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Celtic Rock-Carvings in Northern Italy and Yorkshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

P. Jacobsthal
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Extract

Since 1932 rock-carvings have been coming to light in the Val Camonica, the valley through which the Oglio flows before debouching into the Lago d'Iseo; they were published by Marro and Battaglia and recently, thanks to the initiative of Leo Frobenius' ‘Institut für Kulturmorphologie,’ their number has been considerably increased. F. Altheim in two articles has tried to connect them with Scandinavian rock-carvings and has drawn from them weighty conclusions for the history of early Europe.

I must leave it to competent scholars to check Mr. Altheim's results where Scandinavia, Pre-Italic dialects, runes, terremare and many other interesting subjects are concerned which are hors de ma vitrine. I should only like to draw attention to some pictures which are more or less closely connected with the Celts.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , 1938 , pp. 65 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © P. Jacobsthal 1938. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Marro, , ‘Il grandioso monumento paleoetnologico di Val Camonica,’ Atti della R. Ac. di Torino lii, 1932Google Scholar; Battaglia, , Bull. Pal. Ital. lii, 1932, 69 ff.Google Scholar; N. d. Scavi 1933, 201 ff.; Studi Etruschi viii, 1934, 11 ff.

2 Welt als Geschichte ii, 1936, 83 and ibid. iii, 1937, 83 ff. (F. Altheim and E. Trautmann); my quotations ‘Altheim’ refer to the second publication.

3 On tores worn round the arm see Goessler, P., Der Silberring von Trichtingen, p. 28Google Scholar. Mr. Altheim calls the twisted (gold) tore which the Gundestrup Cernunnus holds up in the right hand a ‘wreath’; but it is definitely a torc. The Cluny Cernunnus (see Espérandieu, Recueil des reliefs, no. 3133= Goessler fig. 26) has one hanging on each antler.

4 Lantier, R., Mém. de la Fondation Piot xxxiv, 1934, 1 ff.Google Scholar

5 Drexel, , Jahrb. des Deutschen Arch. Inst. xxx, 1915, 1 ff.Google Scholar

6 Mannus xxiv, 56 ff.; our pl. ix, 2 is Merhart's fig. 1 and our pl. ix, 4 his fig. 4.

7 Altheim, p. 88.

8 Altheim, fig.5.

9 Bonnet Jabrbücher 85, 1888, 1, pl. 1; Montelius, Civilisation primitive en Italie, pl. 64, 13; Drexel, l.c., p. 28.

10 Bull. Pal. Ital. xxxvii, 1912, pl. 4, p. 90; Montelius, l.c., pl. 59, 13. A second piece from Este is shown in N. d. Scavi, 1932, p. 39, fig. 9.

11 The reader must take this for granted: I cannot prove it here briefly. The classical case of a blend of Este and Celtic forms is the Este situla from Moritzing now at Innsbruck (Conze, Annali dell' Inst., 1874, pl. 6; Zannoni, Scavi della Certosa di Bologna, pl. 35, no. 64, and elsewhere); the Celtic component here is confined to a zone of single leaves of an unmistakably Celtic shape, for which the closest analogy is to be found on the bronze beak-flagon from Dürrnberg now at Salzburg (Wienet Präbist. Zeitschr. 21, 1934, pl. 3, nr. 5; Ill. London News, 25 April, 1936, p. 718) at the lower end of the handle. The sword-sheath from Hallstatt (Altertümer unserer heidn. Vorzeit iv, pl. 32; Ebert, Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte iii, pl. 122 and often) is not one of those unpleasant hybrid products of the North Italian backwater, but the work of a decent Este man employed in a transalpine Celtic workshop; this I can only state here without being able to give my arguments in full.

12 The best picture of this scene is to be found in Rosenberg, M., Geschichte der Goldschmiedekunst, Einführung, p. 17, fig. 18Google Scholar.

13 Altheim, fig. 6.

14 The Grumentum rider is not, as he believes, a work of the middle, but of the very early sixth century B.C.; see Jantzen, , Bronzewerkstätten in Grossgriechenland und Sizilien 30Google Scholar. I do not know if he is Tarentine but he is at any rate Italiote.

15 See the busts on the bronzes from Waldalgesheim, , Altertümer unserer heidn. Vorzeit iii, 1Google Scholar, pl. 2; Ebert, Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte xiv, pl. 57a.

16 Déchelette, Manuel d'archeologie, fig. 661, 3.

17 Altheim, fig. 10.

18 Studi Etruschi viii, 30.

19 P. 91.

20 Jahrb. des Deutschen Arch.Inst. 38–39, 1923–24, Anzeiger, 323–24.

2l At Comacchio, grave 128 (Aurigemma, S., Il Museo di Spina, p. 178–191Google Scholar; Beazley, J. D., JHS lvi, 1936, 91Google Scholar) a pair of such Vulci handles is associated with vases of the third quarter of the century.

22 I add the original German text: ‘jedoch zwei Schlangenleiber für sich hat bestehen lassen.’ This I cannot understand or see; others may.

23 Altheim's arguments are most shaky. (1) His assumption of Corinthian influence on the Este situlae—he quotes von Duhn—is out of date. I would refer to the forthcoming monograph on the situlae by G. Lucke, who will prove that what is not native in them is Etruscan. The only Greek bronze that has anything to do with them is the fragment from Numana (Mon. Linc., 1935, pl. 23), but this is not Corinthian either. (2) On Diomedes and other Greek cults on the Adriatic see Beaumont, l.c. p. 194. (3) Altheim's statement (p. 91) based on Conway, The Pre-ltalic Dialects, 90, that the Este goddess Rehtia ‘is identical’ with Artemis Orthia reminds one of those Greek naïve syncretistic equation and one feels tempted to read it: πασῶν δέ θεῶν μἅλιστα οἱ Ἐνετοί τὴν Ὀρθίαν σέβονσιν, ἥντινα Ῥεχτίαν καλοῦσιν. (4) Altheim (p. 84) compares the lion and warrior on the Novilara stele from Fanc see the good picture in von Salis, Heidelberger Sitzungsb. 1937) with a chimaera and two warriors chosen at random in Payne's Necrocorinthia. Salis l.c. has proved beyond doubt that those stelae are fifth-century B.C. or even later.

I cannot resist the temptation to mention another typical case where the Corinthian mirage has played a trick on a prehistorian. Pittioni (Wiener Prähist. Zeitschr. xxi, 1934, 102Google Scholar), discussing the animal frieze on the clay flask from Matzhausen in Northern Bavaria, a Celtic work of the fourth century B.C., misquotes Payne and suggests that the potter had studied Corinthian vases in South-West Germany and, thus equipped, had settled down to practise in Bavaria. As everybody knows, not a single piece of Greek pottery, older than 4.50 B.C., has ever been found in Germany. I refer to Kersten's considerate treatment of the Matzhausen flagon in Prähist. Zeitschr. xxiv, 1933, 154, which I shall deal with elsewhere.

24 Not to be seen in our illustration (pl. x, 1).

25 Allen, Romilly, Celtic Art 58Google Scholar; Leeds, , Celtic Ornament 59Google Scholar, pl. 9 c (drawings); Elgee, , Archaeology of Yorkshire 112, pl. iii (photograph)Google Scholar; Victoria County History of Yorkshire, i, 380 ff. I am in debted to Mr. Christopher Hawkes, Miss Mary Kitson Clark and Mr. E. T. Cowling for information, and to Messrs. Methuen for their permission to reproduce the photograph from Elgee, pl. iii (pl. xi, 1).

26 I owe drawings of these to the kindness of Mr. Cowling.

27 J. Y. Simpson, ‘On ancient sculpturings of cups and concentric rings, etc.’ (Appendix to Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. vi, 1867Google Scholar), pls. xxi, xxiii.

Bertrand, A., La réligion des Gaulois, p. 63, pl. 2Google Scholar.