Celtic horses

Happy New Year! And of course: new year, new blog post 😀

Sometimes, I just have to do something archaeology-related. In this case, I was thinking about the very cute Celtic coins that date back to about four centuries BC (they stopped making them around the first century). I finished a numismatics course some years ago, and whereas I forgot most of the information given by the lecturer, the fun of translating the half-disappeared writing on them and the mostly funny-looking images still appeal to me. The Celtic coins I mentioned were spread throughout eastern Europe, as well as France and Britain. Initially, they copied Greek designs, but by the time the coin of the following picture was made, a lot of subtle changes had taken place. This specific coin was made by the Parisii, obviously the Gaulish people after which Paris was named, and their coins can be easily recognised by the depiction of a dotted star (between the horse’s feet) and a fishing net (above the horse).

Celtic coins are known to have quite abstract designs. As you can see, the horse has been entirely made out of a single wavy line and some dots and little stripes. This makes for a very elegant design, which I decided to try out on my nails!

: Gold stater found in France, dates from about 100-75 BC

Of course, it turned out to be a very difficult endeavour.. To fit an entire horse on one short little nail you need to make very, very tiny dots and lines.. Ultimately, I decided to only paint them on my right hand, because they took me a long time to make, and the horses would probably have turned out extra shaky on my left hand.
On the other hand (no pun intended..), I am very glad to have made such an archaeologically correct design! And most of all, the tiny little horses look soooo cute..