Antiquities Exhibits

During the last two centuries of the second millennium BCE a series of settlements were established along the coastal areas of northern Portugal. Their noble elite celebrated ritual banquets and participated in an extensive network of interchange of prestige items such as  cauldrons, knives, bronze vases, roasting spits, flesh-hooks, swords, axes and jewelry, from the Mediterranean up to the British Isles. But this network appears to collapse at the beginning of the first millennium and their open settlements were gradually replaced by fortified hill-forts constructed of earthen walls, battlements and ditches, which enclosed an inner habitable space. Trade dwindled to just the production of various axes and tools. Then, beginning in the 6th century BCE, the "Castro" culture once again began to expand and widespread trade returned driven by Carthaginian merchants who brought imports of wine glass, pottery, and other goods.  The Carthaginians constructed emporia that sometimes ...

The worship of Epona, "the sole Celtic divinity ultimately worshipped in Rome itself",  was the patroness of cavalry and widespread in the Roman Empire between the first and third centuries CE.  This is unusual for a Celtic deity, most of whom were associated with specific localities.  Evidence of her worship was first found in the Danubian provinces and scholar Fernand Benoît asserted that she had been introduced in the limes of Gaul by horsemen from the east.  However, although the name is Gaulish, dedicatory inscriptions to Epona are in Latin or, rarely, Greek. They were made not only by Celts, but also by Germans, Romans, and other inhabitants of the Roman Empire. An inscription to Epona from Mainz, Germany, identifies the dedicator as Syrian. Epona's feast day in the Roman calendar was given as December 18 on a rustic calendar from Guidizzolo, Italy. She was incorporated into the imperial cult by being invoked on behalf of the Emperor, as Epona Augusta or Epona ...

Mark Cartwright of the Ancient History Encyclopedia just published and excellent article on the Gundestrup Cauldron and I wish to share it with you.  But first some of my personal musings about the object. The Gundestrup Cauldron, dated to the 1st century BCE, was discovered by workers cutting peat blocks in a bog near Gundestrup, North Jutland, Denmark on 28 May 1891 CE. The details of the decorative reliefs on the cauldron show a clear Celtic influence but some motifs, particularly the exotic animals (lions or leopards, elephants, and griffins), suggest, too, a Near Eastern influence so that scholars generally attribute its manufacture to peoples living in the Lower Danube region, specifically Dacia or Thrace (which is today’s Romania and Bulgaria). The use of silver is another link with the Lower Danube region as it is rare in Celtic art but not so in Thracian art.  When I first encountered Nuragic art from Sardinia, I wondered if those people may have had an influence on t...

The Hochdorf Chieftain's Grave is a richly-furnished Celtic burial chamber dating from 540 BCE near Hochdorf an der Enz (municipality of Eberdingen) in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Beginning in 1968, a volunteer at the State Antiquities and Monuments Office in Baden-Württemberg, Renate Leibfried, kept coming across stone fragments plowed up in the field. She reported her observations and the Archaeological Preservation Office identified what had been a large burial mound.  Dr. Jörg Biel led a complete excavation of the site between 1978 to 1979. The grave contained a Celtic prince, roughly 40 years of age and 6 ft 2 in tall, who was laid out on a bronze recliner with eight wheels.  He wore a gold-plated torc on his neck, a bracelet on his right arm, a hat made of birch bark, a gold-plated dagger made of bronze and iron, rich clothing, amber jewelry and the remains of thin embossed gold plaques which once decorated his now-disintegrated shoes. Other grave goods included a razor ...

Early spurs had a neck that ended in a point, called a prick, riveted to the heel band. The spur was used by the Celts during the La Tène period (which began in the fifth century BCE), and is also mentioned by Xenophon (circa 430 - 354 BCE.) in his treatise "On Horsemanship".   When the horse is about to leap over any obstacle, Xenophon recommends applying the spur on takeoff, so that the horse will use his whole body over the obstacle and make a safer jump. If this is not done, Xenophon points out, he may lag with his hind end. Xenophon goes on to admonish those wishing to make a horse "showy" to spare the spur. He emphasized that the rider should not pull on the bit nor spur or whip the horse, as this type of riding causes the opposite effect, simply distracting and frightening the animal and causing him to dislike being ridden. Instead, Xenophon urges, the horse must enjoy himself. He should be trained to be ridden on a loose rein, to hold his head high, arch his...

 As I was looking through the images I took at the British Museum in 2016, I saw this drinking cup and wondered about the symbolism depicted on it.  Although the horseman could be just any mounted warrior and not a mythical hero, that would be unusual during the 6th century.  Although the Spartan kings during this time period were accompanied by 300 royal guards called hippeis (cavalrymen),  they were actually infantry hoplites like all Spartiatai. The Spartans did not utilize a cavalry of their own until late into the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE), when small units of 60 cavalrymen were attached to each mora (unit of 576 men composed of four lochoi of 144 men each).  This cup was produced, though, about the time of earliest contact between the Greeks and the Celts which occurred around the Greek colony of Massalia in 600 BCE. Celtic elites traded for wine, drinking vessels, and other status symbols with merchants from Greece and Etruscan Italy. Perhaps Celtic...

First to Third century CE Treveri and Roman remains at the Gallo-Roman Museum in Arlon, Belgium. Before the Roman conquests of Gaul, the territory of Arlon and a vast area to the southeast were settled by the Celtic Treveri tribe. The settlement was located at what would become crossroads of two important Roman roads (Reims-Trier and Metz-Tongres) after the Roman conquest of Gaul. This allowed ancient Orolaunum to prosper and  become a vibrant commercial and administrative center during the first three centuries of the common era. Then much of the city was destroyed during the Germanic invasions of the 3rd century CE despite the defensive walls that had been built on the Knipchen hill. The first archaeological discoveries made in Arlon go back to the 17th century, when remains of the defensive wall were dismantled and its foundations revealed the reuse of fragments of funerary monuments. During the 19th century a necropolis was unearthed along the a wealth of grave goods. Then ...

Celtic finds from the largest oppidum in mainland Europe at the KeltenMuseum in Heidengraben, Germany. The oppidum at Heidengraben is thought to have been created in the late La Tène period (late 2nd century BCE to early 1st century BCE). In addition to agriculture, the population had artisans engaged in metal working and glass production. Fragments of Roman amphorae dating from 130-90 BCE indicate a significant amount of Ro man wine was imported and probably enjoyed by a rich elite. However, no burial site dating to the oppidum period has been discovered. The oppidum was abandoned in the first half of the 1st century BCE but archaeologists have been unable to determine a cause. Researchers speculate that since this abandonment coincides with the abandonment of other oppida in that period, it may have been due to fundamental changes in social, economic or political circumstances. The Romans occupied the area beginning in 85 CE and evidence of farms as well as mansiones have been fo...

Celtic-Roman Museum in Manching, Bavaria.  Opening in 2006, this museum, a branch of the Archaeological State Collection, Munich, is divided into Celtic finds from the nearby oppidum of Manching and Roman finds, particularly the remains of Roman military ships found in 1986 in a tributary of the Danube in the Oberstimm district, probably used to patrol the area around the Roman fort (Kastell Oberstimm) first erected during the reign of Claudius.  Exhibits include 450 gold coins, one of the largest finds of Celtic gold in Europe, weapons, armor,  jewelry, ceramics, tools, physician's instruments, sculpture, grave goods and a golden tree with gilded ivy and oak leaves produced during the 3rd century BCE and used in a Celtic tree cult. Images: Roman ornament depicting the Capitoline wolf and the golden Celtic courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Wolfgang Sauber.

 Etruscan and Celtic finds at the L Fantini Civic Archaeological Museum in Monterenzio, Italy The historical and material culture of the Etruscans from the nearby Etruscan-Celtic settlement of Monte Bibele and the necropolis of Monte Tamburino near the village of Monterenzio (BO) is the focus of this museum. Considered to house one of the most important Celtic collections in Italy, exhibits include cooking vessels, preserved food and the reconstruction of two houses of the Etrusco-Celtic settlement of Monte Bibele (4th-3rd centuries BCE). Finds from the votive deposits and necropolises of Monte Bibele and Monterenzio Vecchio as well as Celtic iron swords and thrown weapons (spears, javelins), and a large number of bronze and iron helmets are also displayed. Additional information: The food of the dead: alimentary offerings in the Etruscan-Celtic necropolis of Monterenzio Vecchio (Bologna, Italy)  http://sciencepress.mnhn.fr/sites/default/files/articles/pdf/az2013n2a11.p...