​The Somerset Celtic Winged Mystery

• This piece features the flowing, curvilinear lines that define the La Tène art style. The design is “zoomorphic,” appearing to represent a highly stylized bird or a winged creature in flight. In Celtic mythology, birds – particularly water birds or birds of prey – were seen as messengers between the physical world and the spirit realm.
  ​The presence of the open-work circle (or “eye”) is a significant design choice. This motif was often used to provide a point of suspension or to allow a contrasting material, like brightly coloured enamel or coral, to be set into the metal. While the piece’s exact use is debated, its shape and size suggest it may have been a high-status chariot fitting, a decorative mount for a leather harness, or a fragment of a larger, ceremonial vessel. In the watery landscape of Iron Age Somerset, such a creature would have served as a powerful talisman for protection and safe passage.

The Find: