kit, check with Authenticity Officer before buying anything. www.armamentaria.com Dave Budd: Iron Age blacksmith. Contact him for knives, spearheads and period accurate tools. Don’t ask about swords! http://www.davebudd.com/IronAgeBlacksmith.html Heather Rose Jones: For those of you truly keen on authenticity! A wonderful site giving examples of stitching techniques as found in archaeology. Check periods and materials the stitches were used on. http://heatherrosejones.com/archaeologicalsewing/index.html Herts Fabrics: Supplier of materials, well worth a look. If in doubt about weave, pattern or colour, check with Authenticity Officer. http://www.hertsfabrics.com/ Kelticos: Internet discussion forum for Iron Age Europe. Brilliant source of information, highly recommended for all members. http://www.kelticos.org Scotweb: Scottish fabric supplier. Good for a range of tweeds and checks. Remember, avoid tartans. As always, if in doubt, check with Authenticity Officer. http://www.scotweb.co.uk/ Will Rathouse: Creator of basic Iron Age fibulae. Always handy to have another link for goodies! email: pg186@tsd.ac.uk

BASIC AUTHENTICITY POLICY Historical re-enactment is a hobby and, as such, the reason we all do this is because it’s fun. It is important to remember, however, that when members of the public come to see a display we put on, the majority of them will walk away believing what we’ve shown them as an accurate portrayal of our period, even if we’ve made mistakes. A small minority may be well researched in the Iron Age and WILL spot these mistakes, but it is not for these people we strive to be accurate. We have a responsibility to our audience to NEVER show anything we know to be inaccurate if we can possibly help it. Meanwhile, there is no reason why we can’t all have fun if we take authenticity seriously. Once we’ve got the kit right we can lose ourselves in the hobby without worrying whether the Authenticity Officer is going to be on our backs. The kit guide following is designed to explain the facts as best as possible so that should any of your kit be challenged you can present reasons why you are wearing a tunic in a certain style. Also by giving the most accurate patterns possible in the Starter Guide it should help to ensure that your first kit is right and will therefore cost you less (material and time to correct your kit cost money!) This same reason is why we advise you to check with Authenticity Officer before making any purchase you’re unsure on, in order to avoid spending lots of money on something (say, a sword) only to find out you can’t use it because it’s incorrect for our period. A large part of the fun and interest value of re-enactment is the learning involved as you delve deeper into a fascinating and amazing period of history. We hope you enjoy your time in Dumnonika, and the kit guide below is here to help you do just that.

KIT GUIDE Materials, Colours and Patterns: The materials available for clothing in the Iron Age were far more limited than we have today, pretty much composing of wool and linen, although for extremely wealthy individuals silk would have been available through trade, though not the smooth silk we know today. In order to keep things simple, we’ll keep to wool and linen for the moment. If you wish to incorporate silk into your clothing later, discuss it with the Authenticity Officer. Weaves would have been Tabby Weave (basic over-under weaving), Herringbone Weave (creates a zig-zagging pattern), Diamond Twill (creates diamond shapes in the material). As for the colours available, the range of colours possible with natural dyes is incredible, with some colours looking as though they could only have been gained using modern chemicals. The big disadvantage however, was the fastness of colour. Deep colours would fade quickly and be difficult and expensive to achieve, so unless you are representing a powerful and wealthy noble it is best to avoid these. Blue would be achievable with the Woad plant, yellow with Weld, red would be possible with Madder (the native variety didn’t give such good reds, more orangey or pinkish, but trade with Roman Gaul means we would most likely have access to better reds if wealthy enough). Greys, browns and blacks would be relatively easy (though black would be trickier), a nice pale mauve type purple can be achieved with blueberries, while greens seem to have most likely been almost yellow or blue. Please avoid deep greens. We know from Roman and Greek accounts that the Ancient Celts loved bright colours. Diodorus Siculus, a Sicilian Greek historian of the Roman Empire: “The clothing they wear is striking- tunics which have been dyed and embroidered in

various colours and breeches; they also wear striped cloaks fastened by a brooch on

the shoulder, heavy for winter and light for summer, in which are set checks, close

together and of various hues.” So stripes and checks are definitely possible, though please avoid tartans. If unsure, check with the Authenticity Officer! Seams: Depending on how committed you are, we will let you get away with a machine sewn seam so long as it is not obviously machine sewn. Any visible stitching must be handsewn. This may seem daunting at first, but with practice hand sewing can come easily, although it is time consuming! If you’re up for a challenge, refer to the Heather Rose Jones Archaeological Sewing site on the links page and have a go! Please hem any exposed edges that aren’t selvedges, as clothes making would have been an expensive use of time and effort, so allowing a garment to fray and fall apart would have been wasteful. An alternative to hemming is to finish with tablet weave, although this should probably be saved for higher status individuals.

Trousers:

Trousers may be the first bit of kit you need: there are accounts of Celtic warriors wearing only trousers and cloaks in battle, such as Polybius’ account of the Battle of Telamon, where: “The Insubres and Boii wore their trousers and light cloaks.”

Thus it is possible that as a low status British warrior you may be able to take the field with nothing more than a pair of trousers. Unfortunately, while we know that the Celts wore trousers, what type of trousers they wore is a subject of much conjecture and argument. There are certainly cases for both long and short trousers. The Argument for Short Trousers: The word used for Celtic trousers in Roman accounts is ‘Bracae’. Now we can see this word carrying on in the etymology of words like ‘braies’ (short britches worn as underwear in the early medieval period), ‘breeches’, ‘breeks’ or ‘britches’ (all knee length trousers rather than full length). Combine this linguistic link with pictorial evidence from the Gundestrup Cauldron, a large bronze vessel discovered in Denmark and dated to the 1st Century BC, as well as with images of Roman soldiers wearing knee length britches (‘feminalia’ in Latin), which are apparently copied off the Gauls they fought, and there is a strong case for short trousers.

Detail from Gundestrup Cauldron, 1st Century BC

Detail from Trajan’s Column, 2nd Century AD As far as evidence for British trousers goes, there is only one very vague image of a British warrior known that shows a style of trouser, a coin minted by Tasciovanos of the Catuvellauni. The image seems to show a warrior with loose fitting trousers above the knee, which are then either tied close to the leg or simply stop at the knee.

Tasciovanos coin, 1st Century AD It could be that the warrior shown above is wearing leg wraps, which will be discussed later in this guide. The Argument for Long Trousers: Other than a traditional view of Celts wearing long trousers, there is only about as much evidence to support full length trousers as there is for short leg trousers. There is an image from Morocco that is often assumed to be a Celtic mercenary, and a small bronze statuette of a fallen warrior from Alesia in Gaul, but the most appropriate for Iron Age Britons is the Bridgeness Stone, which shows a Roman cavalryman trampling Britons underhoof. One of them, if you look carefully, has a line at his waist and another at his ankle, suggesting full length trousers.

’Celt’ from Volubilis, Morocco, date (?).

Fallen Gaulish warrior, bronze statuette from Alesia, 2nd Century AD.

Trampled British warrior, Bridgeness Stone, 2nd Century AD. Some would argue that the Thorsberg trousers, found in a Danish bog, are evidence for long trousers, but they date to the 4th Century AD, so are perhaps a little out of our range. With evidence for both long and short trousers (and the suggestion that the Dumnonii had cultural links with their Armorican cousins across the channel in Gaul) we will accept either, although as the ‘median seam’ that we are used to on modern trousers is not found in any ancient garments found as yet we propose the following pattern. Marx-Etzel Pattern: Found in a German bog and dated as early as the 2nd century AD the Marx Etzel breeches are knee length, but there is no real reason why the pattern should not be transferred to a full leg length. The pattern shown here is tailored more than the original to allow stripes and checks to line up where seams join, and to reduce the excess material at the waistband. Ensure that the drop is enough to reach from navel, under the crotch and up to the small of the back, and allow plenty of width for the crotch at the top of the trapezium. To make full length trousers, simply adapt the measurements so that the bottom measurement is ankle rather than knee and the inside leg is the whole leg.

The flap in the middle folds up and the edges fold in, so that the ‘bottom’ edge of the central flap becomes part of the top edge of the garment (the waistband), and the legs are formed. The finished garment should look something like this:

To fasten them, simply belt them (either with a proper belt or a cord) and roll the waistband down over the belt a couple of times to give a look similar to that of the fallen Gaulish warrior shown above. Other patterns with suitable evidence to support them will be allowed, but discuss with the Authenticity Officer first. This pattern is simply given to save you hours of research, although please feel free to do the research anyway!

Leg Wraps:

As mentioned above in reference to the Tasciovanos coin, it is possible that short trousers would have been combined with leg wraps to cover the calves and lower legs, and perhaps long trousers may have been gathered at the calf by wraps as well. Examples have been found of these in the ancient world, including a find from a Dutch bog dated to the late Bronze Age and Gaulish and Gallo-Roman statues showing them. Rather than the ‘puttee’ style worn by Anglo-Saxon groups, Iron Age leg wraps appear to have been rectangles of material bound at knee and ankle by straps.

Dutch Late Bronze Age leg wraps from Søgårds Mose.

Statue of a ‘Treveri’ peasant. Gallo-Germanic. Date unknown.

Tunics:

We know from various sources, written and archaeological, that Celtic tunics varied from the sleeveless tunic of the Roman empire. Strabo describes Celtic tunics thus in his Geographies: “they wear slit tunics that have sleeves and reach as far as their private parts and the

buttocks.”

From this description we can picture a tunic that is not overly long and allows movement in the legs by having slits up the sides. This is not far different from the Thorsberg tunic, which although dates from the 4th Century AD, shares the same cuff design as the Vacheres Warrior, a statue of a Gaulish warrior from the 1st Century BC. Note that in order to get the seam running along the back of the arm as in the picture, the seam must join the body at the back of the shoulder and not at the armpit where it would on a modern garment.

Vacheres Warrior, Gaul, 1st Century BC. The following pattern is a basic design that incorporates all necessary points about Celtic tunics, although is possibly more correct for higher status individuals. If folded back cuffs are not desired, simply cut the sleeves a little shorter than the width of the body. For those of lower status, it is likely that tunics would have been woven out of one piece on the loom in order to save cutting material. Such a tunic would not have the seam up the back of the arm in the style of the Vacheres warrior, but he wear mail armour and is therefore a high status individual. For lower status individuals the second pattern may be used. Again, suitable alternatives may be accepted if sufficient evidence is presented to the Authenticity Officer.

Dresses:

Iron Age dresses appear to have been similar in style to the Roman Peplos, or tube dress, simply a tube of material pinned at each shoulder and belted at the waist. In our cold climate, it is quite likely such a dress would have gone over a long sleeved underdress, much the same in style as the man’s tunic, only longer and possibly wider in the body to allow for movement. Since we have no evidence for such underdresses and they wouldn’t have been seen with the peplos over the top, it is possible that instead of being wider they simply had a long slit up the side of the skirt, or were simply normal tunics, no longer than a man’s. I shall leave this decision up to the individual. There is also an argument for a combination of a tunic with a skirt, as has been discovered in Denmark, although the peplos is the preferred option.

Huldremose Dress, Denmark, Iron Age. In order to have enough material it is recommended to make sure the peplos is as wide as your elbows at least if you stand with outstretched arms, and for the material to be slightly longer than you are tall in order to get the folded over panel at front and back.

This rather charming picture shows how a peplos would be fitted:

Shoes: The shoes worn before Rome’s arrival in Britain would have been simple, most likely one piece of leather gathered up around the foot by a lace. Examples vary from simple sheets of leather that would have created ‘bag’ shoes to more elaborate cut out patterns that fit the foot more comfortably.

Iron Age shoes preserved in a bog.

Ütersen bog shoe, 0-4th Century AD Cloaks:

As has already been mentioned, the Celts wore different cloaks depending on the weather, light in summer, heavy in winter. Since most re-enactment is done during the summer months, a light cloak is recommended. What you classify as a light cloak is open to debate, but since we have accounts of Celts fighting in their cloaks I would suggest that the cloak be light enough and manageable enough to fight in, while still being large enough to be useful as a cloak. I personally have a cloak 3m by 1.5m. If I’m cold I fold it in half and wrap it around myself, if it’s raining I leave it unfolded and drape it over my head and around myself, and when fighting I fold it in half and half again. Since we only have the description and one image (unfortunately I can’t find an mage not protected by copyright, but the Civitalba Frieze from Italy shows two Celtic warriors fleeing in their cloaks, which seem to be knee or ankle length) the only rule here is that it should be a rectangular cloak pinned at the shoulder by a cloakpin.

Cloakpins:

Before Roman influence on Britain, cloakpins would have been bow shaped fibulae, effectively glorified safety pins in the style shown below:

Polden Hill fibula, Somerset, AD.40-70 There is an argument that the penannular brooch (as shown below) was a British design, but it doesn’t seem particularly popular until the arrival of Rome, although even then it doesn’t completely replace the bow shaped fibula.

Penannular brooch. Since we are re-enacting a period of change and influences, both styles of cloakpin are permitted within Dumnonika.

Belts:

Another change the Romans seem to have brought to Britain is the use of belt buckles. Before this, Iron Age British belts seem to have been fastened with hooks, loops and toggles.

Selection of toggles found in the Kirburn grave, Yorkshire. 300-200BC.

Belt fitting found on Isle of Wight. Dated to 120BC-AD43 The Vicus present a possible design for a toggle belt on their website: http://www.vicus.org.uk/kitguide/index.htm Any belt that uses a toggle to fasten will be accepted, so long as the toggle is of a correct Iron Age style or organic. For low status individuals, belts can be simply a tied length of cord, braid or tablet weave. Jewellery:

Jewellery appears to be rather rare in the Iron Age, suggesting that only high status individuals should wear any. What there is though is quite beautiful. As mentioned above, brooches were used to hold cloaks and dresses together, and they seem to have been mostly plain, although a few were enamelled or decorated with red corral and white glass. The picture below shows a bead necklace. Such a necklace would have been very uncommon, most women would have had one or two beads, if that, and they would likely have been worn as ear rings or in the hair. Bangles of bronze or soft stone such as shale or jet (more likely shale in our region) could have been worn on wrist or ankle, and spiral rings were also known, although rare, and could also have been worn on fingers or toes.

Collection of jewellery in the British Museum, 400-200BC. Torcs were also known, although they are high status items worn only by the rich and powerful.

Torc from the Polden Hill Hoard, Somerset, AD40-70.

Weapons and Tools:

As Dumnonika is primarily a Living History group with more focus on everyday life than warfare it is hoped that individual members will choose an aspect of Iron Age life they would like to represent, be it blacksmith, carpenter, fisherman, merchant, slave, spinner, weaver or whatever. As such this kit guide will not give the potentially exhausting list of tools and weapons. Members are strongly encouraged to research their chosen area of interest and discuss with the Authenticity Officer any tools and equipment they wish to use as part of the group display.