- Burial and the Other World -
of the elite regarding the supply of luxury items from Etruria. The final phase of
the Champagne culture is intimately linked to the beginnings of folk movements
culminating in the great Celtic migrations.
Later La Tene TraditionsThe subsequent periods (C.200-100 Be; d. Whimster 1981: 116-21; Cunliffe 1988:
33-6, 80-105; Collis 1984: 139-57; and Wells 1980: 104-42) reverted to simpler flat
inhumation cemeteries (bodies extended with heads to the west) with weak social
ranking indicated by grave goods of personal ornaments and weapons. There is a
widespread (but poorly documented) tradition of decapitated burials throughout
both the Hallstatt and La Tene traditions, hinting at complex social and religious
distinctions. Cremation appears in northern France c.300 Be and gradually spreads
south and eastwards. Throughout, both square and rectangular barrows occur along-
side the simpler inhumations, and where present are usually associated with the
'richer' burials. The consistent incorporation of grave goods has been widely
accepted as congruent with a belief in a concrete Otherworld where the dead will
want and need symbols of their life and status from this world.
The true complexity of funerary practices has been demonstrated by the out-
standing work of Brunaux and Meniel at Gournay-sur-Aronde (Brunaux 1987;
Brunaux, Meniel and Poplin 1985). Gournay was a small ritual enclosure (about
45 x 38 m) set within a large later iron age oppidum of the Bellovaci. The enclosure was
demarcated by ditches, and in the ceIJtre of the enclosure was a long sequence of cultic
features and buildings. It is significant that the enclosure ditches and walls meant that
the interior could not be observed from without, and that the cult features and build-
ings were not designed to accommodate large groups of people, such as worshippers
or observers. The earliest phase was at the end of La Tene I (fourth century Be), and
the site was deliberately and formally closed and dismantled in the mid-first century
Be. A later Roman temple was subsequently built over the levelled remains of the
Celtic temples, so some knowledge of the site's significance must have survived.
Gournay has provided an unprecedented wealth of information about Celtic ritual
practices, and Brunaux (1987) is adept at teasing out elements of belief underlying
the practices. Among the themes relevant to this discussion is the occurrence of some
2,000 sacrificed weapons and animals deliberately placed in the enclosure ditch
(Brunaux 1987: 9, fig.), representing what Brunaux has described as 'an unbroken
apotropaic cordon all the way around the sacred area' (1987: 32). Amongst the
sacrifices are many human remains. These are consistently scored by fine knife
marks, and Poplin was led to conclude that they represented the dismemberment of
the corpse during a funerary ritual. This was not applied to the ordinary Gaul (buried
or cremated) but rather to some small subset of the population. Brunaux prefers
to link them to a long-standing cult of the head and an ancestor cult (for which he
provides little evidence). The underlying belief was apparently that the soul of the
deceased was contained in the skull or other bone, and that putting the bone in
the enclosure ditch served to add the deceased's spiritual power to that of the
weapons and animals also placed in the ditch. This has interesting implications about
the nature of the people so treated - were they outcasts?