- Chapter Twenty -
Figure 20.5 Incised bronze scabbard plate no. 2 from Lisnacrogher, Co. Antrim, Northern
Ireland, showing birds' heads. W 4.1 cm.? Third-second century Be. (Photo: Belzeaux-
Zodiaque.)
THE NATURE OF CELTIC ART
Celtic willingness to import forms and techniques as well as trade objects has
given rise to the view that, particularly in the late Hallstatt and Early La Tene
periods, much of Europe north of the Alps was on the periphery and at the mercy
of the 'core' cultures of the Mediterranean world. As much as anything it is the art
which belies this dependent role since it continued to evolve and spread long after
political and economic events brought a halt to southern imports. Unlike classical
art, that of the early Celtic world is not so much aniconic as non-narrative and
small scale, often almost miniaturist. There is little or no continuity with the
occasional representations of dancing, weaving or burial rites illustrated on some of
the funerary pottery and sheet metalwork of the late Hallstatt period. Such rare
depictions as, for example, a military procession of warriors on an early La Tene
sword from one of the later graves associated with the salt-working site of Hallstatt
itself (Figure 20.6) (Dehn 1970) have sources in this case in the eastern Hallstatt area
and the long-lasting local tradition around the headwaters of the Adriatic of
decorating bronze vessels (situlae) with scenes of feasting and military prowess.
Local artists clearly used only those foreign elements which suited their visual
grammatical syntax (Castriota 1981).