GILLIAN CARR - WOAD, TATTOOING AND IDENTITY IN LATER IRON AGE.pdf - artykuły - chrupacz

GILLIAN CARR

WOAD, TATTOOING AND IDENTITY IN LATER IRON AGE

AND EARLY ROMAN BRITAIN

Summary. This paper explores the archaeological evidence for the practice

of facial and corporeal dyeing, painting and tattooing in the later Iron Age and

early Roman period. The aim is to construct a hypothesis which explains how,

why, when and by whom such pigments were worn. Although this hypothesis

discusses woad-derived indigo, this is used mainly, although not exclusively,

as an experimental tool, as no conclusive archaeological evidence exists which

reveals the identity of the ‘real’ pigment(s). Woad has also long held a place

in the popular imagination as the source of the dye which the ancient Britons

used to paint themselves.

This paper explores the possibility that the cosmetic grinder was the

focal artefact used in body painting or tattooing, and was used for grinding

and mixing body and face paint. It is suggested that, rather than being a

‘Roman’-style tool for cosmetic application from the start, it may have begun

life as an artefact ﬁrst used by the later Iron Age Britons for body painting and

expressing indigenous identities.

INTRODUCTION

Described variously as pendant charms deriving their shape from the iron nose-bands

used for horses (Smith 1918); grooved pendants (Trett 1983); and a device used for grinding up

medicaments or cosmetics (Jackson 1985, 1993, forthcoming; Jackson and Thullier 1999; Stead

and Rigby 1989), the cosmetic grinder is a small cast-bronze crescent-shaped object consisting,

when complete, of two parts: a pestle and mortar. They date from the ﬁrst century AD to the

ﬁfth century AD (although Jackson (1993, 167) states that there is no doubt that the type is

Romano-British with its origins in the later Iron Age), and occur predominantly in the ﬁrst and

second centuries AD (Jackson 1985, 175). Cosmetic grinders range between 5–11 cm in length

(Jackson 1985, 168). Although the pestles are generally plain, the mortars are decorated with

either knobbed, zoomorphic, phallic or plain terminals. The type is exclusive to Britain, most

commonly found in the south-east (Jackson 1985, 172); more recently, however, two examples

have turned up in northern France, assumed either to have been traded from Britain or buried

with a British immigrant (Jackson and Thullier 1999, 23–4).

Jackson interpreted the cosmetic grinder as an artefact used for grinding minerals for

eye and face paints for the ‘Roman’-style practice of cosmetic application despite the fact that

they are made in a non-Classical style and did not originate in the Roman world. His research

OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 24(3) 273–292 2005

and 350 Main Street Malden, MA 02148, USA.

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WOAD, TATTOOING AND IDENTITY IN LATER IRON AGE AND EARLY ROMAN BRITAIN

showed that although their associations were with ‘less Romanised’ settlements, temple and

grave contexts (Jackson 1985, 172), there was no single or restricted sphere of use. Explored

here is the idea that they were initially used for a more native practice – that they were part of

the paraphernalia used in the application of woad-derived indigo.

Five observations suggest that cosmetic grinders were predominantly a non-‘Roman’

artefact used for a purpose that pre-dates the Roman period:

1. Cosmetic grinders are found only in Britain and nowhere else in the Roman world (bar the

two recent examples from Gaul).

2. Romans had their own tool for grinding cosmetics: the stone palette, many examples of

which are found in Britain.

3. Cosmetic grinders are made in a variety of styles such that no two are alike (although sub-

types have now been identiﬁed). This is not a feature of Roman bronzes (Jackson 1985,

169).

4. Cosmetic grinders are made in a native Romano-British and not a Classical style (Jackson

1985, 168 and 170).

5. A ‘handful’ of cosmetic grinders date to before the Conquest (Jackson forthcoming and pers.

comm.)

This ‘handful’ includes grinders from King Harry Lane, Hunsbury, Gussage All Saints,

Hod Hill and Hockwold (Jackson 1985, nos. 1, 33, 59, 50–1). An example from Normanton le

Heath in Leicestershire has also been published (Thorpe, Sharman and Clay 1994, 49) that

‘suggests a late Iron Age origin for these sets’. Jackson warns us that the great majority are

found by metal detectorists and are, consequently, without context.

With an indigenous later Iron Age origin for the cosmetic grinder thus established, it is

now necessary to consider how these objects were used.

THE METHOD OF WOAD PROCESSING

Although Hobbs (2003, 109) asserts that cosmetic grinders were not used to process

woad because it was a vegetable dye (and thus a liquid), he neglects to consider the pigment

indigo, which can be extracted from woad ( Isatis tinctoria ) plants. It would have been relatively

straightforward for people of the Iron Age to extract indigo from woad for tattooing. The only

ingredients needed were woad plants, water, and ammonia (perhaps in the form of stale urine).

Buchanan (1987) outlines the simple recipe as follows:

1. Chop woad plants.

2. Boil in water and leave to steep for an hour.

3. Strain liquid and keep, but throw plant matter away.

4. Add ammonia to the liquid until it reaches pH 9 or above.

5. Stir liquid in air for 10–15 minutes until blue particles appear on top.

6. Let particles settle for an hour or more and decant, leaving the sediment (or indigo) to dry

out.

7. Powder the indigo for further use.

The cosmetic grinder would have been used in the ﬁnal stages of woad processing to

grind up the dried product. The woad-derived indigo would then have been in a form suitable

for use in either tattooing or body painting. The yield from woad is small (Plowright (1900)

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GILLIAN CARR

Figure 1

Cosmetic grinders from Hockwold (© Copyright The British Museum).

reports that half a kilogramme of one-month-old woad plants yields 2.4 g of impure indigo), and

thus consistent with the small amount of powder with which the pestle and mortar can cope.

It is suggested that the design of the cosmetic grinder and the decoration of the mortar

terminals relate not only to the recipe needed to extract indigo from woad, but especially to the

agent needed to bind the pigment to the body. The terminal designs include bovine and duck

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WOAD, TATTOOING AND IDENTITY IN LATER IRON AGE AND EARLY ROMAN BRITAIN

heads (the binding agent in these cases being milk or egg whites, or perhaps the fats and juices

from cooking beef or duck); and also phallic designs (the binding agent being semen). The

phallic design also reﬂects a constituent of the recipe, i.e. ammonia, in the form of urine. A

binding agent of fat is an important consideration if the Britons, like the Gauls, went into battle

naked, as recorded by Diodorus Siculus (V, 29–30). This would have kept them insulated against

the cold.

As well as a tool for powdering woad-derived indigo, the cosmetic grinder was probably

also used as a mixing trough for the powder and binding agent (experimental work by the author

has shown that thorough mixing is required to produce a good pigment). The pointed end of the

pestle could then have been used for drawing delicate designs on the wearer, which could then

have been pricked into the skin to make tattoos, or merely left as body paint. Trett (1983)

remarked that the tip of the pestle from King Harry Lane was quite worn, suggesting that this

part of the pestle had been used for thorough grinding; Jackson (1993, 165) has also observed

wear marks on many pestles and mortars. Alternatively, the length of the pestle could have been

used to smear the mixture onto the body. The use of the cosmetic grinder, rather than ﬁngers,

for grinding, mixing and painting emphasizes the special, magical properties which woad-

derived indigo was perceived to possess (as discussed below). At no stage did the body

paint/tattoo specialist need to ‘contaminate’ his or her skin with this powerful pigment or waste

valuable indigo powder by getting it on his or her hands.

Experiments by the author have shown that a very small amount of indigo powder (the

area of half a little-ﬁnger nail) goes a very long way when mixed with approximately a dessert-

spoonful of the binding agent: enough to block-cover a couple of limbs. However, given the

small capacity of the cosmetic grinder, perhaps intricate designs rather than block cover were

more important.

In the experiment outlined below, indigo powder was mixed with beef dripping, milk,

water, egg yolk, egg white and semen and examined for the ease with which it mixed with the

powder, the consistency of the mixture, the colour of the mixture when dry, and the ease with

which it was removed.

TABLE 1

Results of experiments with woad and binding agents

Binding agent

Colour with indigo on drying

Consistency

Ease of removal

Milk

Grey

Watery poster-paint

Rubs off leaving a blue tinge

Beef dripping

Steel blue-grey

Grease-paint; cools to

Does not dry; stays waxy; needs

shoe-polish

hot water and soap to remove

consistency which

can be stored

Egg yolk

Dark midnight blue/blue-

Grease-paint, but more

Dries slowly, then ﬂakes/

black inky glaze

moist than beef

brushes off easil

dripping

Egg white

Shiny grey-black glaze

Watery poster-paint

Rubs off entirely as a ﬁne

powder

Semen

Dark blue-black/grey

Similar to egg yolk

Rubs off leaving a blue tinge

Saliva

Dark blue-black

Watery

Does not rub off readily

Water

Dirty indigo blue

Watery poster-paint

Does not rub off readily

None

Deep midnight/indigo blue

Chalk powder

Rubs off leaving a blue tinge

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GILLIAN CARR

These binding agents produce a variety of colours from steely grey-blue, through

intense midnight blue, to black, something which varied with amount of indigo used and colour

of skin. Most effective as a body paint was the beef dripping, which cools to a consistency of

shoe-polish suggesting that, as it does not dry, it could be saved until it was next needed, unlike

the other binding agents. Some of the colours yielded were similar to those used in military

camouﬂage palettes. Although the modern soldier’s aim is to break up the face, make it appear

two-dimensional and obscure the outline, some colours, such as the steel blue-grey produced

by mixing indigo and beef dripping, would render the face almost invisible in certain lighting

conditions (Lt. Patrick Larkin, pers. comm.). Because indigo produces a range of light and dark

blue, black and grey colours when mixed with different binding agents, we can imagine that the

native Britons would have had a choice of colours from which to choose, depending on the

occasion (such as battle or ritual ceremony), time of day, year, or weather conditions.

There are other ways in which the native Britons could have used the woad plant to

turn themselves entirely blue, rather than making indigo for tattooing or body painting. They

could either have produced enough indigo to paint the entire body, a time-consuming business,

or they could have set up a woad vat, bath or cauldron into which a person could climb. Residue

analysis of such vessels as cauldrons is long overdue; where the procedure has been applied,

the results have been most interesting, e.g. the discovery of mead in the cauldron at Hochdorf

(Körber-Grohne 1980, 250, 1985, 121–2).

Although we do not know how the woad vat would have been set up in the Iron Age,

evidence for the medieval method has survived and has been outlined by Hurry (1930). The aim

of the woad vat was to produce a reduction reaction, which could reduce the oxidized and

insoluble blue indigo into a soluble white form, which turns blue on exposure to air. Only in

the soluble form can it bind with the protein in the skin. These bonds prevent the indigo from

being washed off skin and, indeed, fabric dyed with indigo. It should be noted that indigo powder

in the insoluble (but miscible), oxidized form will wash off, as it has not bonded with the protein

in the skin.

A person dipped into the woad vat at this stage would then be dyed blue. However, on

ﬁrst emerging from the woad vat, the person would be a dirty brown colour because of the contents

of the mixture. They would only turn blue after re-oxidation, which takes a few minutes. The

spontaneous change of colour after a few minutes would have seemed a magical process to the

Britons, and would have added to the perception of woad as a magical plant. In the discussion of

fabric dyeing, Plowright (1901–2) noted that fabric turned varying shades of blue, green or grey

depending on which alkaline agents were added and depending on the length or number of times

they were dipped into the woad vat. We can assume that the results would be similar for skin.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE FOR TATTOOING AND BODY PAINTING

What evidence do we have that tattooing and body painting using indigo or any other

substance took place? There are ﬁve main sources of data:

1. Classical authors.

2. Traces of pigments or plant matter used for body painting or tattooing.

3. Bog bodies such as Lindow Man that may have traces of pigments on the skin.

4. Coin evidence for facial tattoos.

5. Paraphernalia for woad processing.

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GILLIAN CARR - WOAD, TATTOOING AND IDENTITY IN LATER IRON AGE.pdf

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