A Rare Small Ancient British Celtic Buff Coloured Sandstone Head

A Rare Small Ancient British Celtic Buff Coloured Sandstone Head with Dramatic Staring Pierced Eyes a Bulbous Nose and Slightly Open Slit Mouth
1st Century BC - 1st Century AD

Size: 12cm high, 8cm wide, 11cm deep - 4¾ ins high, 3¼ ins wide, 4¼ ins deep

The Celts venerated the head as a symbol of divinity and of the powers of the other world. They regarded it as the most important part of the human body, the very seat of the soul. This belief was found universally throughout the entire Celtic world from the time of their emergence as a distinctive people, and it persists until the present day still appearing as a motif in modern folklore. The Celts were not just head-hunters; their reverence for the head went beyond its use as a symbol of military success and was a profoundly important spiritual sphere of their life. The stone and wood carvings of severed heads were used as cult objects in both their religious sanctuaries and temporal homes. Often associated with sacred springs and pools, the symbol of the severed head was the most universal of their religious beliefs, and they imbued their ‘god-head’ with all the qualities and powers most admired and desired by them: fertility, prophecy, hospitality, wisdom and healing.

Said to save been found near Wroxeter Shropshire, once the Roman Town of Viroconium, the Territory of the Celtic Cornovii
Ex Private English collection acquired from Chris Rudd Antiquities 1998
Ex Private London collection

A Rare Small Ancient British Celtic Buff Coloured Sandstone Head