Art in the Eurasian Iron Age: Context, Connections and Scale

Courtney Nimura · Helen Chittock · Peter Hommel · Chris Gosden

Feb 2020 · Oxbow Books

About this ebook

Since early discoveries of so-called Celtic Art during the 19th century, archaeologists have mused on the origins of this major art tradition, which emerged in Europe around 500 BC. Classical influence has often been cited as the main impetus for this new and distinctive way of decorating, but although Classical and Celtic Art share certain motifs, many of the design principles behind the two styles differ fundamentally. Instead, the idea that Celtic Art shares its essential forms and themes of transformation and animism with Iron Age art from across northern Eurasia has recently gained currency, partly thanks to a move away from the study of motifs in prehistoric art and towards considerations of the contexts in which they appear. This volume explores Iron Age art at different scales and specifically considers the long-distance connections, mutual influences and shared ‘ways of seeing’ that link Celtic Art to other art traditions across northern Eurasia. It brings together 13 papers on varied subjects such as animal and human imagery, technologies of production and the design theory behind Iron Age art, balancing pan-Eurasian scale commentary with regional and site scale studies and detailed analyses of individual objects, as well as introductory and summary papers. This multi-scalar approach allows connections to be made across wide geographical areas, whilst maintaining the detail required to carry out sensitive studies of objects.

About the author

Courtney Nimura is a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology and a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford where she works on projects relating to prehistoric art. She has published on a wide variety of subjects that revolve around her main research interests including rock art, European Bronze and Iron Age art, and coastal and intertidal archaeology. She has served on the board of the Nautical Archaeology Society since 2009, during which time she has been involved in coastal and intertidal archaeology education and training and has worked on a variwety of public archaeology projects.

Peter Hommel is a Researcher at the Institute of Archaeology and the Research Laboratory for Art History and Archaeology, where he works on the European Research Council-funded project FLAME (The Flow of Ancient Metals Across Europe), and previously on the ‘European Celtic Art in Context’ project.

Chris Gosden is Professor of European Archaeology and Director of the Institute of Archaeology, Oxford. He was the director of the Leverhulme Trust-funded European Celtic Art in Context project and the European Research Council-funded project English Landscape and Identities.