The images you'll see as you scroll down to the current text are all part of the story telling in my novel, Realms of Gold:Ritual to Romance.


Bianca Caldwell, pen name, Bianca Fiore, is a writer for an art magazine. In each of her monthly stories she describes an object used in ancient ritual.

The Dresden-Dobritz Hoard

The earliest beaten bronze vessels associated with ceremonial and perhaps ritual feasting
and drinking occur in the Bronze D phase of the thirteenth century BC in Central
Europe.




Beaten bronze cups in a succession of variant forms are characteristic of the Urnfield late Bronze Age ... Friedrichsruhe and Fuchsstadt cups, with decorated variants such as those from the Dresden-Dobritz hoard date from the end of Bronze D through Hallstatt A1 and A2




source:THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF CELTIC ART - D.W. Harding
photo: Landesmuseum fur Vorge-schichte, Dresden, copyright Landesmt fur Archaologie Sachsen 

Ancient Gold: The Vapheio Cups

Pair of gold cups found in the tholos tomb of Vapheio in Laconia. The releif representations depict scenes of bull-chasing. They are unique masterpieces of the Creto-Mycenaean metalwork, dated to the first half of the 15th century B.C.


Midwest Book Review

 The Midwest Book Review


Realms of Gold: Ritual to Romance
Terry Stanfill
Story Merchant
9601 Wilshire Blvd. #1202, Beverly Hills CA 90210
9780615657547, $14.99, www.storymerchant.com/books.html

In 1953, archaeologist Rene Joffroy leads a dig near Vix, Burgundy. He believes the fields below Mont Lassois contain an ancient burial site. The excavation finds an incredibly preserved krater and a tomb of a two and a half millennia woman surrounded by treasure. Joffroy and others wonder who she was and why foreign items like an urn were buried in France.

In 2007 Venice, American magazine writer Bianca Evans Caldwell and Italian archaeologist Giovanni de Serlo meet at the wedding of family members Alegrea Bona Dea and Jonathan Evans. They enjoy discussing their love of the past with the mystery of Vix enthralling both of them. She returns to New York while he goes back to a dig Puglia, Italy. However, she begins having dreams about Zatoria; a woman whom Bianca thinks is long dead. She returns to Italy and with Giovanni's help, begins to follow the trail of the enigmatic Vix Krater.

This is an exciting thriller that grips readers from the moment the heroine dreams of Zatoria and never slows down until the protagonists make a startling connection between the Vix corpse and ancient British mythos. Part of the fun is Terry Stanfill offering a viable solution to the five century BC real Vix Krater is the insight into archaeology without slowing down the wonderful storyline. Although the relationship between the author and the archeologist at times seems forced, this is a super thriller.

Celts - Ornamental Gold Mounts

Schwarzenbach Germany.
About 420 BC


The openwork design shows characteristic early Celtic ornaments. The prototypes were palmettes and lotus-flower popular in Mediterranean antiquity. Original motifs were divided into individual leaves and the rearranged. The reason for displaying the ornaments on a bowl is still unknown, probably served as a drinking horn mounts.


Art of the Celts Gold Disc Detail

Celtic yin yang swirls arranged around the knob of a gold-plated bronze disc from Auvers-sur-Oise, Val-d'Oise, dated to early 4th century BC; on display at the Cabinet des Médailles of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris



Art of the Celts: Gold Disc


Celtic gold-plated bronze disc from Auvers-sur-Oise, Yvelines, dated to early 4th century BC, on display at the Cabinet des Médailles of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris

 



The World of Celts: Treasures of Art - Hunterston Brooch


This stunning brooch was found at Hunterston, Ayrshire during the 1830s. Made about AD700, it is a highly accomplished casting of silver, richly mounted with gold, silver and amber decoration.


The brooch is a truly special object, sumptuously decorated with animals executed in gold wire and granules, called filigree. In the centre of the brooch is a cross flanking a golden ‘Glory’ representing the risen Christ.





This close-up of the brooch shows the detailed filigree, the work of a highly accomplished craftsman.


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Royal Celtic Gold: Rich Pickings



Photograph courtesy Stuttgart Regional Council

Fit for an Iron Age princess, this exquisitely patterned, solid gold broach (seen in a March 2011 photograph) was among the treasures found alongside the Celtic noblewoman.

The woman's tomb was found not far from the similarly aged grave of a girl, previously unearthed in 2005, whose body was adorned almost identically, said project co-leader Nicole Ebinger-Rist, an archaeologist with Stuttgart Regional Council.

"What's amazing is that the jewelry from the girl—two broaches and two earrings—have exactly the same type of ornamentation," she said. "These must be two related people."

The study team hopes DNA analysis will reveal whether the pair belonged to the same family—or were even mother and daughter.


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