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

kantharoi and polychome glass ,eye-beads’ recently studied in their general European (including Celtic) context by Dr. E. II aevernick)33). These last may be matched by the evidence for the sporadic but important distribution in La Tène contexts (presumably through Carthaginian colonies) of Phoenician polychrome glass face beads, a type possibly ancestral to those later face beads found on Hungarian soil as exemplified in the conference exhibition by that from Vác-Kavicsbánya(34). Although occasional southern imports can be found in non- Celtic Hungarian contexts (such as the seventhcentury Artánd Spartan hydria), these are likely to have come through Slovenia, an area of important eulture-contact(35). Also one should note that there is no certain ,royal Scythian’ material from a Celtic context. The later art of the Scythians, like that of the Veneto-Illyrian , situlae’, may be seen largely as a parallel developing rather than influencing force on Celtic art; certainly chronologically it is largely later than the period of direct oriental contact in Eastern Europe. The significance of triangular arrowheads in central and western Europe (as for example used, probably with a pair of short composite bows similar to Assyrian types, by the chieftain buried in grave VI of the Hohmichele, Hundersingen, Xr. Saulgau Ha D: barrow beside the Heuneburg)(36) is rather as evidence for possible contact with the general community of nomadic cultures in Eastern Europe of which mention has already been made. Little can be added to the discussion of the status of the now lost Miecznikowo-Vogel(ge)sang gold, probably a hoard(37). M. Duse k is surely right to reject B r e n t j e ’ s claim of a seventh-century Cimmerian’ origin for the lion-headed penannular ring (PI. 11,1) and P. J a c o b s t h a 1 ’s reasoned arguments for a Persian and perhaps fourth-century source has not been bettered(38). The tore terminal from the bed of the Rhine(39) and the bronze Glauberg, Kr.

(33) Th. E. Haeveenick, Perlen mit Zusammengesetzen Augen (,compound-eye-beads'). PZ, XLVII, 1972, 78-93.

(34) J. V. S. Megaw, Two La Tène finger rings in the

Victoria and Albert Museum, London. PZ, XLIII — XLIV, 1965 —6(i, 153 and Taf. 4:6 — 8; Vác —

Kavicsbánya: A Keleti Kelta Művészet — Eastern Celtic Art. Az Tstván Király Múz. Közleményei, D. 93, 1974, cat. no. 156.

(35) M. Párducz, o. c., AAntHung, XIII, 1965, 299; di., Graves from the Scythian Age at Artánd. AArehHung, XVII, 1965, esp. 217 — 9; j. G. Szilágyi, Trouvailles Grecques sur le territoire de la Hongrie. (Ed.) P. Ohmaehne, Le rayonnement des civilisations grecque et romaine sur les cultures périphériques. VIII- Congrès Intern. d’Arch. Class. (Paris 1963). Paris 1965, 386 — 90 and PI. 91:2; Id., Magyarország szkíta korának néhány kérdése. AntTan, XÍII, 1966, 102 — 7.

(36) R. Mercer, Metal arrow-heads in the European Bronze and Early Iron Ages. Proe. Prehist. Soc., XXXVI, 1970, 199 ff.

(37) M. DuSek, o. c., PZ, XLII, 1964, 51 —52. — contra B. Brentjes, Zur Datierung des Binges von Vogelgesang. Varia Praehistorica = Forschungen zur Vor- u. Frühg. II, 1962, 95 — 97.

(38) EGA, 38-39, 157 and PI. 228c.

(39) ECA, no. 61.

Büchingen fragmentary ring (found in the neighbourhood of a hill-fort)(40) (PI. 11,2), both equally

reasonably regarded as Celtic products, certainly offer the best westerly relations for such scanty oriental pieces as exist.

P. -Jacobsthal’s warning not to place too much reliance on the presence or absence of imports is well taken(41). The single example of a Persian work to come from outside the general area of the Achaemenian occupation of the Balkans is the golden ring with lions devouring ibex dredged from the Isthmus of Corinth and now in Karlsruhe(42) (PI. 11,3). Analogies for archeological ill-attested but historically documented incursions range from the later Celtic movements in the same area(43) to the Norman invasion of southern England in AD 1066. A few further indications of long range trade or exchange have recently come to light and may be briefly mentioned before concentrating for the rest of this paper on actual La Tène material. Firstly there is the wealth of Mediterranean imports including a Syro-Phoenician ivory mirror-handle from the Ha I)3 Markung Asperg barrow(44) — close by the Klein Aspergle barrow and, like it, in the shadow of the Hohenasperg hill-fort — a piece which is more or less contemporary with the main period of Levantine imports into Etruriaţ45). From the Hohmichele there is also the earliest evidence for -the use of silk in Western Europe(46) which can be matched by more

(40) EC A, no. 246; AEIA, no. 87. For further brief comments on lion-headed rings of so-called Graeco- Iranian workmanship in Scythian contexts see J. A. II. Potratz, Die Skythen in Südrussland. Basel, 1963, 118, 121 ff. and Í. Venedikov, o. c., in n. 7. - 1 am less certain about any oriental status for the horse-headed bronze tore from Vieille-Toulouse, Haute Garonne: J. V. S. A!EGAw, An animal-headed tore from Vieille-Toulouse. Antiq. J., XLVII, 1967, 209 — 13; AEIA, no. 45. — The same doubts go for the Klein Aspergle drinking horns (ECA, nos. 16 —

1 7 ; AEIA, no. 44), despite comments by X. Sandars and parallels offered by e. g. W. Culican, Medes and Persians. London, 1965, 120 — 4 and PI. 57.

(41) ECA, 157.

(42) ECA, 32 ff. and PL 222e; 7000 .Jahre Kunst in Iran: Villa Hugel, Essen. 1962, Kat. nr. 365.

(43) Cf. J. V. S. Megaw, Two finds of the Celtic Iron Age from Dodona. (Ed.) K. Jazdzewski, Liber ■Josepho Kostrzewski octogenario a veneratoribus dicatus. Wroclaw-Warsaw-Crakow 1968, 185 — 93; M. Szabó Zur Frage des Keltischen Fundes von Isthmia. AAntHung, XVI, 1968, 173-8; F. Maier, Keltischer Altertümer in Griechenland. Germania, LI, 1973, 459 — 77; Z. Wózniak, Wschodnie progranieze Kultury Laténskiej. Wroclaw-Warsaw, 1974.

(44) Il.-V. Herrmann, Die südländischen Importstücke des Fürstengrabes von Asperg in H. ZÜRN, Hallstattforschungen in Nordwürttemberg = Veröffentl. des Staat!. Amtes für Denkmalpflege Stuttgart, Reihe A/16, 1970, 25 ff.

(45) 1. Strom, Problems concerning the origin and early development of the Etruscan orientalizing style = Odense University Classical Studies II, 1971, 201 ff.

(46) G. Riek — II.-J. Hundt, Der Hohmichele. R. -G. Forschungen, XXV, 1972, 206 ff. ; H.-J. Hundt, Gewebefunde aus Hallstall. Krieger und Salzherren = Ausstellungskatalog des R.-G. Zentralmuseums Mainz, IV, 1970, esp. 68 ff. and Falttafel.

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