The Celtic Chariot

Extract

Spectacular discoveries in Marnian in Marnian graves, an ambiguous reference by Caesar, and the attentions of modern scholars such as Fox and Piggott have led to a great deal of interest and speculation about the Celtic chariot. The discovery of a number of chariot fittings at Llyn Cerrig Bach prompted Sir Cyril Fox to attempt a reconstruction, and the result has been generally accepted as a fairly accurate representation [I]. The material used for the Llyn Cerrig model was drawn from all over Europe, and much of it came from socalled ‘chariot-burials’. But whether or not the vehicle buried in La Thne graves was identical with the war-chariot has never been seriously questioned and is worth considering.

In Champagne and Western Germany, where the two-wheeled vehicle is found in La Tène graves together with weapons, there are two possible interpretations of its purpose. On the one hand it could be associated with the weapons, and regarded as the dead warrior's chariot; on the other, it might be linked rather with death and the corpse, thus being either a hearse or a vehicle from a funeral procession. In Yorkshire this choice is less open. Weapons are never found in the same grave as the wheels and other fittings, and it would be more reasonable to identify the vehicle with a funerary cart.