The Waldalgesheim Chariot Burial and the Origins of Celtic Art

The chariot burial at Waldalgesheim in the German Rhineland was excavated in 1869. It dates to around 330 BC. It is famous partly because it seems to represent the early stages of the high Celtic tradition, what we call the La Tène style.

The grave was quite weird, plus it was damaged by the plow that uncovered it, plus this was all in 1869:

Investigations and recoveries of material took place over two years in a way that is now hard to reconstruct in detail. . . . It has been thought that the burial was under a barrow, which is reasonable, but without any clear evidence. We do know that the grave pit was surrounded by rough stones at the top and that there was a layer of stones part way down in the grave fill, above which were found the gold items, which the bronze ones below. Broadly speaking, three sets of material were found: an extensive set in bronze and deriving from a chariot and horse gear, including a yoke and its fittings and decorations, rein rings, wheel rims and fasteners; secondly, a set of personal forms of decoration including a neckring, arm, bracelet and leg rings, beads and the metal decorations of clothing (fascinating and hard to reconstruct); thirdly, a flagon and a bucket presumably used originally to hold liquids (wine?). (Chris Gosden, Art in the Eurasian Iron Age, 16)

We do not know if a whole chariot was buried, or just some of the fittings. Because no weapons were found, most authorities think this was a woman's grave.

The artistic style of the objects varies a good deal. This bucket has classical detailing and is thought to have been imported from Italy.

But this pitcher probably comes from Gaul and is decorated in a quite different style.

It is the detailing on the gold torcs that points toward the swirling, abstract style of La Tène.

It is interesting to note that the people who developed the La Tène style were very familiar with the classical style of the Mediterranean world; many of the patrons probably owned Mediterranean objects like the Waldalgesheim bucket or the Vix Crater. Art of this period often mixes motifs from the Mediterranean with other motifs that may come from Persia or the steppes, along with hints of the new northern style.

Like the Agris helmet, found in central France, dating to c. 350 BC. This piece has a sort of barbaric splendour, but the design elements come from the Mediterranean or the Middle East. Many sources call this a "masterpiece of Celtic Art" (e.g. wikipedia), but it is certainly not Celtic in the way that the Desborough Mirror (below) is.

But even at the height of La Tène, when all the wonderful works were made that define this amazing style, you can still see lots of Classical or Persian elements in the designs. 

Chariot ornament from Roissy, France;
You'll have to zoom in to see that it is all made of disassembled dragons

Some modern interpretations of northern European art in this period emphasize the lack of any stable artistic style, with particular objects showing various mixtures of Mediterranean, Persian, Steppes, and local "Celtic" elements. This matches, in a sense, what we know about the political and broader cultural situation. The people of northern Europe were very much on the move, invading Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor besides fighting a great deal against each other. Archaeologists have a terrible time sorting out who was a Celt, a German, a Sarmatian, or something else. Many of the large fortified sites of this period were occupied for a few decades before being abandoned. There do not seem to have been any large, stable kingdoms. We do not know if the druidical religious tradition encountered by the Romans in Gaul and Britain was particularly old or widespread, and there is a case to be made that it was a new development of the first century BC. So it makes sense that the artistic style of these people is hard to pin down.

But it certainly is wonderful.

My thoughts on the La Tene style and Druidism are here.