The Celtic World (Routledge Worlds)

(Barry) #1

  • The Gods and the Supernatural -


sixth and third centuries Be, which are presumed to represent gods or dead heroes.
One of the earliest such figures is a huge sandstone image from a late Hallstatt
burial-mound at Hirschlanden near Stuttgart. He is naked but for a conical helmet,
a torque, belt and dagger (Woodward 1992: fig. 45; Megaw 1970: no. 12). His original
position may have been at the top of the mound, and he may represent the dead
warrior himself or perhaps a war-god, patron of the deceased. The image at Holzer-
lingen, also in Germany and of similar date, almost certainly represents a god:
a rough sandstone block was crudely hewn into a human torso, featureless except
for a belt at the waist (Megaw 1970: no. 14). But the statue is janiform, surmounted
by a dual head bearing horns, perhaps the earliest representation of a Celtic horned
god. The carved head from Heidelberg comes from a statue or pillar-stone: dating
to the fifth-fourth century Be, it bears a leaf crown consisting of two swelling
lobes which meet above the head, and on the forehead is carved a motif which has
been interpreted by some as a lotus bud, a Greek symbol of eternity (Megaw and
Megaw 1989: 74). The two features of crown and lotus may signify divinity: both
recur on the pillar-stone at Pfalzfeld in the Rhineland which dates to the same period,
and which bears curvilinear foliate Celtic designs out of which peer four leaf-
crowned human heads (ibid.: 74, fig. 83, left; Megaw 1970: no. 75). Further east is
the third-century Be ritual site of Msecke 2ehrovice near Prague, which produced
a carved stone head, originally from a life-size statue: the face is that of the typical
Celt as stereotyped by classical writers (and more recently by the creators of
Asterix): hair en brosse, staring eyes and flowing moustache (Megaw and Megaw
1989: 124, pI. XVII). The image bears a heavy buffer-torque, probably a symbol of
divinity or, at least, high status. It is difficult to interpret the Msecke 2ehrovice head
as representative of anything other than a god.
The Proven~al group of sculptures dates to between the fifth and second centuries
Be, and their presence may be due in part to the stimulus of mimetic representation
provided by the nearby Greek (Phocean) colony of Marseilles. Such sanctuaries
as those at Entremont and Roquepertuse in the lower Rhone valley have produced
a rich iconography (Figure 2 p) (Benoit 1955, 1981), including sculptures of cross-
legged male figures, some of whom wear armour, and who may be war-gods. The
severed human head is a prominent iconographic theme at these shrines, and some
of these 'warrior-gods' hold severed heads in their hands, as if reflective of the divine
dominance over humans in life and death. Entremont produced a carved pillar of
incised human heads; both this sanctuary and that at Roquepertuse had niches, filled
with the human skulls of young men killed in battle, built into the structure of the
temple. The sanctuary at Roquepertuse was guarded by a janiform head, perhaps that
of the presiding deity, who gazed inwards and outwards from the gateway of his
sacred place.
Other stone sculptures, presumed to represent divinities, come from elsewhere
in the Celtic heartland: an important example is the boar-god at Euffigneix (Haute-
Marne), an image which dates to the second or first century Be. The carving takes the
form of a roughly hewn pillar depicting a beardless god wearing a heavy torque, with
a boar in low relief striding up his torso. On the side of the pillar is an immense human
eye, perhaps indicative of protection or omnipotence. The boar's dorsal crest is erect,
as if to reflect aggression: for the Celts, the image of the boar was an important war

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