Placing the decorated metalwork of the later Iron Age in a long-term perspective of metal objects from the Bronze Age onwards, the volume pays special attention to the nature of deposition and focuses on settlements, hoards, and burials -- including Celtic art objects' links with other artefact classes, such as iron objects and coins. A unique feature of the book is that it pursues trends beyond the Roman invasion, highlighting stylistic continuities and differences in the nature and use of fine metalwork.
Chris Gosden has been a curator-lecturer at the Pitt Rivers Museum and is currently Professor of European Archaeology at Oxford University. He has carried out fieldwork in Britain, Papua New Guinea, central Asia, and Borneo. He has published on issues of colonialism, material culture, museum collections and their histories, Iron Age and Roman archaeology, and issues of identity.