TheGlauberg prince wears an asymmetrical leaf-crown.
TheCeltic leaf-crown (German:Blattkrone) is a motif ofCeltic art from the earlyLa Tène period. A leaf-crown is composed of two broad lobe-shaped elements. The crowns adorn the heads of anthropomorphic figures, almost always male and often bearded. The lobes have been identified withmistletoe leaves. The interpretation of this motif is doubtful, but it has been suggested to bear connotations of high status or divinity.
The term "leaf-crown" was introduced by art historianPaul Jacobsthal in his 1944 bookEarly Celtic Art. This motif had been previously termed the "fish-bladder" (German:Fischblasen) design.[1][2]: 4 Jacobsthal wrote of the leaf-crown that it was "more than mere 'ornament'", and conjectured that it was a symbol of "superhuman beings, gods or deified mortals."[3]: 23 [a]
Leaf-crowns adorn the heads of anthropomorphic figures, almost always male[b] and often bearded.[c][7]: 202 The leaf-crown is a ubiquitous motif in early La Tène art, surviving on precious metalwork and onstone monuments.[8]: 139 Leaf-crowns have been found as far east asHořovičky inBohemia.[5]: 70 Celticfibulae are often decorated with leaf-crowned faces.[9]: 54–57 Such metalwork has been found in the burials of elite men and women, such as that of theReinheim 'princess'.[2]: 15 Some have suggested, on the basis of fragmentary archaeological evidence, that actual leaf-crowns of leather were made by the Celts (discussed below).[10] Sometimes the leaf-crown is depicted in concert with other motifs, such as goldtorcs[11]: 281 orlotus flower designs,[6]: 107–109 but the leaf-crown was apparently symbolically potent enough that it was often allowed to stand on its own.[12]: 18
Artefacts bearing leaf-crowns are generally dated to the early La Tène period,[5]: 74 with the earliest dated leaf-crowns in metalwork.[13]: 201 Celtic leaf-crowns belong to a period when Central Europe was open to Mediterranean influences, for example from theEtruscans andGreeks.[14]: 212–213 [15]: 219 There is no doubt that design elements from these cultures were adopted by the Celts and adapted to fit their belief systems.[15]: 226–227 For example, the leaf-crown is depicted in concert with the Near EasternMaster of Animals motif on a belt-clasp found at theWeiskirchen barrow and on theDürrnberg beaked jug [de].[9]: 59–61 [16]: 11–12 ArchaeologistVenceslas Kruta has suggested that the leaf-crown arose from a combination of thepalmette and lotus flower designs, both broadly Mediterranean motifs.[17]
Some have detected traces of the leaf-crown in later Celtic art. Astater of theBodiocasses, dating to the 2nd or 1st century BC, has an obverse depicting a human head with horn-like protrusions whichT. G. E. Powell has connected with the leaf-crown.[18]: 256–257 Megaw has suggested that the handle-like helmet which adorns a head on the 1st-century BCAylesford bucket perhaps represents a very late leaf-crown.[4]: 119
Leaves ofEuropean mistletoe. The lobes of the Celtic leaf-crown have been identified with mistletoe leaves.
For the Celts, the head (and especially the severed head) was an extremely important motif and site of veneration.[19]: 269–270 [6]: 10–12, 18–20 As Vincent Megaw has put it, "to the Celt the human head was regarded as all-important, the heart and soul in one, the symbol of divinity and the Otherworld".[19]: 269 Mistletoe also seems to have been religiously important.Pliny describesa Celtic ritual in which druids cut mistletoe from an oak and mixed it to make a fertility potion. With this context, some scholars have identified the lobes of the leaf-crown with leaves of mistletoe.[1][8]: 122
Important context for the leaf-crown comes from princely grave at the Celticoppidum ofGlauberg. A life-sized sandstone statue found here, called the Glauberg prince or warrior, is one the best known leaf-crowned figures in early La Tène art. Notable is that much of the equipment the person had been buried with is mirrored in the garb of the statue. This suggests there was some level of identification between the statue and the high-status person whose burial this was.[20]: 119–121 The metal lining of a leather bonnet found in Glauberg has been reconstructed by Renate Fröhlich in the shape of the leaf-crown.[10][20]: 121 The ceremonialAgris Helmet, which bears the holes for some sort of crest, has also been suggested to have originally borne a leather leaf-crown.[10]: 289–290 However, it is not clear from this whether the leaf-crown was "a real ruling attribute or if it is just a means for the dead person’s glorification for the passing into the afterlife".[20]: 121
Associations between the leaf-crown and divinity or supernatural power appear throughout early La Tène art.[11]: 208 MultipleJanus-faced, leaf-crowned figures are known within early La Tène art: most prominently theHeidelberg head,Holzgerlingen figure, and a two-headed sculpture from the Celtic shrine atRoquepertuse (though its leaf-crown is now broken off). These are often believed to be Celtic cult images or even depictions of a dicephalic god.[9]: 196 [21]: 273 The lid of the Reinheim flagon is decorated with an anthropomorphic horse statuette, bearded and wearing a leaf-crown. Venceslas Kruta has suggested this statuette is a "representation of a divine being, probably ofa solar nature".[d][22]: 43–45 The leaf-crowned heads of the Heidelberg head, Glauberg prince, andPfalzfeld obelisk bear a commonlotus motif on their foreheads.[6]: 107–109 In the ancient world, the lotus was a symbol of rebirth, eternity, and of solar gods; here it perhaps possesses a divine meaning.[23]: 107–110 [8]: 55
^Others had made conjectures about the meaning of this motif before Jacobsthal.Robert Knorr [de] interpreted the lobes as wings and took the figures bearing them to be identifiable with theRoman godMercury (who wears a winged hat).Peter Goessler [de] took the lobes for stylised hair. Goessler and Jacobsthal roundly reject Knorr's conjecture.[3]: 23, fn 6
^One possible exception to this is the leaf-crowned figure on theWaldalgesheim chariot, which has been conjecturally identified as female.[4]: 94
^Exceptions to this rule are clustered around theRhineland area.[5]: 70 One notable such exception is areversible figure made out of gold foil, uncovered inBad Dürkheim. Oriented one way up it depicts a clean-shaven face adorned with a leaf-crown; oriented the other way, an old, bearded man.[6]: 114–115
^OriginalFrench: "représentation d’un être divin, très probablement de nature solaire".[22]: 45
^abcdeArmit, Ian (2012).Headhunting and the Body in Iron Age Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN9781139016971.
^Bagley, Jennifer (2019). "Narrative and context of early La Tène art in central Europe". In Wagner-Durand, Elisabeth; Fath, Barbara; Heinemann, Alexander (eds.).Image–Narrative–Context: Visual Narration in Cultures and Societies in the Old World. Heidelberg: Propylaeum, Fachinformationsdienst Altertumswissenschaften. pp. 193–213.
^abcdHarding, D. W. (2007).The Archaeology of Celtic Art. London / New York: Routledge.
^abcFitzpatrick, Andrew; Schönfelder, Martin (2014). "Ascot Hats: An Iron Age leaf crown helmet from Fiskerton, Lincolnshire?". In Gosden, Christopher; Crawford, Sally; Ulmschneider, Katharina (eds.).Celtic Art in Europe: Making Connections. Essays in Honour of Vincent Megaw on His 80th Birthday. Oxford: Oxbow Books. pp. 286–296.
^abMegaw, J. V. S.; Megaw, Ruth M. (1993). "Cheshire Cats, Mickey Mice, the New Europe, and Ancient Celtic Art". In Scarre, Chris; Healy, Frances (eds.).Trade and exchange in prehistoric Europe : proceedings of a conference held at the University of Bristol, April 1992. Oxford: Oxbow Books. pp. 219–232.
^Frey, Otto-Herman (1998). "The Stone Knight, the Sphinx and the Hare: New Aspects of Early Figural Celtic Art".Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society.64:1–14.doi:10.1017/S0079497X00002152.
^Kruta, Venceslas (2000)."Double feuille".Les Celtes: Histoire et Dictionnaire. Quebec: Robert Laffont. pp. 579–580.
^abPowell, T. G. E. (1963).The Celts. London: Thames and Hudson.
^abMegaw, J. V. S. (1970), "Cheshire Cat and Mickey Mouse: analysis, interpretation and the art of the La Tène Iron Age",Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society,36:261–279,doi:10.1017/S0079497X00013177
^abcStöllner, Thomas (2014). "Between ruling ideology and ancestor worship: The mos maiorum of the Early Celtic "Hero Graves"". In Gosden, Christopher; Crawford, Sally; Ulmschneider, Katharina (eds.).Celtic Art in Europe: Making Connections. Essays in Honour of Vincent Megaw on His 80th Birthday. Oxford: Oxbow Books. pp. 119–136.
^Kimmig, Wolfgang (1987). "Eisenzeitliche Grabstelen In Mitteleuropa. Versuch eines Überblicks".Fundberichte aus Baden-Württemberg.12:251–297.doi:10.11588/fbbw.1987.0.39508.
^Kaul, Flemming (2014). "The not so ugly duckling – an essay on meaning". In Gosden, Christopher; Crawford, Sally; Ulmschneider, Katharina (eds.).Celtic Art in Europe: Making Connections. Essays in Honour of Vincent Megaw on His 80th Birthday. Oxbow Books. pp. 105–112.
^"Fibule à masque".Musée du vin de Champagne et d'Archéologie régionale. Retrieved18 September 2024.
.jpg)
![A face on the lip of the Dürrnberg beaked jug [de], Keltenmuseum.](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.m.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aKMH_-_Schnabelkanne_aus_Grab_112_unterhalb_der_Hexenwand_am_Nordhang_des_Mosersteins_am_D%25C3%25BCrnberg_(4).jpg)
![A copper fibula from Gué de la Marne, Musée d'Épernay [fr].](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.m.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aAgrafe_tete_humaine_2re_age_fer_dormans_varennes_1007606.jpg)
