Misplaced Pages

#508491

116-402: The Witham Shield is an example of the style of Celtic art known as La Tène . The bronze facings show evidence of having been reworked. The most noticeable feature is the central dome which would have been required for functional reasons as it allowed the owner to hold the shield close to its centre of gravity. Originally a leather silhouette of a long-legged wild boar would have been riveted to

232-483: A human skull which had a crescent-shaped chop mark, probably inflicted by a sword; this injury is unlikely to have killed the man. Twenty years later, during further excavations at the site, more sections of the causeway were dug out, some of them containing posts several metres long, plus a complete spear, a currency bar , a sword, a dagger and some bronze fittings, all of which appeared to have been deliberately damaged before their burial. The most important discovery

348-476: A " Disney style" of cartoon-like animal heads within the plastic style, and also an "Oppida period art, c 125–c 50 BC". De Navarro distinguishes the "insular" art of the British Isles, up to about 100 BC, as Style IV, followed by a Style V, and the separateness of Insular Celtic styles is widely recognised. The often spectacular art of the richest earlier Continental Celts, before they were conquered by

464-553: A blade of 7–12 in (18–30 cm). The design and fabrication of the pugio was taken directly from Iberian daggers and short swords; the Romans even adopted the triangular-bladed Iberian dagger, which they called the parazonium . Like the gladius , the pugio was most often used as a thrusting (stabbing weapon). As an extreme close-quarter combat weapon, the pugio was the Roman soldier's last line of defense. When not in battle,

580-579: A common arm and tool for civilian use by the late medieval period. The earliest known depiction of a cross-hilt dagger is the so-called "Guido relief" inside the Grossmünster of Zürich ( c.  1120 ). A number of depictions of the fully developed cross-hilt dagger are found in the Morgan Bible ( c.  1240 ). Many of these cross-hilt daggers resemble miniature swords, with cross guards and pommels very similar in form to swords of

696-439: A large bowl mounted on a shaft at the centre of the platform, probably for offerings to gods; a few examples have been found in graves. The figures are relatively simply modelled, without much success in detailed anatomical naturalism compared to cultures further south, but often achieving an impressive effect. There are also a number of single stone figures, often with a " leaf crown " — two flattish rounded projections, "resembling

812-449: A meteorite discovered in the area, deposited by an ancient meteor shower . One of the earliest objects made of smelted iron is a dagger dating to before 2000 BC, found in a context that suggests it was treated as an ornamental object of great value. Found in a Hattic royal tomb dated about 2500 BC, at Alaca Höyük in northern Anatolia, the dagger has a smelted iron blade and a gold handle. The artisans and blacksmiths of Iberia in what

928-538: A motif in many forms of popular design, especially in Celtic countries, and above all Ireland, where it remains a national style signature. In recent decades it has been used worldwide in tattoos, and in various contexts and media in fantasy works with a quasi- Dark Ages setting. The Secret of Kells is an animated feature film of 2009 set during the creation of the Book of Kells which makes much use of Insular design. By

1044-458: A number of items using Roman forms such as the fibula but with La Tène style ornament, whose dating can be difficult, for example a "hinged brass collar" from around the time of the Roman conquest shows Celtic decoration in a Roman context. Britain also made more use of enamel than most of the Empire, and on larger objects, and its development of champlevé technique was probably important to

1160-506: A pair of bloated commas", rising behind and to the side of the head, probably a sign of divinity. Human heads alone, without bodies, are far more common, frequently appearing in relief on all sorts of objects. In the La Tène period faces often (along with bird's heads) emerge from decoration that at first looks abstract, or plant-based. Games are played with faces that change when they are viewed from different directions. In figures showing

1276-551: A pre-Celtic people dominating the lands west of Iberia (most of modern Portugal and Extremadura ) successfully held off the Roman Empire for many years with a variety of innovative tactics and light weapons, including iron-bladed short spears and daggers modeled after Iberian patterns. During the Roman Empire, legionaries were issued a pugio (from the Latin pugnō , or "fight"), a double-edged iron thrusting dagger with

SECTION 10

#1732772002509

1392-534: A preference for geometrical decoration over figurative subjects, which are often extremely stylised when they do appear; narrative scenes only appear under outside influence. Energetic circular forms, triskeles and spirals are characteristic. Much of the surviving material is in precious metal, which no doubt gives a very unrepresentative picture, but apart from Pictish stones and the Insular high crosses , large monumental sculpture , even with decorative carving,

1508-416: A religious sanctuary, whose stonework includes what are thought to have been niches where the heads or skulls of enemies were placed. These are dated to the 3rd century BC, or sometimes earlier. In general, the number of high-quality finds is not large, especially when compared to the number of survivals from the contemporary Mediterranean cultures, and there is a very clear division between elite objects and

1624-559: A ring from the girdle". In the Late Middle Ages, knives with blade designs that emphasized thrusting attacks, such as the stiletto, became increasingly popular, and some thrusting knives commonly referred to as 'daggers' ceased to have a cutting edge. This was a response to the deployment of heavy armor, such as maille and plate armour , where cutting attacks were ineffective and focus was on thrusts with narrow blades to punch through mail or aim at armour plate intersections (or

1740-465: A series of engraved scabbard plates. Thereafter, despite Ireland remaining outside the Roman Empire that engulfed the Continental and British Celtic cultures, Irish art is subject to continuous influence from outside, through trade and probably periodic influxes of refugees from Britain, both before and after the Roman invasion. It remains uncertain whether some of the most notable objects found from

1856-466: A series of vigorously curved elements. A form apparently unique to southern Britain was the mirror with a handle and complex decoration, mostly engraved, on the back of the bronze plate; the front side being highly polished to act as the mirror. Each of the more than 50 mirrors found has a unique design, but the essentially circular shape of the mirror presumably dictated the sophisticated abstract curvilinear motifs that dominate their decoration. Despite

1972-720: A shield with bronze may indicate Greek and Etruscan influence. The shield is comparable with other shields found in Britain dating from the same period, such as the Chertsey Shield and the Battersea Shield which were also found in rivers. The shield entered the collection of Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick (1783–1848), a noted collector of arms and armour, and after his death the shield and other items of Iron Age armour were left to his cousin, Lt. Colonel Augustus Meyrick, who disposed of them between 1869 and 1872. The shield

2088-581: A single cutting edge, such as the European rondel dagger or the Afghan pesh-kabz , or, in some instances, no cutting edge at all, such as the stiletto of the Renaissance . However, in the last hundred years or so, in most contexts, a dagger has certain definable characteristics, including a short blade with a sharply tapered point, a central spine or fuller , and usually two cutting edges sharpened

2204-503: Is associated with the peoples known as Celts; those who spoke the Celtic languages in Europe from pre-history through to the modern period, as well as the art of ancient peoples whose language is uncertain, but have cultural and stylistic similarities with speakers of Celtic languages. The term "Celt" was used in classical times as a synonym for the Gauls (Κελτοι, Celtae ). Its English form

2320-486: Is in northern France and western Germany, but over the next three centuries the style spread very widely, as far as Ireland, Italy and modern Hungary. In some places the Celts were aggressive raiders and invaders, but elsewhere the spread of Celtic material culture may have involved only small movements of people, or none at all. Early La Tène style adapted ornamental motifs from foreign cultures into something distinctly new;

2436-575: Is just over one metre long. The join is not neat, and it is hidden from view by a covering strip. The shield is decorated with a central spindle boss, on which are pieces of red coral that are thought to have come from the Mediterranean area. The shield has been described as a "tour de force" of beaten bronze work. There are no other complete bronze facings that survive in Europe. This is partially due to their rarity, as Celtic shields were normally constructed from unsheathed wood. The idea of covering

SECTION 20

#1732772002509

2552-458: Is modern, attested from 1607. In the late 17th century the work of scholars such as Edward Lhuyd brought academic attention to the historic links between Gaulish and the Brythonic —and Goidelic —speaking peoples, from which point the term was applied not just to continental Celts but those in Britain and Ireland. Then in the 18th century the interest in " primitivism ", which led to the idea of

2668-793: Is not seen until the late 11th century when Irish metal work begins to imitate the Scandinavian Ringerike and Urnes styles , for example the Cross of Cong and Shrine of Manchan . These influences were found not just in the Norse centre of Dublin , but throughout the countryside in stone monuments such as the Dorty Cross at Kilfenora and crosses at the Rock of Cashel . Some Insular manuscripts may have been produced in Wales, including

2784-580: Is not, and its style is much debated; it may well be of Thracian manufacture. To further confuse matters, it was found in a bog in north Denmark. The Agris Helmet in gold leaf over bronze clearly shows the Mediterranean origin of its decorative motifs. By the 3rd century BC Celts began to produce coinage, imitating Greek and later Roman types, at first fairly closely, but gradually allowing their own taste to take over, so that versions based on sober classical heads sprout huge wavy masses of hair several times larger than their faces, and horses become formed of

2900-423: Is nothing more than a shortened dagger that is compact enough to be worn on the lower leg, usually by means of a sheath clipped or strapped to a boot or other footwear. The dagger is symbolically ambiguous. For some cultures and military organizations the dagger symbolizes courage and daring in combat. However, daggers may be associated with deception or treachery due to the ease of concealment and surprise that

3016-485: Is now southern Spain and southwestern France produced various iron daggers and swords of high quality from the 5th to the 3rd century BC, in ornamentation and patterns influenced by Greek, Punic (Carthaginian), and Phoenician culture. The exceptional purity of Iberian iron and the sophisticated method of forging, which included cold hammering, produced double-edged weapons of excellent quality. One can find technologically advanced designs such as folding knives rusted among

3132-482: Is succeeded by the "vegetal", "Continuous Vegetal", " Waldalgesheim style ", or De Navarro II, where ornament is "typically dominated by continuously moving tendrils of various types, twisting and turning in restless motion across the surface". After about 300 BC the style, now De Navarro III, can be divided into "plastic" and "sword" styles, the latter mainly found on scabbards and the former featuring decoration in high relief . One scholar, Vincent Megaw, has defined

3248-739: Is the Greek krater from the Vix Grave in Burgundy , which was made in Magna Graecia (the Greek south of Italy) c. 530 BC, some decades before it was deposited. It is a huge bronze wine-mixing vessel, with a capacity of 1,100 litres. Another huge Greek vessel in the Hochdorf Chieftain's Grave is decorated with three recumbent lions lying on the rim, one of which is a replacement by a Celtic artist that makes little attempt to copy

3364-460: Is used from the 1380s. During this time, the dagger was often employed in the role of a secondary defense weapon in close combat . The knightly dagger evolved into the larger baselard knife in the 14th century. During the 14th century, it became fairly common for knights to fight on foot to strengthen the infantry defensive line. This necessitated more use of daggers. At Agincourt (1415) archers used them to dispatch dismounted knights by thrusting

3480-600: Is very rare. Possibly the few standing male figures found, like the Warrior of Hirschlanden and the so-called "Lord of Glauberg" , were originally common in wood. Also covered by the term is the visual art of the Celtic Revival (on the whole more notable for literature) from the 18th century to the modern era, which began as a conscious effort by Modern Celts , mostly in the British Isles, to express self-identification and nationalism , and became popular well beyond

3596-662: The Anglo-Saxon art of the rest of England. Some of the metalwork masterpieces created include the Tara Brooch , the Ardagh Chalice and the Derrynaflan Chalice . New techniques employed were filigree and chip carving , while new motifs included interlace patterns and animal ornamentation. The Book of Durrow is the earliest complete insular script illuminated Gospel Book and by about 700, with

Witham Shield - Misplaced Pages Continue

3712-477: The Art Nouveau movement. Typically, Celtic art is ornamental, avoiding straight lines and only occasionally using symmetry, without the imitation of nature central to the classical tradition, often involving complex symbolism. Celtic art has used a variety of styles and has shown influences from other cultures in their knotwork, spirals, key patterns, lettering, zoomorphics, plant forms and human figures. As

3828-645: The Book of Kells and other masterpieces, and is what "Celtic art" evokes for much of the general public in the English-speaking world, is called Insular art in art history. This is the best-known part, but not the whole of, the Celtic art of the Early Middle Ages, which also includes the Pictish art of Scotland. Both styles absorbed considerable influences from non-Celtic sources, but retained

3944-544: The Celtic nations , and whose style is still current in various popular forms, from Celtic cross funerary monuments to interlace tattoos . Coinciding with the beginnings of a coherent archaeological understanding of the earlier periods, the style self-consciously used motifs closely copied from works of the earlier periods, more often the Insular than the Iron Age. Another influence was that of late La Tène "vegetal" art on

4060-523: The Drustanus stone and the notorious Artognou stone show evidence for a surprisingly cosmopolitan sub-Roman population speaking and writing in both Brittonic and Latin and with at least some knowledge of Ogham indicated by several extant stones in the region. Breton and especially Cornish manuscripts are exceedingly rare survivals but include the Bodmin manumissions demonstrating a regional form of

4176-575: The Dunnichen and Aberlemno stones ( Angus ), and the Brandsbutt and Tillytarmont stones ( Aberdeenshire ). Class II stones are shaped cross-slabs carved in relief, or in a combination of incision and relief, with a prominent cross on one, or in rare cases two, faces. The crosses are elaborately decorated with interlace, key-pattern or scrollwork, in the Insular style . On the secondary face of

4292-627: The Lindisfarne Gospels , the Hiberno-Saxon style was fully developed with detailed carpet pages that seem to glow with a wide palette of colours. The art form reached its peak in the late 8th century with the Book of Kells , the most elaborate Insular manuscript. Anti-classical Insular artistic styles were carried to mission centres on the Continent and had a continuing impact on Carolingian , Romanesque and Gothic art for

4408-600: The Middle Ages was practiced by the peoples of Ireland and parts of Britain in the 700-year period from the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, to the establishment of Romanesque art in the 12th century. Through the Hiberno-Scottish mission the style was influential in the development of art throughout Northern Europe. In Ireland an unbroken Celtic heritage existed from before and throughout

4524-615: The Museum of Scotland , Edinburgh (which also exhibits almost all the major pieces of surviving Pictish metalwork), the Meffan Institute, Forfar ( Angus ), Inverness Museum , Groam House Museum , Rosemarkie and Tarbat Discovery Centre, Portmahomack (both Easter Ross ) and The Orkney Museum in Kirkwall . The revival of interest in Celtic visual art came sometime later than the revived interest in Celtic literature . By

4640-531: The Pictish Beast , and objects from daily life (a comb, a mirror). The symbols almost always occur in pairs, with in about one-third of cases the addition of the mirror, or mirror and comb, symbol, below the others. This is often taken to symbolise a woman. Apart from one or two outliers, these stones are found exclusively in north-east Scotland from the Firth of Forth to Shetland . Good examples include

4756-411: The gold lunulas and large collars of Bronze Age Ireland and Europe and the torcs of Iron Age Celts, all elaborate ornaments worn round the neck. The trumpet shaped terminations of various types of Bronze Age Irish jewellery are also reminiscent of motifs popular in later Celtic decoration. Unlike the rural culture of Iron Age inhabitants of the modern "Celtic nations", Continental Celtic culture in

Witham Shield - Misplaced Pages Continue

4872-481: The pugio served as a convenient utility knife. The term dagger appears only in the Late Middle Ages , reflecting the fact that while the dagger had been known in antiquity, it had disappeared during the Early Middle Ages, replaced by the hewing knife or seax . The dagger reappeared in the 12th century as the "knightly dagger", or more properly cross-hilt or quillon dagger, and was developed into

4988-587: The " noble savage ", brought a wave of enthusiasm for all things Celtic and Druidic . The "Irish revival" came after the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 as a conscious attempt to demonstrate an Irish national identity, and with its counterpart in other countries subsequently became the " Celtic Revival ". The earliest archaeological culture that is conventionally termed Celtic, the Hallstatt culture (from "Hallstatt C" onwards), comes from

5104-625: The 1840s reproduction Celtic brooches and other forms of metalwork were fashionable, initially in Dublin, but later in Edinburgh, London and other countries. Interest was stimulated by the discovery in 1850 of the Tara Brooch, which was seen in London and Paris over the next decades. The late 19th century reintroduction of monumental Celtic crosses for graves and other memorials has arguably been

5220-576: The 1980s a new Celtic Revival had begun, which continues to this day. Often this late 20th-century movement is referred to as the Celtic Renaissance. By the 1990s the number of new artists, craftsmen, designers and retailers specializing in Celtic jewelry and crafts was rapidly increasing. The Celtic Renaissance has been an international phenomenon, with participants no longer confined to just the Old-World Celtic countries. June 9

5336-486: The 8th century Lichfield Gospels and Hereford Gospels . The late Insular Ricemarch Psalter from the 11th century was certainly written in Wales, and also shows strong Viking influence. Art from historic Dumnonia , modern Cornwall, Devon , Somerset and Brittany on the Atlantic seaboard is now fairly sparsely attested and hence less well known as these areas later became incorporated into England (and France) in

5452-639: The Ancient Greek goddess of witchcraft . The social stigma of the dagger originates in its periodic use in the commission of disreputable and murderous attacks, from the 44 BC assassination of Julius Caesar to the use of the stiletto dagger by the Black Hand of early 20th century America. Consequently, it developed a public association with surprise assaults by criminals and murderers intent on stabbing unsuspecting victims. To this day, criminal codes of many nations and some US states specifically ban

5568-512: The Greek style of the others. Forms characteristic of Hallstatt culture can be found as far from the main Central European area of the culture as Ireland, but mixed with local types and styles. Figures of animals and humans do appear, especially in works with a religious element. Among the most spectacular objects are "cult wagons" in bronze, which are large wheeled trolleys containing crowded groups of standing figures, sometimes with

5684-479: The Halstatt culture originated among people speaking Celtic languages, but art historians often avoid describing Halstatt art as "Celtic". As Halstatt society became increasingly rich and, despite being entirely land-locked in its main zone, linked by trade to other cultures, especially in the Mediterranean, imported objects in radically different styles begin to appear, even including Chinese silks. A famous example

5800-512: The Insular style. From the 5th to the mid-9th centuries, the art of the Picts is primarily known through stone sculpture, and a smaller number of pieces of metalwork, often of very high quality; there are no known illuminated manuscripts. The Picts shared modern Scotland with a zone of Irish cultural influence on the west coast, including Iona , and the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria to

5916-454: The Iron Age featured many large fortified settlements, some very large, for which the Roman word for "town", oppidum , is now used. The elites of these societies had considerable wealth, and imported large and expensive, sometimes frankly flashy, objects from neighbouring cultures, some of which have been recovered from graves. The work of the German émigré to Oxford, Paul Jacobsthal , remains

SECTION 50

#1732772002509

6032-651: The Pictish style, but lack the characteristic symbols. Most are cross-slabs, though there are also recumbent stones with sockets for an inserted cross or small cross-slab (e.g. at Meigle, Perthshire ). These stones may date largely to after the Scottish takeover of the Pictish kingdom in the mid 9th century. Examples include the sarcophagus and the large collection of cross-slabs at St Andrews ( Fife ). The following museums have important collections of Pictish stones: Meigle ( Perthshire ), St Vigeans ( Angus ) and St Andrew's Cathedral ( Fife ) (all Historic Scotland ),

6148-495: The Roman era of Britain, which had never reached the island, though in fact Irish objects in La Tène style are very rare from the Late Roman period. The 5th to 7th centuries were a continuation of late Iron Age La Tène art, with also many signs of the Roman and Romano-British influences that had gradually penetrated there. With the arrival of Christianity, Irish art was influenced by both Mediterranean and Germanic traditions,

6264-696: The Roman invasion of the south. However, while there are fine Irish finds from the 1st and 2nd centuries, there is little or nothing in La Tène style from the 3rd and 4th centuries, a period of instability in Ireland. After the Roman conquests, some Celtic elements remained in popular art, especially Ancient Roman pottery , of which Gaul was actually the largest producer, mostly in Italian styles, but also producing work in local taste, including figurines of deities and wares painted with animals and other subjects in highly formalized styles. Roman Britain produced

6380-413: The Romans, often adopted elements of Roman, Greek and other "foreign" styles (and possibly used imported craftsmen) to decorate objects that were distinctively Celtic. So a torc in the rich Vix Grave terminates in large balls in a way found in many others, but here the ends of the ring are formed as the paws of a lion or similar beast, without making a logical connection to the balls, and on the outside of

6496-591: The Vietnam War, the Gerber Mark II , designed by US Army Captain Bud Holzman and Al Mar, was a popular fighting knife pattern that was privately purchased by many U.S. soldiers and marines who served in that war. Aside from military forces, most daggers are no longer carried openly, but concealed in clothing. One of the more popular forms of the concealable dagger is the boot knife . The boot knife

6612-537: The Vikings, this is debatable given the decline began before the Vikings arrived. Sculpture began to flourish in the form of the " high cross ", large stone crosses that held biblical scenes in carved relief. This art form reached its apex in the early 10th century and has left many fine examples such as Muiredach's Cross at Monasterboice and the Ahenny High Cross. The impact of the Vikings on Irish art

6728-446: The archaeologist Catherine Johns put it: "Common to Celtic art over a wide chronological and geographical span is an exquisite sense of balance in the layout and development of patterns. Curvilinear forms are set out so that positive and negative, filled areas and spaces form a harmonious whole. Control and restraint were exercised in the use of surface texturing and relief. Very complex curvilinear patterns were designed to cover precisely

6844-422: The archaeologist, the rich "princely" burials characteristic of the Hallstatt period greatly reduce, at least partly because of a change from inhumation burials to cremation . The torc was evidently a key marker of status and very widely worn, in a range of metals no doubt reflecting the wealth and status of the owner. Bracelets and armlets were also common. An exception to the general lack of depictions of

6960-485: The artifacts of many Second Iberian Iron Age cremation burials or in Roman Empire excavations all around Spain and the Mediterranean. Iberian infantrymen carried several types of iron daggers, most of them based on shortened versions of double-edged swords, but the true Iberian dagger had a triangular-shaped blade. Iberian daggers and swords were later adopted by Hannibal and his Carthaginian armies. The Lusitanii ,

7076-462: The best preserved other than pottery, do not refute the stereotypical views of the Celts that are found in classical authors, where they are represented as mainly interested in feasting and fighting, as well as ostentatious display. Society was dominated by a warrior aristocracy and military equipment, even if in ceremonial versions, and containers for drink, represent most of the largest and most spectacular finds, other than jewellery. Unfortunately for

SECTION 60

#1732772002509

7192-648: The carrying of the dagger as a prohibited weapon. The dagger is in military use as a close combat and ceremonial arm. Many nations use the dagger pattern in the form of the bayonet. Daggers are commonly used as part of the insignias of elite military units or special forces, such as the US Army Special Operations Command, the US Army Special Forces, or the Commando Dagger patch for those who have completed

7308-537: The coast of Pictland and is often regarded as mostly of Pictish manufacture, representing the best survival of Late Pictish metalwork, from about 800 AD. Pictish stones are assigned by scholars to 3 classes. Class I Pictish stones are unshaped standing stones incised with a series of about 35 symbols which include abstract designs (given descriptive names such as crescent and V-rod, double disc and Z-rod, 'flower' and so on by researchers); carvings of recognisable animals (bull, eagle, salmon, adder and others), as well as

7424-524: The commandos, who used it primarily for sentry elimination. Some units of the U.S. Marine Corps Raiders in the Pacific were issued a similar fighting dagger, the Marine Raider stiletto , though this modified design proved less than successful when used in the type of knife combat encountered in the Pacific theater due to this version using inferior materials and manufacturing techniques. During

7540-685: The complicated brew of influences including Scythian art and that of the Greeks and Etruscans among others. The occupation by the Persian Achaemenid Empire of Thrace and Macedonia around 500 BC is a factor of uncertain importance. La Tène style is "a highly stylised curvilinear art based mainly on classical vegetable and foliage motifs such as leafy palmette forms, vines, tendrils and lotus flowers together with spirals, S-scrolls, lyre and trumpet shapes". The most lavish objects, whose imperishable materials tend to mean they are

7656-563: The culture of the European Iron Age from around 1000 BC onwards, until the conquest by the Roman Empire of most of the territory concerned, and art historians typically begin to talk about "Celtic art" only from the La Tène period (broadly 5th to 1st centuries BC) onwards. Early Celtic art is another term used for this period, stretching in Britain to about 150 AD. The Early Medieval art of Britain and Ireland, which produced

7772-460: The culture to the earlier Hallstatt culture and La Tène culture . More recent genetic studies have indicated that various Celtic groups do not all have shared ancestry, and have suggested a diffusion and spread of the culture without necessarily involving significant movement of peoples. The extent to which "Celtic" language, culture and genetics coincided and interacted during prehistoric periods remains very uncertain and controversial. Celtic art

7888-432: The dagger have made it iconic and symbolic. A dagger in the modern sense is a weapon designed for close-proximity combat or self-defense; due to its use in historic weapon assemblages, it has associations with assassination and murders. Double-edged knives, however, play different sorts of roles in different social contexts. A wide variety of thrusting knives have been described as daggers, including knives that feature only

8004-532: The dagger. These techniques in some respects resemble modern knife fighting , but emphasized thrusting strokes almost exclusively, instead of slashes and cuts. When used offensively, a standard attack frequently employed the reverse or icepick grip , stabbing downward with the blade to increase thrust and penetrative force. This was done primarily because the blade point frequently had to penetrate or push apart an opponent's steel chain mail or plate armor in order to inflict an injury. The disadvantage of employing

8120-438: The decline in Celtic ornament in the Sixth Exhibition of the Arts and Crafts Society of Ireland said, "National art all over the world has burst long ago, the narrow boundaries within which it is cradled, and grows more cosmopolitan in spirit with each succeeding generation." George Atkinson , writing the foreword to the catalogue of that same exhibit emphasized the society's disapproval of any undue emphasis on Celtic ornament at

8236-425: The decoration of practical objects had for its makers, and the subject and meaning of the few objects without a practical function is equally unclear. About 500 BC the La Tène style, named after a site in Switzerland, appeared rather suddenly, coinciding with some kind of societal upheaval that involved a shift of the major centres in a north-westerly direction. The central area where rich sites are especially found

8352-437: The early Bronze Age , in the 3rd millennium BC, and copper daggers of Early Minoan III (2400–2000 BC) were recovered at Knossos . In ancient Egypt, daggers were usually made of copper or bronze, while royalty had gold weapons. At least since pre-dynastic Egypt , ( c.  3100 BC ) daggers were adorned as ceremonial objects with golden hilts and later even more ornate and varied construction. One early silver dagger

8468-431: The early European Iron Age, c.  800 –450 BC. Nonetheless, the art of this and later periods reflects considerable continuity, and some long-term correspondences, with earlier art from the same regions, which may reflect the emphasis in recent scholarship on "Celticization" by acculturation among a relatively static population, as opposed to older theories of migrations and invasions. Megalithic art across much of

8584-483: The expense of good design. "Special pleading on behalf of the national traditional ornament is no longer justifiable.”The style had served the nationalist cause as an emblem of a distinct Irish culture, but soon intellectual fashions abandoned Celtic art as nostalgically looking backwards. Interlace, which is still seen as a "Celtic" form of decoration—somewhat ignoring its Germanic origins and equally prominent place in Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian medieval art—has remained

8700-634: The eye slits of the helmet visor). These late medieval thrusting weapons are sometimes classed by the shape of their hilt as either roundel , bollock or ear daggers. The term dagger is coined in this time, as are the Early Modern German equivalents dolch ( tolch ) and degen ( tegen ). In the German school of fencing , Johannes Liechtenauer ( Ms. 3227a ) and his successors (specifically Andres Lignizer in Cod. 44 A 8 ) taught fighting with

8816-411: The foundation of the study of the art of the period, especially his Early Celtic Art of 1944. The Halstatt culture produced art with geometric ornament, but marked by patterns of straight lines and rectangles rather than curves; the patterning is often intricate, and fills all the space available, and at least in this respect looks forward to later Celtic styles. Linguists are generally satisfied that

8932-501: The full length of the blade, or nearly so. Most daggers also feature a full crossguard to keep the hand from riding forwards onto the sharpened blade edges. Daggers are primarily weapons, so knife legislation in many places restricts their manufacture, sale, possession, transport, or use. The earliest daggers were made of materials such as flint , ivory or bone in Neolithic times. Copper daggers appeared first in

9048-454: The human figure, and of the failure of wooden objects to survive, are certain water sites from which large numbers of small carved figures of body parts or whole human figures have been recovered, which are assumed to be votive offerings representing the location of the ailment of the supplicant. The largest of these, at Source-de-la-Roche, Chamalières , France, produced over 10,000 fragments, mostly now at Clermont-Ferrand . Several phases of

9164-433: The importance of Ireland for Early Medieval Celtic art, the number of artefacts showing La Tène style found in Ireland is small, though they are often of very high quality. Some aspects of Hallstatt metalwork had appeared in Ireland, such as scabbard chapes , but the La Tène style is not found in Ireland before some point between 350 and 150 BC, and until the latter date is mostly found in modern Northern Ireland , notably in

9280-506: The later Medieval art of the whole of Europe, of which the energy and freedom derived from Insular decoration was an important element. Enamel decoration on penannular brooches , dragonesque brooches , and hanging bowls appears to demonstrate a continuity in Celtic decoration between works like the Staffordshire Moorlands Pan and the flowering of Christian Insular art from the 6th century onwards. Celtic art in

9396-600: The latter through Irish contacts with the Anglo-Saxons , creating what is called the Insular or Hiberno-Saxon style, which had its golden age in the 8th and early 9th centuries before Viking raids severely disrupted monastic life. Late in the period Scandinavian influences were added through the Vikings and mixed Norse-Gael populations, then original Celtic work came to end with the Norman invasion in 1169–1170 and

9512-582: The medieval and Early Modern period. However archaeological studies at sites such as Cadbury Castle, Somerset , Tintagel , and more recently at Ipplepen indicate a highly sophisticated largely literate society with strong influence and connections with both the Byzantine Mediterranean as well as the Atlantic Irish, and British in Wales and the ' Old North '. Many crosses, memorials and tombstones such as King Doniert's Stone ,

9628-425: The medieval dagger in this manner was that it could easily be blocked by a variety of techniques, most notably by a block with the weaponless arm while simultaneously attacking with a weapon held in the right hand. Another disadvantage was the reduction in effective blade reach to the opponent when using a reverse grip. As the wearing of armor fell out of favor, dagger fighting techniques began to evolve which emphasized

9744-502: The modern period, as well as the art of ancient peoples whose language is uncertain, but have cultural and stylistic similarities with speakers of Celtic languages. Celtic art is a difficult term to define, covering a huge expanse of time, geography and cultures. A case has been made for artistic continuity in Europe from the Bronze Age , and indeed the preceding Neolithic age ; however archaeologists generally use "Celtic" to refer to

9860-575: The most awkward and irregularly shaped surfaces". The ancient peoples now called "Celts" spoke a group of languages that had a common origin in the Indo-European language known as Common Celtic or Proto-Celtic. This shared linguistic origin was once widely accepted by scholars to indicate peoples with a common genetic origin in southwest Europe, who had spread their culture by emigration and invasion. Archaeologists identified various cultural traits of these peoples, including styles of art, and traced

9976-595: The most enduring aspect of the revival, one that has spread well outside areas and populations with a specific Celtic heritage. Interlace typically features on these and has also been used as a style of architectural decoration, especially in America around 1900, by architects such as Louis Sullivan , and in stained glass and wall stenciling by Thomas A. O'Shaughnessy , both based in Chicago with its large Irish-American population. The "plastic style" of early Celtic art

10092-544: The much plainer goods used by the majority of the people. There are many torcs and swords (the La Tène site produced over 3,000 swords, apparently votive offerings ), but the best-known finds, like the Czech head above, the shoe plaques from Hochdorf and the Waterloo Helmet , often have no similar other finds for comparison. Clearly religious content in art is rare, but little is known about the significance that most of

10208-503: The narrow blades through helmet vents and other apertures. The baselard was considered an intermediate between a short sword and a long dagger, and became popular also as a civilian weapon. Sloane MS . 2593 ( c.  1400 ) records a song satirizing the use of oversized baselard knives as fashion accessories. Weapons of this sort called anelace , somewhere between a large dagger and a short sword, were much in use in 14th century England as civilians' accoutrements , worn "suspended by

10324-457: The only weapon commoners were allowed to carry on their person. In English, the terms poniard and dirk are loaned during the late 16th to early 17th century, the latter in the spelling dork , durk (presumably via Low German, Dutch or Scandinavian dolk, dolch , ultimately from a West Slavic tulich ), the modern spelling dirk dating to 18th-century Scots . Beginning in the 17th century, another form of dagger—the plug bayonet and later

10440-576: The period were made in Ireland or elsewhere, as far away as Germany and Egypt in specific cases. But in Scotland and the western parts of Britain where the Romans and later the Anglo-Saxons were largely held back, versions of the La Tène style remained in use until it became an important component of the new Insular style that developed to meet the needs of newly Christianized populations. Indeed, in northern England and Scotland most finds post-date

10556-579: The period. Others, however, are not an exact match to known sword designs, having for example pommel caps, large hollow star shaped pommels on so-called "Burgundian Heraldic daggers" or antenna style cross and pommel, reminiscent of Hallstatt era daggers. The cross-hilt type persisted well into the Renaissance The Old French term dague appears to have referred to these weapons in the 13th century, alongside other terms such as poignal and basilard . The Middle English dagger

10672-485: The posts to be a wooden causeway which dendrochronologists dated to a period between 457 and 300 BC. It appeared to have been repaired and added to every eighteen years or so during that period, even though the construction and maintenance of a walkway on such a scale at that time would have been a major feat of engineering. Hundreds of artifacts were also found around the causeway, including eleven spears , six swords, woodworking and metalworking tools, as well as part of

10788-426: The prowess of the shield's owner, but could also have been a representation of the Celtic god Moccus . The shield also has a number of birds and animals incorporated into the design. The roundels at each end are inspired by the heads of birds, which are supported by horses with wings for ears. Birds similar to crested grebes are engraved on the central spine and this completes the engraving work elsewhere. The shield

10904-493: The rest of the Middle Ages . In the 9th and 11th century plain silver became a popular medium in Anglo-Saxon England, probably because of the increased amount in circulation due to Viking trading and raiding, and it was during this time a number of magnificent silver penannular brooches were created in Ireland. Around the same time manuscript production began to decline, and although it has often been blamed on

11020-579: The ring two tiny winged horses sit on finely worked plaques. The effect is impressive but somewhat incongruous compared to an equally ostentatious British torc from the Snettisham Hoard that is made 400 years later and uses a style that has matured and harmonized the elements making it up. The 1st century BC Gundestrup cauldron , is the largest surviving piece of European Iron Age silver (diameter 69 cm, height 42 cm), but though much of its iconography seems clearly to be Celtic, much of it

11136-456: The sabres worn by officers, which were too long and clumsy for trench warfare. They were worn with pride as a sign of having served front line duty. Daggers achieved public notoriety in the 20th century as ornamental uniform regalia during the Fascist dictatorships of Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany. Dress daggers were used by several other countries as well, including Japan, but never to

11252-652: The same extent. As combat equipment they were carried by many infantry and commando forces during the Second World War . British Commando and other elite units were issued an especially slender dagger, the Fairbairn–Sykes fighting knife , developed by William E. Fairbairn and Eric A. Sykes from real-life close-combat experiences gained while serving on the Shanghai Municipal Police Force. The F-S dagger proved very popular with

11368-474: The shield around the central dome, as indicated by small rivet holes and staining of the shield. The pattern of discolouration was very clear when the shield was recovered from the River Witham (see 1863 drawing below). Although it is still possible to see the discolouration under certain lighting conditions, the boar design is no longer easy to make out. The boar may have been a tribal emblem or represented

11484-535: The socket bayonet —was used to convert muskets and other longarms into spears by mounting them on the barrel. They were periodically used for eating; the arm was also used for a variety of other tasks such as mending boots, house repairs and farm jobs. The final function of the dagger was as an obvious and ostentatious means of enhancing a man's personal apparel, conforming to fashion which dictated that all men carried them. WW1 trench warfare caused daggers and fighting knives to come back in play. They also replaced

11600-532: The south. After Christianization, Insular styles heavily influenced Pictish art , with interlace prominent in both metalwork and stones. The heavy silver Whitecleuch Chain has Pictish symbols on its terminals, and appears to be an equivalent to a torc. The symbols are also found on plaques from the Norrie's Law hoard . These are thought to be relatively early pieces. The St Ninian's Isle Treasure of silver penannular brooches, bowls and other items comes from off

11716-581: The stone, Pictish symbols appear, often themselves elaborately decorated, accompanied by figures of people (notably horsemen), animals both realistic and fantastic, and other scenes. Hunting scenes are common, Biblical motifs less so. The symbols often appear to 'label' one of the human figures. Scenes of battle or combat between men and fantastic beasts may be scenes from Pictish mythology. Good examples include slabs from Dunfallandy and Meigle ( Perthshire ), Aberlemno ( Angus ), Nigg , Shandwick and Hilton of Cadboll ( Easter Ross ). Class III stones are in

11832-421: The style are distinguished, under a variety of names, including numeric (De Navarro) and alphabetic series. Generally, there is broad agreement on how to demarcate the phases, but the names used differ, and that they followed each other in chronological sequence is now much less certain. In a version of Jacobsthal's division, the "early" or "strict" phase, De Navarro I, where the imported motifs remain recognisable,

11948-514: The subsequent introduction of the general European Romanesque style. In the 7th and 9th centuries Irish Celtic missionaries travelled to Northumbria in Britain and brought with them the Irish tradition of manuscript illumination , which came into contact with Anglo-Saxon metalworking knowledge and motifs . In the monasteries of Northumbria these skills fused and were probably transmitted back to Scotland and Ireland from there, also influencing

12064-498: The use of the dagger with a conventional or forward grip, while the reverse or icepick grip was retained when attacking an unsuspecting opponent from behind, such as in an assassination. The dagger was very popular as a fencing and personal defense weapon in 17th and 18th century Spain, where it was referred to as the daga or puñal . During the Renaissance Age the dagger was used as part of everyday dress, and daggers were

12180-517: The user could inflict upon an unsuspecting victim. Indeed, many assassinations have been carried out with the use of a dagger, including that of Julius Caesar . A cloak and dagger attack is one in which a deceitful, traitorous, or concealed enemy attacks a person. Some have noted a phallic association between daggers and the succession of royal dynasties in British literature. In European artwork, daggers were sometimes associated with Hecate ,

12296-405: The whole body, the head is often over-large. There is evidence that the human head had a special importance in Celtic religious beliefs. The most elaborate ensembles of stone sculpture, including reliefs , come from southern France, at Roquepertuse and Entremont , close to areas colonized by the Greeks. It is possible that similar groups in wood were widespread. Roquepertuse seems to have been

12412-544: The world uses a similar mysterious vocabulary of circles, spirals and other curved shapes, but it is striking that the most numerous remains in Europe are the large monuments, with many rock drawings left by the Neolithic Boyne Valley culture in Ireland, within a few miles of centres for Early Medieval Insular art some 4,000 years later. Other centres such as Brittany are also in areas that remain defined as Celtic today. Other correspondences are between

12528-563: Was also found in the River Witham near Fiskerton. This is described as the only surviving set of triple dress pins and has been dated as 8th century and Anglo-Saxon. The pin set is also held in the British Museum. In the 20th century a series of posts were found together with an early to mid Iron Age sword when a dyke was being cleaned near Fiskerton , near where the Witham Shield had been found. Excavations in 1981 revealed

12644-650: Was designated International Day of Celtic Art in 2017 by a group of contemporary Celtic artists and enthusiasts. The day is an occasion for exhibits, promotions, workshops, demonstrations and gatherings. From June 6 to 9, 2019 the First International Day of Celtic Art Conference was held in Andover, New York. Thirty artists, craftsmen and scholars from Scotland, Ireland and from across the United States and Canada attended. The second IDCA Conference

12760-625: Was held at The Saint Patrick Centre in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland, from June 8 to 11, 2023. Conference organizers will continue the series as a biannual event. Dagger A dagger is a fighting knife with a very sharp point and usually one or two sharp edges, typically designed or capable of being used as a cutting or thrusting weapon. Daggers have been used throughout human history for close combat confrontations, and many cultures have used adorned daggers in ritual and ceremonial contexts. The distinctive shape and historic usage of

12876-424: Was made principally from wood, now perished, to a design later known as a "Gaulish Shield" that originated in the seventh century BC. What remains is an almost complete facing that had been made to cover its surface. The sheeting is 0.2-0.3 mm thick and was designed to be applied to a wooden backing estimated at 8 mm thick. There are two main sheets that meet at the midpoint of the shield. Each of these sheets

12992-537: Was not found in Egypt, making the iron dagger rare, and the context suggests that the iron dagger was valued on a level equal to that of its ceremonial gold counterpart. These facts, and the composition of the dagger had long suggested a meteoritic origin, however, evidence for its meteoritic origin was not entirely conclusive until June 2016 when researchers using x-ray fluorescence spectrometry confirmed similar proportions of metals (Iron, 10% nickel, and 0.6% cobalt) in

13108-633: Was one of the elements feeding into Art Nouveau decorative style, very consciously so in the work of designers like the Manxman Archibald Knox , who did much work for Liberty & Co. The Arts and Crafts Movement in Ireland embraced the Celtic style early on, but began to back away in the 1920s. The governor of the National Gallery of Ireland, Thomas Bodkin , writing in The Studio magazine in 1921, drew attention to

13224-400: Was purchased by Augustus Franks , an independently wealthy antiquarian who worked for the British Museum. In 1872 Franks presented the shield to the British Museum, one of over 20,000 objects that he donated to the museum during his lifetime or by bequest at his death. [Witham Shield - BM registration number - 1872,1213.1] An unusual triple headed dress pin was also found in 1826. This pin set

13340-563: Was recovered with midrib design. The 1924 opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun revealed two daggers, one with a gold blade, and one of smelted iron. It is held that mummies of the Eleventh Dynasty were buried with bronze sabres; and there is a bronze dagger of Thut-mes III. (Eighteenth Dynasty), c.  B.C. 1600 , and bronze armour, swords and daggers of Mene-ptah II. of the (Nineteenth Dynasty) c.  B.C 1300 . Iron production did not begin until 1200 BC, and iron ore

13456-580: Was two Iron Age votive boats. One of these boats, as well as other artifacts from the site, can be seen at The Collection in Lincoln. The area around the site of the causeway was opened as a nature reserve managed by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust in 2006. Celtic art#La T.C3.A8ne art Celtic art is associated with the peoples known as Celts ; those who spoke the Celtic languages in Europe from pre-history through to

#508491