Rethinking the Ancient Druids , livre ebook

210

pages

English

Ebooks

2021

Écrit par
Miranda Aldhouse-Green

Publié par
University of Wales Press

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210

pages

English

Ebooks

2021

Lire un extrait

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Publié par

University of Wales Press

Date de parution

15 septembre 2021

EAN13

9781786837981

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

51 Mo

Ancient Classical authors have painted the Druids in a bad light, defining them as a barbaric priesthood, who 2,000 years ago perpetrated savage and blood rites in ancient Britain and Gaul in the name of their gods. Archaeology tells a different and more complicated story of this enigmatic priesthood, a theocracy with immense political and sacred power. This book explores the tangible ‘footprint’ the Druids have left behind: in sacred spaces, art, ritual equipment, images of the gods, strange burial rites and human sacrifice. Their material culture indicates how close was the relationship between Druids and the spirit-world, which evidence suggests they accessed through drug-induced trance.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Preface
PROLOGUE: The untouched Cave
CH. 1: Time and Space: contextualizing Druids in the ancient world
CH. 2: Barbarians and Wise Men: rethinking Classical texts
CH. 3: Spiritual Spaces: rites and beliefs in Iron Age Britain and Gaul
CH. 4: Images and Symbols: sacred art and the Druids
CH. 5: Welsh Connections: spotlight on Druidic Wales
CH. 6: A Holy War: Boudica and the Druids against Rome
CH. 7: Reading Runes and Telling Spoons: divining the divine
CH. 8: Druids and Deities: changing spirits in Roman Gaul and Britain
CH. 9: Ideas of Afterlife: death, burial and reincarnation
EPILOGUE: The Untouched Cave Revisited
BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Publié par

University of Wales Press

Date de parution

15 septembre 2021

EAN13

9781786837981

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

51 Mo

New Approaches to Celtic Religion and Mythology

RETHINKING THE ANCIENT DRUIDS

NEW APPROACHES TO CELTIC RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY

Series Editor Jonathan Wooding,University of Sydney

Editorial Board Jacqueline Borsje,University of Amsterdam John Carey,University College Cork Joseph F. Nagy,University of California, Los Angeles Thomas O’Loughlin,University of Nottingham Katja Ritari,University of Helsinki

New Approaches to Celtic Religion and Mythology

RETHINKING THE ANCIENT DRUIDS AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

MIRANDA ALDHOUSEGREEN

UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS 2021

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the University of Wales Press, University Registry, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardi CF10 3NS.

www.uwp.co.uk

British Library CIP Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-78683-797-4 e-ISBN: 978-1-78683-798-1

The right of Miranda Aldhouse-Green to be identiîed as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Typeset by Marie Doherty Printed by CPI Antony Rowe, Melksham, United Kingdom

This book is dedicated to my daughter, Elisabeth, and my granddaughter, Lily, with much love.

And to the memory of Taliesin, my beautiful blue Burmese cat.

Series Editor’s Preface Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Preface

Prologue: The Untouched Cave

Time and Space: Contextualizing Druids in the Ancient World

Barbarians and Wise Men: Rethinking Classical Texts

Spiritual Spaces: Rites and Beliefs in Iron Age Britain and Gaul

Images and Symbols: Sacred Art and the Druids

Welsh Connections: Spotlight on Druidic Wales

A Holy War: Boudica and the Druids against Rome

From Runes to Spoons: Divining the Divine

Druids and Deities: Changing Spirits in Roman Gaul and Britain

Ideas of Afterlife: Death, Burial and Reincarnation

Epilogue: The Untouched Cave Revisited

Bibliography Index

ix xi xiii xix

113

131

147

163

167 183

SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE

he work of Miranda Aldhouse-Green needs no introduction to any T reader whose interest is the study of Celtic religion. The author of many inuential monographs and reference works on Celtic and pro-vincial Roman religion, she is noted especially for her contributions to interpretation of art and iconography, but also for thematic studies of shamanism and bog burial that are pertinent to the present work. In this new monograph on the Druids, Miranda’s intent is to bring a fresh perspective to an old problem. This is to be especially welcomed in respect of the Druids, concerning whom we seem to have a never-ending ood of books, but perhaps rather too many on what we might term the ‘long Druids’ – ranging over topics as far-ung in time as early Greek cosmography and modern British antiquarianism. We have fewer stud-ies that focus closely on the time and place in which the Druids are most 1 often explicitly identiîed; namely, the îrst centuries ÇÈ/ÇÈ, and even fewer on the problem of dissecting the material footprint of Druids out of the wider materiality of Romano-Celtic religion. Very welcome here has been the emergence of new approaches from the archaeological side – one thinks of some recent studies by scholars such as Jane Webster, Andrew Fitzpatrick, as well as Miranda herself – that scope the possible models for the phenomenon of Druids out of Classical sources and try to envisage 2 how these might leave a distinct mark in the material record. One might say that Miranda has not set herself any light task here. The archaeology of a priestly or ascetic class is apt to be more ephemeral than the evidence for religion itself; as Sir Mortimer Wheeler once observed, 3 one can înd the tub but miss Diogenes.A lifetime’s work on the archaeo-logical evidence from Celtic Britain and Gaul, however, makes her specially qualiîed to take on this challenge, which is very much in the spirit of ‘new approaches’ that deînes this monograph series.

Jonathan M. Wooding,Series Editor

Notes 1 An important exception is Nora Chadwick’s controversial, but important, 1966 monographThe Druids, which Miranda highlights in her introduction.

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