486
Views
2
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Articles

Facing Faces: The Head Motif in Migration-Period Archaeology

Pages 41-68 | Published online: 19 Jun 2017
 

Abstract

TIME AND AGAIN WE SEE STRANGE FACES on archaeological objects from early migration-period contexts in northern and western Europe. They are depicted on fibulas, belt buckles, button brooches and some other types of objects. With their bulgy eyes, open mouths and chubby cheeks they appear as though they were ‘shadowing’ and pursuing human-kind. Who are they, whose image might be represented here, what meaning did these images convey and what were they meant to achieve? Through an analysis of new and old archaeological finds, the appearances, spatial distribution and duration of use of these faces are discussed, and an interpretation for their meaning is suggested. Contacts between the various Germanic-speaking groups of northern Europe and their blended culture, signalled by motifs derived from Celtic, Roman and later Christian societies, created a new world of idiosyncratic images and thoughts which are interrogated here.

Résumé

Faces humaines de face : le motif de tête humaine dans l’archéologie de la période des migrations par Alexandra Pesch

À maintes reprises, nous voyons apparaître d’étranges faces humaines sur des objets archéologiques dans des contextes remontant au début de la période des migrations, dans le nord et l’ouest de l’Europe. Elles figurent sur des fibules cupelliformes ou autres, des boucles de ceinture et d’autres types d’objets. Avec leurs yeux exorbitants, leur bouche ouverte et leurs joues rebondies, elles apparaissent comme des ombres humaines déformées. Qui sont-elles ? Qui ces images pouvaient-elles représenter, quels en étaient les significations possibles et le but recherché ? En analysant les découvertes archéologiques, anciennes et nouvelles, l’apparence, la distribution spatiale et la durée pendant laquelle ces faces ont été représentées, nous évoquons ces faces humaines et suggérons une interprétation de leur sens. Des contacts entre divers groupes germanophones d’Europe du nord et leur culture hybride – se manifestant par des motifs dérivés de sociétés celtes, romaines et, plus tard, chrétiennes - ont créé un nouvel univers d’images et de pensée idiosyncratiques que nous explorons ici.

Zusammenfassung

Von Angesicht zu Angesicht: Das Kopfmotiv in der Archäologie der Völkerwanderung von Alexandra Pesch

Auf archäologischen Objekten aus der frühen Völkerwanderungszeit in Nord- und Westeuropa finden wir immer wieder Abbildungen seltsamer Gesichter. Diese sind unter anderem dargestellt auf Fibeln, Gürtelschnallen und Knopfspangen. Mit ihren hervorquellenden Augen, offenen Mündern und Pausbacken scheinen sie die Menschen anzustarren und zu beschatten. Wem gehören diese Gesichter? Wessen Bild wird hier dargestellt, welche Bedeutung hatten diese Bilder und was war der Zweck einer solchen Darstellung? Die Studie analysiert neue und alte archäologische Funde und diskutiert das Erscheinungsbild, die räumliche Verbreitung sowie die Verwendungsdauer der Gesichter und schlägt eine Interpretation ihrer Bedeutung vor. Kontakte zwischen verschiedenen germanischsprachigen Gruppen in Nordeuropa sowie kulturelle Vermischungen, ausgedrückt in Motiven keltischen, römischen und spätchristlichen Ursprungs, schufen eine neue Welt idiosynkratischer Bilder und Gedanken, die hier hinterfragt werden.

Riassunto

Affrontare le facce: il motivo della testa nell’archeologia del periodo delle migrazioni di Alexandra Pesch

Più e più volte ci capita di vedere strane facce su reperti archeologici provenienti da contesti del primo periodo delle migrazioni nell’Europa settentrionale e occidentale. Si trovano rappresentate su fibule, fibbie di cinture, spille a bottone e altri tipi di oggetti. Con gli occhi prominenti, le bocche aperte, le guance paffute sembrano ‘mascherare’ degli esseri umani. Chi sono? A chi appartengono le immagini raffigurate qui e che significati comunicavano, e che effetti erano destinati a produrre? Attraverso l’analisi di reperti archeologici vecchi e nuovi si discutono qui le presenze, la distribuzione spaziale e la durata dell’uso di queste facce, e viene proposta un’interpretazione del loro significato. I contatti tra i vari gruppi di lingua germanica del Nord Europa e la loro cultura, frutto di mescolanze segnalate da motivi grafici derivati da società celtiche, romane, e più tardi cristiane, vennero a creare un nuovo mondo di immagini idiosincratiche e di pensieri sui quali si indaga in questo studio.

acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude for the provision of images and friendly advice to Morten Axboe, Danish National Museum Copenhagen (Figs b, , ) and Björn Nilsson, Lund (Fig ). Many thanks for helpful comments also to Charlotte Behr (London), Jan Peder Lamm (Stockholm), Sarah Semple (Durham), and Leslie Webster (London). The translation into English was made by Wilson Huntley, Göttingen, and Brenda Attendorn, Münster.

Notes

2 See Arwidsson Citation1963; Rasmussen Citation1995, 64–79; von Carnap-Bornheim and Ilkjær Citation1996, 433–40; Capelle Citation2003, 9–12, 23; cf also Hulthén Citation1991; Lund Citation1992; Magnus Citation2009; Blankenfeldt Citation2007, 100; Rosengren Citation2010; Stylegar et al Citation2011; Helmbrecht Citation2011, 215–29; Ciesielski Citation2013.

3 Cf Magnus Citation2006, 48; Capelle Citation2003, 23 ‘pausbäckige Maske’.

4 Salin Citation1904; Haseloff Citation1981; Webster Citation2012, 55–61.

5 Yet to be published; thanks to Peter Vang Petersen and Morten Axboe for the reference.

7 Franzén Citation2009.

9 Franzén Citation2009.

10 For Åle see <http://www.horsensmuseum.dk/Arkaeologi/FantastiskeFund/Pragtdorn.aspx> [accessed March 2016] for Thimbleby see <https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/251163> [accessed March 2016].

11 Pesch Citation2015, 457–72.

12 Avent and Evison Citation1982; Welch Citation1985; Suzuki Citation2008.

13 Cf Lamm Citation2015, 62–1.

15 Pesch Citation2015, 477–9.

16 Frey Citation1953.

17 Haseloff Citation1981, 13–14.

18 Holzapfel Citation1973.

19 Haseloff Citation1981, 12–13, 132–9, with many examples.

20 Böhme Citation1974.

21 Cf also Webster Citation2012, 56.

22 Cf Capelle Citation2003, 41.

23 Identified as the powerful hand of the Roman emperor by Kendrick Citation1938 (‘hand and helmet style’); cf Holmqvist Citation1954; see also Webster Citation2012, 57; Vierck Citation1981. Recently Wamers, Citation2003, thought of an iconographic echo of the Roman gestures of acclamation.

24 For example the Danish statuettes from Slipshavn, Gudme and Bregnebjerg, and the Swedish figurine from Kymbo, see Pesch Citation2015, 323 with figs 180–2; for a broader view on Germanic figurines see Andersson et al Citation2004.

25 See Mackeprang Citation1935; Thrane Citation2008.

26 Haseloff Citation1981, 3–6; Böhner Citation2002.

27 Werner Citation1941; von Carnap Bornheim Citation1997; Blankenfeldt Citation2015, 253–7.

28 Pesch Citation2011; Citation2012, 638–45.

29 Lüth and Voß Citation2001, 73–4, 194–7; Voß Citation2008, 259–60; Pesch Citation2011; Citationin prep.

30 Werner Citation1966, 35; for contrary views see Blankenfeldt Citation2007 and Pesch Citationin prep.

31 Rasmussen Citation1995, 65–7.

32 Werner Citation1941, 44–69; Lund Hansen et al Citation1995, 142–4, 237–8.

33 Anke Citation1998, 139–50; Carnap-Bornheim Citation1999; Carnap-Bornheim and Anke Citation2007.

34 Carnap-Bornheim and Anke Citation2007, particularly 264–5.

35 See Pesch Citation2015, 468 fig 25 h.

36 Frey Citation1993, 157; Guichard Citation2012.

37 Brunaux Citation2012.

38 Anon, Les Celtes Citation1991, 466; cf the disc from Hořovičky, see Hoppe and Schorer Citation2012, 242, fig 32.

39 Cf Klindt-Jensen Citation1952, 215–17; Holmqvist Citation1980, 112; Hulthén Citation1991, 176. For a broader view see Haltbert Citation1961; Görman Citation1987; Blankenfeldt Citation2009; Kaul Citation2009.

40 Görman and Henriksson Citation2006.

41 Pesch Citation2015, 526–7; Pesch in prep.

42 See for example the French buckles from Teilhet (Aufleger Citation1997, taf 85, 4) and Cormettes (Salin Citation1950–59, vol 4, 274).

43 Cf Arrhenius Citation1986; Wamers Citation2008.

44 Cf Pesch Citation2015, 461.

45 Salin Citation1904, 210–11; Arwidsson Citation1963.

46 Haseloff Citation1981, 85–6.

47 Hedeager Citation2007; Citation2011, 201–3; see also Liljegren 1829. For a contrary view see Näsman Citation2008, 115.

48 Holmqvist Citation1980, 57; Andersson Citation2008, 76; 2011, 128–9.

49 Mellin Citation1827.

50 Engelhardt Citation1863, 27; Werner Citation1941, 3.

51 Carnap-Bornheim Citation1997, 82–3.

52 Franzén Citation2009; see also Franzén Citation2007.

53 Magnus Citation2006, 52; 2009, 236; Andersson Citation2008, 76; 2011, 128–9.

54 See Hauck Citation1970; Citation2011a; Citation2011b; Axboe and Kromann Citation1992; Axboe Citation2007, 110–11.

55 Hauck Citation1975; Citation2011a; cf Behr Citation2011, 220–9; Pesch Citation2012, 367–70; Citation2015, 343–9.

56 Cf Haseloff Citation1981, 132–9, with many examples.

57 Cf Hauck et al 1970, 343–8.

58 Cf Haseloff Citation1981, 132–9, with many examples.

59 Groß Citation1985, 19–21, 359–60, 362; Hauck Citation2011a, 30, 38; 2011b, 124; Pesch Citation2015, 429–7.

60 Hauck Citation1970, 142–9, 348–51; 2011a, 15, 37; cf Putsche Citation1974.

61 See Hermodsson Citation1969–70; Rausing Citation1995; Green Citation2001.

62 See Christiansen Citation1914.

63 Hauck Citation1970; Hauck Citation2011a, Citation2011b; Axboe Citation2007, 110–11; Magnus Citation2006, 44–57.

64 Hauck Citation1970, 160–203; Hauck Citation1980; Citation2011a, 4–5, 14–16; Heizmann Citation2007, 19–35; 2012.

65 Heizmann Citation2007, 32–5.

66 For Fure and for Skrydstrup see Hauck Citation2011a, 29–32.

67 See the fibula from Fonnås, Hedmark, Norway: Franceschi, Jorn and Magnus Citation2006, no 67, no 73; for the faces in roundels see Pesch Citation2015, 460–1, 467 and fig 24.

68 Pers comm Leslie Webster.

69 Summarizing, see Pesch, Citationforthcoming.

70 Bird protomes occur frequently at the forehead in the affinity clusters (‘Formularfamilien’) C16, at the end of the big head’s hair string in A1, A2, A3, B2 and in B6a (Fig 11b), see Pesch Citation2007; cf Pesch Citation2015, 384–8; 2016, in prep.

71 Arbman Citation1945, 165; cf Capelle Citation2003, 9–12.

72 Besides, one of the names of Woden is Grímnir or Grímr, ‘the masked one’, which is passed down in the Edda (Grímnismál), and in some English place names as well, see Meaney Citation1967.

73 For this kind of mask see Beck et al 2001.

74 For this remark many thanks to Leslie Webster.

75 Haseloff Citation1981, 84.

76 Cf Lemm Citation2005.

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 53.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 311.00 Add to cart

* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.