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Coins and Cosmologies in Iron Age Western Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2018

Caroline Pudney Open the ORCID record for Caroline Pudney [Opens in a new window]
Caroline Pudney*
Affiliation:
Department of History and Archaeology, University of Chester, Parkgate Road, Chester CH1 4BJ, UK Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper offers a material culture-based approach to British Western Iron Age coins (i.e. those often attributed to the Dobunni). Through analysis of the materiality and imagery of these objects, the author explores the embodiment of later Iron Age cosmologies. In doing so, the cycles of day and night and of life and death are discussed. The ways in which these cosmologies could have been transposed onto the landscape through coin production and depositional contexts helps to demonstrate how Iron Age societies in Western Britain may have understood their world and confirmed their space within it.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , February 2019 , pp. 23 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 2018 

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