Fitz Jenő (szerk.): The Celts in Central Europe - István Király Múzeum közelményei. A. sorozat 20. A Pannon konferenciák aktái 2. (Székesfehérvár, 1975)

J. V. S. Megaw: The orientelizing theme in early celtic art: East or West

Achaemenian Persia have also been indicated(’), while the link between Hungary and South Russia as well as Slovenia is emphasised by such features as the presence of steppe horses in Easten Europe. To the export westwards of the larger riding horse(7 8) — not to mention ,nomadic’ horse-bits of iron with long riveted cheek pieces which in central Europe may, like the earliest wheel-turned pottery in such regions

(9 10 11) , be regarded as Thracian in origin — may be added the clear industrial importance (from Ha B) of sites like Velem Szentvid as a meeting point for both western Celts and eastern originating nomads^0).

These and ot her matters have of course received the attention ofM.Szabó in his continuing study of the nature of Celtic art in Hungary(u), but it should be noted that N. Sandars again suggests Anatolian or more specifically Assyrian and Phrygian contact in several related features. These are: the extensive use of iron north of the Alps in the eighth-seventh centuries BC (or in the transitional Hallstatt B3 phase) following the sporadic evidence for the new metal around the ninth century, painted Ha C pottery from Lower Austria and Slovakia, and the construction of the contemporary funerary carts no less than the timber-lined graves which contain them(12). This view would certainly accord with J. Harmatta’s claim for the ultimately Iranian origin of the contemporary population of the Great Hungarian Plain(13).

Against this background of current work in Eastern Europe we may survey the present state of research into the earliest and formative phase of La Tène

(7) I. Venedikov, l?Iran préachéménide et la Thrace. BIAB XXXI, 1969, 5 — 43. — main text in Bulgarian. See also for this and later periods I. Venedikov — T. Gerassimov, Thrakische Kunst. Vienna, 1973, esp. 31 ff., 88 ff.

(8) S. Bökönyi, Data on Iron Age horses of Central and Eastern Europe = Bull. Am. School Prehist. Research (Peabody Museum, Harvard), XXV, 1968, 3 — 71; on horse-riding see T. G. E. Powell, The introduction of horse-riding to temperate Europe: a contributory note. Proc. Prehist. Soc., XXXVII, 1971, 1 — 14 esp. p. 11 for nomenclature, for which see also J. Clutton-Brock, The Buhen horse. JArch Sei, 1/1, 1974, 89 - 100 esp. p. 98.

(9) Contra W. Dehn, Frühe Drehscheibenkeramik nördlichen der Alpen. Alt-Thüringen, VI, 1962 — 63, 372 — 82.

(10) Cf. S. Foltiny, Velemszentvid, ein urzeitl. Kuhurcentrum in Mitteleuropa = Veröffentl. der Österreich. Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Ur- u. Frühg., III, 1958; A. Mozsolics, Der Goldfund von Velem- Szentvid: Ein Beitrag zur Metallkunst der älteren Hall Stattzeit. Basel, 1950.

(11) Cf. M. Szabó, Eléments régionaux dans l’art des Celtes orientaux. EC, XIII/2, 1973, 750 — 74; Id., Tierkampfszene auf einer keltischen Urne. FolArch, XXIV, 1973, 43-56.

(12) X. K. Sandars, o. c., Celtic art in protohistoric Europe. For the eastern Hallstatt painted pottery

see also M. Pichlerová, Nővé Kosariska: Kniezaciemoh yly zo starsej doby Üeleznej = Fontes . . . Xárodného Múzea v Bratislave, III. 1969, esp. 149 ff.

(13) J. Hakmatta, Früheisenzeitliche Beziehungen Zwischen dem Karpatenbecken, Oberitalien und Griechenland. AArchHung, XX, 1968, 153 — 7.

culture (LT Aj_2 or Ia)(14). It is now several years since W. D e h n in examining some of the basic material attributes of early La Tène emphasised a dual grouping with to the west the Fürstengräber following on from and expanding beyond the area of those of the late Hallstatt period; these princely burials extend from the eastern foot of the Alps over Western Bohemia and through to the Middle Rhine, Champagne and the Loire(15). This distribution is matched by that of such objects significant for our present discussion as fine metal-work in gold, cast bronze Masken- and Tier- or Vogelkopffibeln(16) and in the Saar by the local exploitation of mineral wealth (in particular iron) in the area not only marked by the Fürstengräber but as recent work confirms definitely Early La Tène defended settlements or hill-forts(17). Such wealth accruing from commercial workings is of course most clearly demonstrated for the eastern group of the Fürstengräber zone by the complementary salt-mines of Hallstatt and Dürrnberg bei Hallein(18) where such evidence as that of matching textiles from workings and cemetery sites indicate an identity of personality on the part of the mining community and those buried in the shadow of the salt-mines.

In contrast, beyond the area of the earlier Hallstatt princely graves and on the balance of evidence slightly later in their introduction, are the flat cemeteries of central Switzerland, parts of southern Germany, Moravia, Slovakia and Hungary, areas where local versions of the prior Hallstatt period — if not necessarily Hallstatt culture — survived beyond the rise and consolidation of the more westerly La Tène centres.

A detail of W. D e h n ’ s exposition which may be recalled in the present context is, after the absence of true swords in Ha D graves as contrasted with the spear- or lance-head as the mark of the warrior caste, the presence in and indeed restriction to Fürstengräber of fine long swords, sometimes with scabbards decorated in styles closely related to the non-representational motifs of contemporary fine metal-work. Th finest of all these early decorated

(14) It should be noted that in the present paper the term ,La Tène’ is used sensu stricto to refer to the various phases of the Celtic Iron Age and not in the wider and purely temporal sense as in, for example much recent Romanian literature.

(15) W. Dehn, Probleme der Frühlatènekultur. Actes du Ville CISPP (Prague) 1966, 2, 1971, 799-801. - For further regional refinements see U. Sch a aff, Versuch einer regionalen Gliederung frühlatènezeitltche Fürstengräber. Fundber. aus Hessen, Beiheft I, 1969, 187 — 202 = Festschr. Dehn.

(16) W. Dehn, Die Doppelvogelkopffibel aus dem Val-de- Travers. (Eds.) R. Degen - W. Drack - R. Wyss, Helvetia Antiqua: Festschrift Emil Vogt. Zürich, 1966, 137 — 46.

(17) R. Schindler, Studien zum vorgeschichtl. Siedlungsund Befestigungswesen des Saarlandes. Trier, 1968, esp. p. 89 ff.

(18) E. Penninger, Der Dürrnberg bei Haliéin. 1. Katalog der Grabfunde aus der Hallstatt- u. Latènezeit. 1. Münchner Beitr. Vor- u. Frühgesch., XVI, 1973,

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