Skulls as a trophy for gauls ......

[Simplex]

......it seems that reenactors of gaulic celts have been lacking an essential part of equipment ...... hock:
Here:
http://www.archaeologie-koblenz.de/
>>>> "Online Beiträge" >> right now 6th topic from top ( that one with the two pics -- the 2nd one being one of Axel von Hamlet, ahh --- Berg)
Says:
"The General Directorate of Cultural Heritage of Rhineland-Pfalz, Directorate Koblenz has been able to secure a well-preserved celtic skull-trophy in the course of excavations near Kobern-Gondorf (Mosel).
In the course of excavating a well of an late-celtic farm a human skull with a nail knocked through it could be retrieved. I can be dated to about 50 BC. Chances are that the skull could stem from a roman legionary, for this was the times of Ceasar's campaigns against/in Gaule.
Says Dr.Dr. Axel von Berg, chief archeologist at Koblenz: It is quite imaginable that it is a roman legionary from Cesar's army from the times of building the bridges in the Neuwied Basin (area) in 55 and 53 BC.
For the archeologists at Koblenz this is the first find of this condition/shape in Germany.For the whole of Europe experts only do know very few comparable finds of this kind.
As for the significance: The Celts customarily collected the cut-off heads of their opponents and put them on display in their settlements. Those trophys then would be nailed to the portals/front-porchs of their homes/houses.
We will be glad to help you with further questions ."
O.K. ---- that means ---
here :
Generaldirektion Kulturelles Erbe
Direktion Landesarchäologie
Außenstelle Koblenz
Niederberger Höhe 1
56077 Koblenz
fon: 0 26 1 / 66753000
fax: 0 26 1 / 66753010
[url:1dnfylzw]http://www.archaeologie-koblenz.de[/url]
mail: [email protected]

Greez

Simplex

BTW: Maybe it is linked to the roman defeat against Ambiorix and the Eburones in 54 BC ?? Well, Kobern-Gondorf is supposed to have been in the Treverian area, this tribe being allied to Cesar (but in those times not always as firm as he'd wished) -- so .... ??

[MARCvSVIBIvSMAvRINvS]

Is the nail a typical Celtic one or is it a Roman nail ?

Very interesting find indeed!

M.VIB.M.

[Simplex]

...as yet I could find no further reference to that subject.....
To judge from earlier spectacular finds I'd guess there will be more in their annual publications (Archäologie an Mittelrhein und Mosel ?!).
I'll keep looking.

Greez

Simplex

[Matthew Amt]

Cool find, especially with the nail through it! But I'd say it's a stretch to assume it's Roman, and then start deciding which battle it came from. Didn't the Gauls spend more time killing each other than killing Romans? And Caesar frequently had as many Gauls fighting *for* him as well as against him. Sure, it WOULD be neat if this did turn out to be a Roman skull! Just beware of houses of cards...

Matthew

[Simplex]

Matthew,
...maybe they found out the same way like here: link from old RAT, although there is no reference given hereto.
Thats why I used the eMail-adress I gave in the first post here to aks them on what their assumptions regarding the skull may be based.
So, at first -- lets wait and see.

Greez

Simplex

[Paul Elliott]

Not us! We have a replica human head scrounged from a tourist 'dungeon' in the UK. The bloody, slavering human head sits on a pole in front of the iron age tents. The kids always seem very interested.... one of our number is trying to find a replica human skull as well, with no results.

"......it seems that reenactors of gaulic celts have been lacking an essential part of equipment ...... "

[MARCvSVIBIvSMAvRINvS]

I have a real one, but i wont drive a nail through it, period.

You could buy a plastic model of a skull and use that.
If you have good modelling skills (airbrush) you can easily make it look real.

M.VIB.M.

[Simplex]

.....yes, it's holliday-time in Germany , but some people are still working .... :wink:
As for my request to Dr. Kuhnen:
"As to the requested informations on the skull-find(s) made by the Außenstelle Koblenz of the Direktion Landesarchäology I have no further informations going beyond what you already know.
Complementary informations on cultural historical context of skull-offering customs you may fing in : "MORITURI--Menschenopfer-Todgeweihte-Strafgerichte/MORITURI--human sacrifices-moribounds-punishment",
redacted by me as a catalogue for an exhibition in 2000."
This book seems to be out of print -- i could not find it in the shop of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Trier.
The only additional information I can give is:
Kuhnen, Hans-Peter (Hrsg.):
Morituri. Menschenopfer Todgeweihte Strafgerichte. Verfaßt (Edited) von Frank Unruh - Hans-Peter Kuhnen und Thomas Fontaine. Mit Beiträgen (contributions) von Simone Baße - Jean-Louis Brunaux - Sabine Fleck-Bandmann - Alexandre Fruh - Christine Moos - Ariane Kemkes-Grottenthaler - Margarethe König - Joachim Wahl - Jakobus C. Wilhelm.
Trier, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, 2000. 219 S., mit zahlreichen Abb., Gr.-8°, Illus. O-Pappband ISBN: 3923319452 (EAN: 9783923319459 / 978-3923319459)
(= Schriftenreihe des Rheinischen Landesmuseums Trier. Nr. 17)./ (= No.17 of books from the Rheinischews Landesmuseum,Trier. -
Aus dem Inhalt/From the contents:
Probleme bei der Deutung vorgeschichtlicher Funde/ Problems with interpretations of prehistoric finds;
Kult, Kanibalismus u. Sonderbestattung/ Cult, Cannibalism and Special Burials.
Die schwierige Deutung vorgeschichtlicher Skelettfunde/The difficult interpretation of prehistorical skeletal finds;
Die keltischen Heiligtümer in Frankreich/Celtic sanctuaries in France;
Religion, Strafe u. Rausch im Amphitheater/Religion, Punishment and Rush in the Amphitheatre;
Staatliche Macht über Leben u. Tod/ Public power over Life and Death;
Die Verfolgung der Juden im Mittelalter/Prosecution of Jews in the Middle Ages;
Menschenopfer u. gesellschaftliche Ordnung bei den Maya u. Azteken/Human sacrifices and social order amongst Maya and Aztecs;
Hexenverfolgung in der frühen Neuzeit/Prosecution of witches in early moderb times.
I'll report back as soon as I know more.

Greez

Simplex

[Robert Vermaat]

.....yes, it's holliday-time in Germany , but some people are still working .... :wink:

Thanks Siggi!

[Ron Andrea]

I thought August was the month of holiday. Has someone lost their head?

Oh, that what this thread is all about.

[Simplex]

Hi Ron,
...depends on what area of Europe you're in .....
....as far as I'm concerned it's hollidays, yes.
The older I get the less adaptable to heat I do become. 38,3°C in the shade is definitely to hot for me.
But having my head punctured for better cooling -- I don't think I'd be in for that. ;-) )
Maybe some folks tried to do so in the past -- did archeologists ever try to interpret such finds that way ??
(O.K. ---- Virginians seem to be more rugged when it comes to heat.)
As to the above,-- as some TV-shows say: "Don't try this at home".
Greez

Simplex

[Ron Andrea]

Actually it's the folks who parade around in the sun in their full kit--whether Roman, Germanic, Napoleonic or American Civil War--who are tough.

Virginia is normally cooler than the American plains. This has been a bad year thus far.

Back to skulls: the early Celts integrated them to portals, leading one to wonder if there wasn't a religious or spiritual basis for their displays. Certain tribes of native Americans reputedly ate their enemies' heart or liver to appropriate the power of their defeated foe's spirit.

Nailing a skull to a wall/tree/door post--absent better knowledge of the culture involved implies a degree of disrespect which seems consistent with proclaiming victory over a hated foe. (Didn't Marius' troops urinate on the bodies of dead Teutons to excite the rest of the Germans to lure them into the trap that resulted in the annihilation of that people at Aquae Sextiae (102 BC)? Or is that a fable?)