Headhunting and the Body in Iron Age Europe
1st Edition
Published on 23. April 2012
978-1-139-33483-9 (ISBN)
Description
Across Iron Age Europe the human head carried symbolic associations with power, fertility status, gender, and more. Evidence for the removal, curation and display of heads ranges from classical literary references to iconography and skeletal remains. Traditionally, this material has been associated with a Europe-wide 'head-cult', and used to support the idea of a unified Celtic culture in prehistory. This book demonstrates instead how headhunting and head-veneration were practised across a range of diverse and fragmented Iron Age societies. Using case studies from France, Britain and elsewhere, it explores the complex and subtle relationships between power, religion, warfare and violence in Iron Age Europe.
Reviews / Votes
'... carefully crafted and theoretically situated ... this book is a tour de force ... I would recommend [it] to anyone interested in ancient European cosmology, ritual, power, and identity.' Miranda Aldhouse-Green, European Journal of ArchaeologyMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Cambridge University Press
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
5 Tables, unspecified; 6 Maps; 39 Halftones, unspecified; 37 Line drawings, unspecified
File size
18,18 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-139-33483-9 (9781139334839)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
03/2012
Cambridge University Press
€136.50
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Ian Armit is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Bradford. The author of more than eighty academic articles, he has also written numerous books, including Anatomy of an Iron Age Roundhouse, Towers in the North: The Brochs of Scotland and Celtic Scotland.
Content
1. Detached fragments of humanity; 2. A remarkable spiritual continuity?; 3. Shamans on the march; 4. Pillars, heads, and corn; 5. Neither this world, nor the next; 6. From the dead to the living; 7. Gods and monsters; 8. Bodies of belief.
