The Celtic World (Routledge Worlds)

• Chapter Twenty -

Figure 20.7 Openwork sheet-gold fragments with reversible faces from Bad Diirkheim, Kr.
Neustadt, Germany. Max. ht of heads 1.7 cm. Later fifth to early fourth century Be. (Photo:
Historisches Museum der Pfalz, Speyer.)

regions of Australia has made it clear to us that paintings which look 'decorative' or
'abstract' may contain very specific Dreamtime narratives and refer to precise
geographic features, as well as serving as assertions of ownership. Recent work on
ritual sites of the pre-Roman Iron Age has, however, shown how rarely such sites
include objects of artistic note. Among major exceptions is the Celto-Ligurian region
of the south of France where the influence of the classical world, particularly from the
Greek colonies of the region such as Massalia, permeates everything from settlement
plans to stone-carving (Duval and Heude 1983: 128-46). Yet much of the surviving
wooden carving is in the form of votive offerings thrown into healing springs or wells
in France and Germany in the early Roman period (Figure 20.12) (Planck et al. 1982;
Deyts 1983; Romeuf 1986). Importantly, the ditched enclosures of northern France
such as Gournay-sur-Aronde, with its evidence for sacrifice of horses and cattle along
with the ritually destroyed weapons of those killed in battle, or the human ossuary at
Ribemont, also include fine ornaments and other distinctive pieces (Brunaux et al.
1985; Rapin and Brunaux 1988; Brunaux 1988). The decoration found on swords may
have had specific, perhaps apotropaic, meaning for warriors.

WORKSHOPS AND REGIONAL

GROUPINGS

The social organization of production of art and the location or even existence of

regional styles or workshops can be hard to pinpoint with precision. The greatest

amount of regional variation in styles and the objects decorated is evident in the Early

Style and, to a lesser extent, in the third-to second-century Sword and related styles.