The Celtic Vision

John Meirion Morris is a sculptor of note and it is with an artist's eyes that he here surveys La Tène art. With the view that `it is not the work of the archaeologist to discuss the significance of art', Morris argues that Celtic art makes no attempt to recreate likeness of any object, being or god, but that it represented a way of seeing that was fundamentally different from any art that came before or after, with the important exception of Neolithic art. Supported by lots of colour photographs of La Tène works of art, as well as numerous diagrams, the study expores the nature and meaning of Celtic symbolism, focusing on the religious significance of such recurring images as the head, the triad, the circle and `opposing dualities'. The text itself has a poetic quality and includes extracts from the thoughts of leading Celtic archaeologists.