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

scabbard (Pl. I, 4). As far as human représentât ion or particularly the human head is concerned in early La Tène Fürstengräberart there indeed seems no need to go further than Italy. This point, which, following P. Jacobsthal I emphasised first some ten years ago seems to have heen strengthened by recent work on Etruscan fine metal-work(73).

,Situla’ art with its important extension around the head of the Adriatic into Slovenia raises the question of direct Greek and particularly East Greek influence on early Celtic art. Boardman, who prefers a compressed time-scale for all ,situla’ art, has contra O.-H. Frey, suggested a more direct Greek contribution supported by the clear debt of Etruria to orientalizing Greek motifs(74). Onş should remember that the sixth-earlier fifth centurys the maximum period for the importation of luxury Greek goods into the Adriatic as contrasted with the mid fifth to later fourth century floruit in South Russia, Romania and Bulgaria — contemporary with the art of the ,Royal’ Scyths(75 76). Again there is a lack of material even if one accepts the suggestion that the gold ?horn mount from Weiskirchen, barrow II with its procession of helmeted sphinxes may be East Greek rather than Etruscan(78) (PI. V,2). If correct, this would certainly offer support for X. S a n d a r s’ views concerning the introduction into the Celtic world of the oriental convention of drinking horns(77).

Once more it is not profitable to linger over questions of possible motif development and stylistic similarities; rather let us return to basic archaeological considerations of chronology and distribution.

O.-H. Frey in observing an apparent absence of Etruscan imports in the Atestine region perhaps due to local burial customs, has drawn attention on more than one occasion to the Middle Este III (late sixthearly fifth-century BC) belt-plaque from Carceri, grave 48(78). The plaque shows a drinking scene with kylix or stemless cup. Etruscan-type folding stool

(73) J. V. S. Megaw, o. c., PZ, XLIII-XLIV, 1965-66, esp. 101 ff.; F. -W. von Hase, o. c., Hamburger Beiträge zur Arch., III:I, 1973, 51 ff. One must not however deny the difficulties which still surround the precise dating of much Etruscan materia] ; Cf. P. J. Rns, Art in Etruria and Latium. Entretriens, XIII, 1966, 68 — 74 ; Gisela Zahi.ua as, Der Bronzeimer von Waldalgesheim. Hamburger Beiträge zur Arch., 1/2, 1971, 115-29.

(74) Compare O.-H. Frey, o. c., in n. 60, 67 with J. Boardman, A southern view of situla art. (Eds.) J. Boardman, M. A. Brown and T. G. E. Powell, The European community in later prehistory : studies in honour of C. F. C. Hawkes. London 1971, 121 —40. Cf. also D. Ahrens, Zur Situlenkunst der ersten Hälfte des fünften Jahrhunderts v. Chr., JÖAI, XLVIII, 1966-67, 231 -50.

(75) I am indebted for discussion concerning problems of Greek orientalizing art to Mr. B. B. Shefton and Mr. J. Boardman.

(76) I owe this point to Prof. Dr. O.-H. Frey; Cf. ECA, 140, 157 and PI. 254d; J. V. S. Megaw, o. c., PZ, XLIII-XLIV, 1965-66, 103 ff.; AEIA, 70.

(77) X. K. Sandabs, o. c., Antiquity, XLV, 1971, 106 — 7.

(78) O.-H. Frey, o. c., in n. 60, n. 18.

and Schnabelkanne: north Italians no less than Celts bowrowed the accoutrements for the finer things of life from the sout. As continuing work by O.H. E r e y is revealing, Celts of the LT A period were not only trading but settling in northern Italy therefore were in direct contact with the makers of later ,situla’ art. The presence in the native graves of the region of La Tène swords, knobbed rings and open-work belt-hooks indicates the mirror image of the material borrowings one may note in an earlier contextat Hallstatt. Griffons, now both open-beaked and backward-looking, have their part to play here; the belt-hook from ,L’ Homme Mort’, Somme-Bionne, Marne(79) (fig. .9) found with an Attic red-figure stemless cup of c. 420 BC may now be matched by one from Este (fig. 10) while the simpler ,ivy-leaf’ and related forms of what I have termed elsewhere the ,Marnian’ type of hook — perhaps on present evidence better rechristened ,Transalpine’ — now total some ten examples from Este and extend in distribution into Slovenia/80). Two such hooks come from Este, Fondo Capodaglio, grave 31(81) associated with an early fourth century South Italian red-figure skyphos and an Attic late fifth-century ,Motte St.Valentin’ kantharos (as found with the Rodenbach, Kr. Kaiserslautern gold armring(82) as well as two ,situla’ stlye belt-mounts, one with a sickle-winged beast and the other with hares ; this grave belongs to the period of maximum expansion of ,situla’ art and the predominance of animal motifs which extend from Slovenia to the Tyrol and as far south as Bologna.

An intriguing wingless but horned and backwardlooking quadruped is to be found on an early La Tène brooch from an unlocated grave at Hallstatt(83) (PL VI,4). Similar horns are also found on Celtic pieces such as the Ostheim brooch (PI. 11,4), the backward-looking ,Siamese twin’ sphinxes of the Weiskirchen, barrow I belt-plaque (Pl. IV,2) —

surely most Graeco-Etruscan of all Celtic monsters — and the Dürrnberg, chariot grave XVI flagon handle

(79) EGA, no. 359; G. Behrens, Das rückblickende Tier in der vor- und frühgeschichtl. Kunst Mitteleuropa. Festschr. R.-G. Zentralmuseums in Mainz I, 1952, esp. 28 ff. and Abb. 2:5.

(80) Once more I am indebted to Prof. Dr. O.-H. Frey for information and illustrations. Cf. Frey, Zu dem. durchbrochen Gürtelhaken aus dem Fürstengrab von Worms-Herrnsheim. Arch. Korrespondenzblatt, I, 1971, 203 and Taf. 22.1; add now Frey, Durchbrochene Frühlatènegürtelhaken aus Slowenien. Situla, XIV-XV, 1974, 129-42 esp. Abb. 7:3,6.

(81) O. H. Frey, o. c., in n. 60, Fund V, nos. 23 — 24; for La Tène material at Este cf. Frey, o. c., 23 f.

(82) EGA, no. 59; AEIA, no. 55; for the Fürstengrab as a whole cf. now H.-J. Engels, Der Fürstengrabhügel von Rodenbach. Bonner Hefte zur Vorg. III, 1972, 25 — 52 = Kleemann Festschr. The Motte St. Valentin, Haute-Marne Fürstengrab itself has a , Main ian' belt-hook: cf. EGA, no. 355c.

(83) J. V. S. Megaw, An unpublished early La Tène ,Tierfibel’ from Hallstatt, Oberösterreich. Arch Austr L, 1971, 176-84.

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