How Ancient Europeans Saw the World: Vision, Patterns, and the Shaping of the Mind in Prehistoric Times

304 Pages·2012·2.87 MB·English

by  Peter S. Wells

HOW ANCIENT EUROPEANS SAW THE WORLD
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HOW ANCIENT EUROPEANS
SAW THE WORLD
Vision, Patterns, and the Shaping of the Mind in Prehistoric Times
PETER S. WELLS
Princeton University Press ◆ Princeton and Oxford
Copyright © 2012 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire
OX20 1TW
press.princeton.edu
Jacket Photograph: Arm and neck rings. Gold. Iron Age. Erstfeld URRibitäler. Inventory
number: A-52044-A-52050. Courtesy of the Swiss National Museum, Zurich.
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wells, Peter S.
How ancient Europeans saw the world : vision, patterns, and the shaping of the mind in
prehistoric times / Peter S.Wells.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-691-14338-5 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-691-14338-2 (alk. paper)
1.Prehistoric peoples—Europe, Western. 2. Material culture—Europe, Western.
3. Antiquities, Prehistoric—Europe, Western. 4. Symbolism. 5. Bronze age—Europe,
Western. 6. Iron age—Europe, Western. I.Title.
GN803.W44 2012
936—dc23 2012001534
British Library Cataloging-in- Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Minion
Printed on acid-free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations vii
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xvii
Part I:Theory and Method
Chapter 1: Of Monsters and Flowers 1
Chapter 2: Seeing and Shaping Objects 18
Chapter 3: The Visual Worlds of Early Europe 34
Chapter 4: Frame, Focus, Visualization 52
Part II: Material: Objects and Arrangements
Chapter 5: Pottery: The Visual Ecology of the Everyday 72
Chapter 6: Attraction and Enchantment: Fibulae 99
Chapter 7: Status and Violence: Swords and Scabbards 112
Chapter 8: Arranging Spaces: Objects in Graves 131
Chapter 9: Performances: Objects and Bodies in Motion 155
Chapter 10: New Media in the Late Iron Age: Coins and Writing 176
Part III:Interpreting the Patterns
Chapter 11: Changing Patterns in Objects and in Perception 188
Chapter 12: Contacts, Commerce, and the Dynamics of New Visual Patterns 200
Conclusion
Chapter 13: The Visuality of Objects, Past and Present 222
Bibliographic Essay 231
References Cited 249
Index 281
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ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 1. (a) Bronze flagon with coral ornament from Basse-Yutz in eastern
France. (b) Detail of the creature represented on the top of the handle.
(c)Detail of the face at the base of the handle. 2–3
Figure 2. Map showing sites mentioned in the text. 4
Figure 3.Timeline from 2000 BC to AD 2000. 10
Figure 4. The field at Hascherkeller on the outskirts of Landshut, Bavaria,
Germany, where a Late Bronze and Early Iron Age settlement was
situated. 39
Figure 5. Bronze Age burial mounds at Västra Karaby, Scania, Sweden. 41
Figure 6. Megalithic tomb complex at Lindeskov, Fyn, Denmark. 42
Figure 7.Stonehenge, an exceptionally complex Neolithic stone circle on
Salisbury Plain, southern England. 43
Figure 8. Grass-covered remains of the earth, timber, and stone wall at the
oppidum at Altenburg, southern Baden- Württemberg, Germany. 44
Figure 9.Early Bronze Age ceramic vessel from Hascherkeller, Landshut,
Bavaria, Germany. 53
Figure 10.Drawing of a scabbard from LaTène, Switzerland. 54
Figure 11.Schematic plan of the Late Iron Age grave at Boiroux in south-
central France. 56
Figure 12.Rejoined sherds of an Early Bronze Age jar from Hascherkeller,
Landshut, Bavaria, Germany. 73
Figure 13. Middle Bronze Age cup from Kelheim, Bavaria, Germany. 87
Figure 14.Sherd of a Late Bronze Age cup from Altdorf, Bavaria, Germany. 89
Figure 15.Late Iron Age pottery sherds from Kelheim, Bavaria, Germany,
showing a variety of different kinds of comb decoration. 95
Figure 16.Drawing of an Early Bronze Age fibula from Bredsätra, Sweden. 106
Figure 17.Drawing of an Early Bronze Age fibula from Świdnica, south-
western Poland. 106
Figure 18.Drawing of a Late Bronze Age fibula from Mörigen, Switzerland. 107
Figure 19.Drawing of an Early Iron Age fibula from Zirknitz, Austria. 107
viii LIST OFILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 20.Drawing of an Early LaTène fibula from Panenský Týnec,
Bohemia, Czech Republic. 108
Figure 21.Drawing of an Early LaTène fibula from Beilngries, Bavaria,
Germany. 108
Figure 22.Drawing of a Middle LaTène fibula from Duchcov, Bohemia,
Czech Republic. 109
Figure 23.Drawing of a Middle LaTène fibula from Münsingen,
Switzerland. 109
Figure 24.Drawing of a Late LaTène Nauheim-type fibula, from Stradon-
ice, Bohemia, Czech Republic. 110
Figure 25.Drawing of a Late LaTène fibula showing ornate openwork
inside the opening on the foot. 111
Figure 26.Drawing of the scabbard from Bugthorpe, Yorkshire, England. 113
Figure 27.Sketch of a wooden scabbard containing a sword from
Muldbjerg, Denmark. 113
Figure 28.Drawing of iron swords in scabbards, from earliest Iron Age
(left) to the latest prehistoric Iron Age. 118–119
Figure 29.Drawings of the scabbard and sword from Hochscheid,
tumulus 2, Rhineland- Palatinate, Germany. 124–125
Figure 30.Drawing of the top of a scabbard from LaTène, Switzerland. 126
Figure 31.Drawing of the scabbard from Amerden Lock, Berkshire,
England. 127
Figure 32.Drawings of the top of the scabbard from Badenheim,
Rhineland- Palatinate, Germany. 129
Figure 33.Schematic plan of an Early Bronze Age grave at Poing, east of
Munich, Bavaria, Germany. 139
Figure 34.Schematic plan of a late Middle Bronze Age grave at Mannsdorf,
Lower Bavaria, Germany. 142
Figure 35.Schematic plan of an Early Iron Age grave at Grosseibstadt, in
Lower Franconia, northern Bavaria, Germany. 145
Figure 36.Schematic plan of a Late Iron Age grave at Welwyn Garden City,
north of London, England. 150
Figure 37. Feasting scene on the situla from Kuffarn, Austria. 160
Figure 38.Photograph of the cliff outcrop (just right of center) at
Schnellnecker Wänd, Bavaria, Germany. 166
Figure 39.Drawing of the scabbard from Grave 994 at Hallstatt, Upper
Austria. 171
Figure 40.Drawing of inner plate E from the Gundestrup Cauldron,
Gundestrup, Denmark. 174
Figure 41. Gold coin from Crémieu, Isére, France. 177
Figure 42. Bronze coin from the oppidum at Kelheim, Bavaria, Germany. 180
LIST OFILLUSTRATIONS ix
Figure 43.Silver-coated bronze coin from the oppidum at Kelheim, Bavaria,
Germany. 180
Figure 44. Gold coin of the CRICIRV type. 181
Figure 45.Inscribed Roman tombstone from Mainz, Germany. 185
Figure 46. Map showing some of the commercial centers of the second
and first centuries BC in Eurasia and Africa, and sites near the Black Sea
mentioned in the text. 212
Figure 47. Map showing the locations of some of the oppida in temperate
Europe. 217