Celtic stone idols

Celtic stone idols are Northern European stone sculptures dated to the Iron Age, that are believed to represent Celtic gods. The majority contain one or more human heads, which may have one or more faces. It is thought that the heads were often placed on top of pillar stones and were a centrepiece at cultic worship sites. They can be found across Northern Europe but are most numerous in Gaul (roughly today's France, Belgium and Luxembourg) and the British Isles, with the majority dating to the Romano-British (between 43 and 410 AD) and Gallo-Roman periods. Thus, they are sometimes described as a result of cultural exchange between abstract Celtic art and the Roman tradition of monumental stone carving. Parallels are found in contemporary Scandinavia.^[1][2]

The faces tend to share a number of characteristics, including unsophisticated or crude features such as closely set eyes, a long face, broad noses or a slit mouth.^[3] Praising this simplicity, the idols were described by the scholar Paul Jacobsthal as bearing "the mark of Greek humanity, shining through primitiveness and weirdness".^[4]

A number of similar, usually earlier, wooden idols have survived, including the Braak Bog Figures (2nd or 3rd century BC) and the Ralaghan Idol (c. 1000 BC).