Late Iron Age sacred space in western Europe.
Stoddart, Simon
ALEXANDER SMITH. The differential use of constructed sacred space in southern Britain, from the late Iron Age to the 4th century AD
(British Archaeological Reports British series 318). 278 pages, 25
figures, 79 maps. 2001. Oxford: Archaeopress; 1-84171-213-2 paperback 35
[pounds sterling].
STEPHANE VERGER (ed.). Bites et espaces en pays celte et
mediterraneen: etude comparee a partir du sanctuaire d'Acy-Romance
(Ardennes, France) (Collection de l'Ecole francaise de Rome 276).
i+357 pages, 130 figures, 6 tables. 2000. Rome: Ecole francaise de Rome;
2-7283-0601-X (ISSN 0223-5099) paperback.
Iron Age sacred space is a challenging topic. At one level, the
Iron Age is temptingly familiar, apparently informed by Classical
authors and misleadingly close to our modern understanding of the
distinction between the sacred and profane. At another level, the Iron
Age is distinctly, different and distant, only accessible through the
application of anthropological theory to archaeological data. These two
volumes approach the issue from a British and a
Continental-cum-Mediterranean perspective. In the first, bounded ritual
is difficult to identify, so concepts of structured deposition have
become a common approach. In Continental European archaeology, and even
more conclusively in Mediterranean archaeology, bounded structures can
be readily identified, although the embeddedness of ritual learned from
anthropology must still be acknowledged.
Smith's volume on the British evidence starts with a short
theoretical introduction which heralds the posing of a number of
hypotheses to define ritual activity: structural planning
(focus/periphery, entrance/enclosure emphasis and processional routes),
specific offering zones, evidence of a specific votive assemblage linked
to a specific cult (arms, coins and decorative elements), arrangement of
animal/ human bones and craft production. These hypotheses are then
applied to a number of sites with late Iron Age phases: Harlow, Hayling
island, South Cadbury, Thetford and Uley, as well as others where
evidence was less substantial (including Danebury and Maiden Castle).
This is then developed into a comparative analysis of eight sites (Elms
Farm, Hayling Island, South Cadbury I, Thetford, Harlow, Maiden Castle,
Stansted and Uley) which had convincing evidence of ritual structures.
In turn, this comparative analysis is placed in the context of recent
Continental research (drawn from Roymans 1990), which has concentrated
much more on evidence of ritual activity, dominated by the model of
Gournay-sur-Aronde, the leading formalized ritual enclosure site. The
principal conclusion from this comparison is to note the greater range
of variability in the British data.
The analysis of the Late Iron Age British sites concludes that, in
spite of some diversity, a number of trends can be detected: a location
in a prominent often elevated part of the landscape, separation from the
domestic, generally a shrine and enclosure, the presence of martial
items, ornamentation and animal deposits. These definitions seem
reasonably fair, but one is left with the suspicion that they also
predefine the choice of the sites themselves, and that other ritual may
be neglected. As an explanatory framework, their development is linked
to socio-political change: `The increase in political hierarchy led to
the growth of conspicuous display amongst some of the elite, and the
imposition of constructed cult sites in prominent locations may have
been one facet of this phenomenon' (p. 162).
The same process is applied to Romano-British ritual space. In this
phase the Romano-Celtic temple became `a more widely recognised form of
sacred site' which `could be used as part of the package of
symbolic referents by which the status of certain members of the native
elite could continue to be maintained' (p. 162). As such, the sites
were mainly confined to areas profoundly affected by romanitas. More
specifically, the organization of space became more formalized:
differentiated zones, marked by deposition, defined entry points and
pathways and architectural frontality. None of this survived the
breakdown of centralized government in the province in the late Roman
period. As an aside, one of the named shrines, that of Brigstock, is
currently threatened by profanity: the construction of a royal
motorcycle track.
The second volume demonstrates the complexity of ritual
variability. Taken as a whole, the collected essays from a conference
provide an escape from the domination of Gournay-sur-Aronde, although
this very site provides a point of departure for the introductory
section. As Verger puts it, `the sanctuaries of Picardy only represent
one type amongst other archaeological manifestations of La Tene cult and
votive practice' (p. 3). The same editor remarks on the variability
of ritual and the issue of the (non-) availability of textual sources.
He furthermore, maintains that, because of the richness of
archaeological evidence north of the Alps, there is the potential in
such archaeological evidence to advise Mediterranean research which
traditionally remains too dependent on textual sources. In particular,
the landscape-centred study of Acy-Romance, which forms the heart, of
the volume, is most persuasive. The excavations, especially those of
1995, have changed views of ritual. Here is ritual discovered embedded
in the settlement through the careful identification of what might be
entitled structured deposition in another context. Other sites--Mont
Beuvray, the Titelberg, Levroux, Manching--have generally had
exceptional finds to define ritual activity. At Acy-Romance, the study
is more subtle.
Nearly 150 pages of the volume are devoted to the presentation of
the regional context of Acy-Romance. This striking landscape approach to
sound archaeological research uncovered the most intensive exploitation
in the later La Tene period, in the first instance recovered principally
by aerial photography. Within this context, the 20-ha late La Tene
village of Acy-Romance has been studied in some detail. A key element of
the village is a D-shaped enclosure on the highest part of the
settlement, flanked on its straight side by an alignment of buildings.
The D-shaped enclosure was defined by a palisaded ditch, entered on the
shortest south side. Lambot & Meniel propose that some trees were
selected, from the wood which preceded the settlement, for preservation.
The ditch deposits retain a structured deposition of animal bones (c.
70% cow, c. 18% horse), although interpreted by the excavators as
residual to the effects of erosion. Body parts relate predominantly to
the head and backbone. In this respect the finds are similar to those of
Gournay-sur Aronde. The excavators interpret the whole deposition as a
product of ritual sacrifice where the head is the key body part, and the
two principal species are arranged in a north-south symmetry. A number
of paired postholes could have a range of uses, but one includes the
display of the animal heads.
On the northwest straight side of the enclosure, five square
buildings with blunted corners are arranged in clear association with
the open space of the enclosure, following a preconceived plan. It is
more the structural and spatial organization than the associated
material culture (pottery and agricultural instruments) which suggests a
cult function. To the northeast, a series of seated inhumations and pits
of sacrificed sheep add a further spatial focus to this pattern of
ritual. A briefer presentation of human bones dispersed throughout the
village, the cemeteries surrounding the village, and the nearby
sanctuary of Nanteuil-sur-Aisne known since 1951, completes the sacred
geography. This is a landscape which only makes sense when the parts are
integrated. A case is made that the surrounding cemeteries contain the
very people (and their weapons) who sacrificed the seated young men
inhumed in the village.
The remaining articles in the volume provide other studies of
ritual in northern Europe and the Mediterranean in a broadly comparative
framework. Schied and De Polignac make brief comparisons of details of
ritual. Peyre looks at the site of Villeneuve-Saint-Germain in parallel
with local and Mediterranean inscriptions. Vitali addresses the
complexity of identifying Celtic ritual in Northern Italy through the
discovery of one inscription. Greco investigates the situation further
south in Lucania. Brunaux, the excavator of Gournay-sur-Aronde, takes a
comparative approach to the death of the warrior Celt across Iron Age
Europe. De Cazanove takes a largely textual approach to the question of
Italic human sacrifice, supplemented in Italian by Grottanelli, and by
Ribicini on the Punic tophet. Poux provides a more general analysis of
feasting in Celtic Gaul. The collection ends with a historical (Greco)
and faunal (Leguilloux) analysis of the Ekklesiasterion of Paestum.
These essays add interesting details of ritual in Iron Age Europe, but
it is for the study of Acy-Romance that the volume will be remembered.
The two volumes are different in their gestation. The first is a
doctoral thesis and still retains that format. It is a useful source of
information, with clear (sometimes a little too regularized) diagrams.
The appendix offers quick access to the key sites analysed, with summary
data and plans. If anything it concentrates too much on an expectation
of the formality of ritual. The second is a conference proceedings and,
as in some other cases, disparate in content. However, it opens studies
of the Iron Age to other patterns of organization of ritual space where
the archaeological data are so rich they almost speak for themselves.
Reference
ROYMANS, N. 1990. Tribal societies in Northern Gaul: an
anthropological perspective. Amsterdam: Van Giffen Institute.
SIMON STODDART, Magdalene College, Cambridge CB3 0AG, England.
