ABSTRACT

In 1947 Christopher Hawkes published an animal-headed fragment of wrought iron from Camulodunum which could best be interpreted as part of a double-ended firedog of well-known type. The iron firedogs which form our main theme have long been recognized as an outstanding group of objects in British prehistory. These firedogs are in fact among some of the most spectacular antiquities of the last phase of the Celtic Iron Age in Britain. The firedog stands out from all the other British and Continental pieces in its elaboration and rococo flamboyance: 'essentially barbaric', said Fox, 'product of another world of art and craft' from that of the south-east English examples. Firedogs, particularly the large frontal type, are directly related to the barbarian open hearth and log fire, and to houses of central-hearth plan. The placing of firedogs in Celtic graves at Montefortino and elsewhere represented, in fourth century b.c. Italy, a custom as characteristically Etruscan as were the fire-dog types themselves.