CNG 84, Lot: 1837. Estimate $5000. Sold for $3800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Bronze Head. Romano-Celtic, circa 1st century AD. Hollow-cast male bronze head, with large ears and hooked nose, wearing goatee, head bald save for two remaining tufts of hair at the back of the head (a third may have existed where there is now a hole). The mouth is agape, and the large eyes transfixed, the whole creating a trance-like expression. Thick necklace with large ornament at neck. Height: 5.7cm. Green patina, small hole on top of head, larger hole at back of head, a few minor scrapes. Highly interesting.

The original function of this unusual bronze head is uncertain. It was perhaps a finial for a staff. Also uncertain was the angle of the head, which could vary depending on how it was originally affixed to its host object. The neck appears to be slightly extended, however, giving good reason to believe that the head was mounted in way that the figure was gazing upward. This, combined with the highly intense, trance-like expression gives the impression that this is some priestly figure.

It is tempting to view this as a representation of a member of one of the famous (or infamous, depending on the viewpoint) Celtic priestly castes, perhaps the vates (diviners) or Druids. While popularly envisioned as wearing long hair and beards, Druids in fact kept tonsures (that is, they kept their heads partially shaven), although the exact form of the tonsure is unknown (see Peter Berresford Ellis, A Brief History of the Druids, p. 80-1 for discussion). Mael (“bald”) is a nickname or epithet of some Druids in medieval Irish legends and hagiography, so we can surmise that the total area of the head that was shaved was considerable. The Druid tradition continued, probably in modified form, in certain monastic communities of Britain and Ireland to the outrage of the Roman orthodoxy, which favored the more familiar crown-shaped tonsure. Early eighth century correspondence denouncing the insular tonsure gives a glimpse into what form it took: the front of the head was shaved “from ear to ear”, while hair seems to have been kept in the back (see Daniel McCarthy, “On the shape of the Insular Tonsure,” Celtica 24, 140-167 for a discussion of the Medieval tonsure and the debated interpretations of its form). Whether the Druids wore mustaches, beards, goatees, or kept their faces clean-shaven is unknown. Dress is better understood; plain white or gold-laced robes were the norm for religious ceremonies, while a bull’s hide and feathered headdress appears to have been worn while overseeing battles. The appearance of the vates is not commented on.

Such an identification, however tempting it may be, remains in the realm of pure conjecture. To the continual frustration of ancient historians and archaeologists, evidence for Celtic priestly life remains scant. There is ample evidence, however, that there was a religious infatuation with heads. Stone heads of native style, some clearly deities, others more ambiguous, have a long history. A Romano-Celtic stone head found near a Roman road in Appleby, Cumbria is in some respects similar to our figure, albeit in a much cruder style (see Anne Ross, Pagan Celtic Britain: Studies in Iconography and Tradition, p. 85, pl. 37, b). Decapitation, both in ritual and in battle, was a custom of the Celts. Strabo (Geographica IV, 4, 5) comments on a tradition of Celtic warriors: “There is also that custom, barbarous and exotic, which attends most of the northern tribes...when they depart from the battle they hang the heads of their enemies from the necks of their horses, and when they have brought them home, nail the spectacle to the entrance of their houses.” Heads of particularly famous figures or formidable enemies were even embalmed and passed down as family heirlooms. It is unlikely that this piece represents the head of a deceased individual, as there are signs of muscular tension above the eyes that indicate that they are being held open by the figure.