- Chapter Twenty -
far bolder translation of palmettes and the like onto pottery. The general sharing of
motifs on disparate materials underscores the common visual vocabulary of the early
Celts, despite attempts to distinguish between eastern and western groups by what is
basically a comparison of pottery designs with those on metal.
SCULPTURE
Too little carved wood or datable stone survives for much discussion. Often it looks
crude compared to the metalwork, but this is sometimes due to decay or weathering.
Wooden votive offerings in springs in France
(see p. 356), appear to have been made by local
carvers, with those at Chamalieres more
Roman-influenced than the examples from
Sources de-la-Seine. A unique if fragmentary
group of a stag and a human figure with goat
supporters from a well, within a square ritual
enclosure at Fellbach-Schmiden near Stuttgart,
is dated by dendrochronology to the late sec-
ond century Be (Figure 20.12). The presence,
however, of turned wooden vessels and other
wooden objects in waterlogged situations of
much earlier date within a settlement area on
the Diirrnberg, and evidence for the skilled
production of wheeled vehicles (Piggott 1983:
195-238), are clear indications of how incom-
plete is our knowledge of the use by early
Celtic craftsmen of such perishable materials.
A small group of stylized human heads,
mostly sandstone, of the late Hallstatt and
early La Tene periods is scattered through
the Rhineland and south-western Germany
(Kimmig 1985, 1987). Except for those of the
Celto-Ligurians in the south of France, most
other stone sculptures are usually isolated finds
of sometimes dubious antiquity, such as the
'Taras que' or monster of Noves from the
Bouches du Rhone (Duval and Heude 1983:
138). The splendid if damaged rags tone head of
a torque-wearing, moustachioed male, found
buried outside the Bohemian ditched sanctuaryFigure 20.12 Wooden stag from well within square ritual enclosure (Viereckschanze) at
Fellbaeh-Sehmiden, Kr. Rems-Murr, Germany. Ht. 77 cm. Last quarter second eentury Be.
(Photo courtesy Landesdenkmalamt Baden-Wurttemberg, Stuttgart.)