An Archaeology of Images: Iconology and Cosmology in Iron Age and Roman Europe

302 Pages·2004·18.73 MB·English

by  Miranda Aldhouse Green

AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF IMAGES

AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF
IMAGES
Iconology and cosmology in Iron Age
and Roman Europe
Miranda Aldhouse-Green
London and New York
First published 2004
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane,London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street,New York,NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
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© 2004 Miranda Aldhouse-Green
All rights reserved.No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,mechanical,
or other means,now known or hereafter invented,including
photocopying and recording,or in any information storage or
retrieval system,without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Aldhouse-Green,Miranda J.(Miranda Jane)
An archaeology of images:iconology and cosmology in Iron Age and
Roman Europe/Miranda Jane Aldhouse-Green.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1.Art,Celtic. 2.Symbolism in art. 3.Iron age–Europe.
I.Title:Iconology and cosmology in Iron Age
and Roman Europe. II.Title.
N5925.A43 2004
709′.37–dc22 2003020979
ISBN 0-203-64745-9 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-67335-2 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-25253-9(Print Edition)
FOR STEPHEN, WITH LOVE
It is somehow putting it the wrong way to say that images contain
meanings. Images contain apparent ambiguities. Images are seeming
contradictions.Images hold ideas apart so that they can be seen held
together.‘Imaging’ is reflecting.‘Imaging’ is relating.‘Imaging’ is re-
cognizing.‘Imaging’ is meaning. Images are meanings, which come
out in the thinking.
(Duff 1975,16;quoted in Marshall 2000,227)
CONTENTS
List of figures ix
Preface xv
Acknowledgements xix
1 Introduction:images in action 1
2 Image and identity:personhood,self and other 28
3 Imaging gender:iconographies of difference 54
4 Materiality and meaning 87
5 Thinking with beasts 113
6 Dreaming monsters and shamanic
shape-shifters 149
7 Paths of perception:ways of seeing,
ways of telling 179
8 Resistant iconographies:post-colonial
perspectives 215
Postscript:images unlocked? 239
References 242
Index 274
vii

FIGURES
1.1 Bronze sceptre-terminal from Brough-on-Humber,
Yorkshire. 4
1.2 Stone relief of a horned warrior from Maryport,
Cumbria. 5
1.3 Stone statue wearing torc and flat hat,from Alesia,Burgundy. 14
1.4 Bronze figurine of a woman,from Henley Wood temple,
Somerset.From the collections of North Somerset
Museum. 17
1.5 Decapitated chalk figurine from Garton Slack,Yorkshire. 18
1.6 Stone head from M˘secké Z˘ehrovice,Bohemia. 20
1.7 Bronze figurines of dancers from Neuvy-en-Sullias,
Loiret. 22
1.8 Pair of warriors engaged in ritualized combat dance,
decorating the back of a bronze couch in the tomb of a
Hallstatt chieftain at Hochdorf,Germany. 23
1.9 Stone statue of a warrior from a Hallstatt tomb at
Glauberg,Germany. 23
1.10 Stone relief of Mercury,from a well at Emberton,
Bucks.From the Buckinghamshire County Museum
collections. 25
1.11 Stone carving of a woman with spear and vat,from
Lemington,Glos. 26
1.12 Reverse of Iron Age gold coin,minted by the Redones of
Brittany,depicting a naked horsewoman with a sword in
her left hand,a spear in her right. 27
2.1 Bronze seated figure of a warrior,from Glauberg,
Germany. 30
2.2 Stone head with lotus-motif on forehead,from Heidelberg,
Germany. 31
2.3 Romano-British bronze amulet in the form of a bound
prisoner,from Brough-under-Stainmore,Cumbria. 34
2.4 Sculpture of Roman soldiers and British prisoners,on a
distance-slab from Bridgeness,on the Antonine Wall. 37
ix