Celtic Head
Unknown Artist
100–300 CE
Medium
sandstone with traces of original red paint
Dimensions
30 × 31 × 24 cm
Classification
Sculpture
Department
Medieval Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Jacob Hirsch
Accession Number
1955.555
About this artwork
This stone head has never been attached to a torso. It is known from ancient literary sources that the Celts, who originally occupied most of northern Europe from Hungary to the British Isles, practiced ritualistic veneration of the human head. For the Celts, the human head represented the seat of mankind’s magical energy. Stone heads similar to this one have survived in large numbers, especially in the upland regions of northern England (the Pennines, the Peak District, and Cumbria) where this ...