One of the problems with a lot of Iron Age illustration I have looked at over the last few days is that, well, they are not that realistic. Now I have to be very careful here because, in truth, we don't really know what Iron Age people actually looked like. Perhaps the most realistic are the bog bodies which, of course, are actual Iron Age people. However, they have been pickled by the bog as well as being executed which tends to flavour the resultant look and feel of the person.
A lot of the illustrations also tend to be what one might call, the i spy book of... style, where the people tend to be idealised, perhaps projecting what we want them to look like - the noble savage. In truth the Iron Age people were us, in fact are us, so we need to look to modern faces and features to try and give these people life. The one thing that they would have, especially the women, is a careworn expression. A person who knows grief and death only too well. She would, no doubt, have lost more than one child in her young life and would also be fearful of being pregnant as this could also lead to her own death during child birth. Add to this a hard life working the land in all weathers and perhaps being abducted during some raid then you would get a woman who would be naturally suspicious and careful as to how she conducted herself.
Of course the flip side to this that a woman could have it all. She could be the leader of the polity and sit right at the top of her society, and be honoured with all riches that her society could produce in death. And that would be considerable - nonetheless to be a woman, however grand still had the great fear of child birth and whether she would survive. She would also have the strength of character to be able to lead armies into battle as well as deal with all the political infighting that comes with any human society. In short she would also be careworn but for different reasons.
Anyway, that was some of the ideas that went into making this sketch.
Sent from my iPad
Posted via email from SIMON's posterous
