The two recent ANR-DFG research projects devoted to Iron Age gold in Western Europe provide archaeological, typo-chronological and archaeometric data, in addition to the research programmes carried out in the IRAMAT laboratory of Orléans on Celtic gold coinages since the mid-1990s. Some of these artefacts can be distinguished by their particularly high gold and low silver concentrations compared to that of the other Iron Age gold objects and to those usually measured in gold ores. Consequently, the metal from which they are made has necessarily been produced by refining, i.e. by separating silver from gold at some point in the metallurgical process. However, this refining hypothesis is less obvious for some other artefacts. The oldest items that are concerned date back to the 5th century (Ha D3) while the most recent could be dated from the end of the 2nd to the beginning of the 1st century BC (LT D1).Our paper wishes to characterize these rare Celtic artefacts very likely made of purified gold (type, elemental composition, dating and place of discovery) and to discuss these data in the light of what is known about the metallurgical processes in antiquity and their impact on the elemental composition of the gold produced. This discussion should improve our understanding of these Celtic objects in terms of gold metallurgy and of gold supply.
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