This book presents a little-known and ingenious artefact of the Roman
world: a small puzzle padlock whose font plate bears a face or 'mask' of
'Celtic' style. The padlocks were designed to secure small bags or
pouches and their distribution extended across Europe with the majority
found in the Danubian region and in the vicinity of Aquileia. The
authors examine the cultural context, the origins and uses of the
padlocks, and provide detailed solutions to the puzzle mechanisms. The
publication provides a fully-illustrated catalog of the known 156
examples, categorises their types according to construction and style,
and explores the technicalities of the subject by the process of
constructing replica mask puzzle padlocks.