Headhunting and the Body in Iron Age Europe

This book examines the widespread evidence for the removal, curation and display of the human head in Iron Age Europe.

Ian Armit (Author)

9780521877565, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 March 2012

272 pages, 76 b/w illus. 6 maps 5 tables
25.9 x 18.4 x 1.7 cm, 0.62 kg

'… 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 Archaeology

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.

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.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], European history [HBJD]