Among the themes that most struck ancient observers of the Celtic world was the relationship with the human head. Greek and Roman authors speak of it with horror and curiosity, archaeology has given back sanctuaries with niches for skulls, and medieval Irish and Welsh literature preserves tales in which a severed head goes on speaking. Bringing these sources together, without forcing them, helps us understand why the head held such a central place.
The classical evidence
Posidonius, Diodorus and Strabo
The Greek philosopher Posidonius of Apamea travelled in Gaul between the second and first centuries BC. His work is lost, but it is summarised by later authors. Strabo reports that Posidonius saw with his own eyes the heads of enemies hung at the entrances of houses, and that at first he found the sight repugnant, but in time grew used to it.
Diodorus Siculus, drawing on the same tradition, adds precise details: warriors cut off the heads of fallen enemies and hung them from the necks of their horses; then they nailed them to their houses. The heads of the most distinguished enemies were preserved in cedar oil in a chest and shown to guests, and their owners refused to sell them even for their weight in gold.
The consul's skull
The Roman historian Livy tells of an episode in 216 BC. The consul-elect Lucius Postumius fell into an ambush by the Boii Gauls in a forest of northern Italy. The Boii cut off his head, carried it to their most revered temple, cleaned it and adorned the skull with gold. The skull became a sacred vessel for libations, used by the priest and the leaders of the temple.
The sanctuaries of southern France
The archaeology of Provence has provided concrete confirmation of these reports.
- Roquepertuse, near Velaux: the sanctuary has yielded a stone portico whose pillars are hollowed with head-shaped niches, in which human skulls were placed. Statues of seated figures and a large carved bird were also found there.
- Entremont, near Aix-en-Provence: the oppidum of the Salluvii has yielded pillars with carved heads and sculptures of warriors holding heads beneath their hands. Skulls have also been found, some bearing traces of nails.
| Site | Feature | Probable meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Roquepertuse | portico with niches for skulls | ritual display of heads |
| Entremont | pillars and statues with heads | celebration of the warrior and the ancestors |
| Classical sources | heads hung up, preserved in oil | trophy and object of prestige |
It is not always clear whether the displayed heads belonged to enemies or to venerated ancestors. Probably both were possible, and the boundary between trophy and relic was less sharp than we tend to think.
The head in insular myth
The head of Bran
In the second branch of the Welsh Mabinogi, the tale of Branwen daughter of Llŷr, the giant king Bendigeidfran, Bran the Blessed, is mortally wounded in Ireland. He orders his companions to cut off his head and take it with them. The head accompanies them for many years, speaking and cheering them as it had in life, during an enchanted feast in which time seems suspended. Finally it is buried in London, in the White Hill, with its face turned towards France: as long as it remained there, no invasion would strike the island.
Speaking heads in Ireland
Irish literature, too, knows severed heads that speak or sing. The warrior Conall Cernach, in the tales of the Ulster Cycle, avenges Cú Chulainn and brings back the heads of his enemies. In other stories the head of a slain man utters verses after death. These motifs, though transformed by the Christian tradition of the scribes, seem to preserve the ancient idea of the head as the seat of a force that outlives the body.
Why the head?
Scholars have proposed several explanations, which are not mutually exclusive:
- Seat of the soul or life-force: possessing an enemy's head meant possessing his valour.
- Protection: the head displayed at the door, like Bran's buried in London, guarded a place.
- Memory of the ancestors: the preserved head kept a bond with illustrious dead.
- Social prestige: refusing to sell a head for gold shows that its value was symbolic, not economic.
It should be remembered that the classical sources had an interest in stressing the ferocity of the «barbarians». Their reports deserve to be taken seriously, since archaeology partly confirms them, but without forgetting their outsider's gaze.
The symbolic lesson
In the Western esoteric tradition the head is the place of consciousness, the point closest to the sky. The Celtic cult offers an archaic and powerful version of this: the head as the centre of identity, able to protect, to remember and even to speak beyond death. Studying these themes helps us grasp how deeply ancient people felt the continuity between the living and the dead.
In short
- Posidonius, Strabo and Diodorus describe enemies' heads hung on houses or preserved in cedar oil.
- Livy relates that the Boii turned the skull of the consul Postumius into a gilded sacred vessel.
- The sanctuaries of Roquepertuse and Entremont confirm the ritual display of heads.
- In the Mabinogi, Bran's head speaks to his companions and, buried in London, protects the island.
- For the Celts the head was a seat of power, protection and memory, as well as a trophy.
