Gaulish Sanctuaries and the Commemoration of Violence

The sites of ritualised weapon deposition discussed so far focused on natural places of various kinds. This accords with a general perception, drawn largely from the classical authors, that the barbarians of temperate Europe eschewed temples and other formal religious buildings.

One of the best known of these sanctuaries is at Gournay-sur-Aronde in Picardy, northern France, which had its floruit in the third to second centuries bce. Here a quadrangular enclosure contained a complex sequence of buildings that became the focus for elaborate, large-scale rituals involving the display and, ultimately, deposition of thousands of bent and broken swords, spearheads and shield fittings.^[900] There was also considerable evidence for animal sacrifice and a relatively small number of human remains that mainly comprised cranial fragments located at the gateway. As with the Scandinavian deposits, the most likely interpretation is that these weapons were obtained from defeated enemies and represent violent encounters of considerable size conducted over a lengthy period. They recall similar depositions in the Mediterranean world, for example at the pan-Hellenic sanctuaries of Delphi and Olympia. These Gaulish sanctu­aries may be the sites referred to by Caesar in the first century bce as loci consecrati, where the Gauls dedicated captured weaponry to the gods.^[901]

More dramatic still is the sanctuary at Ribemont-sur-Ancre, also in Picardy, which comprises a series of linked enclosures.^[902] In the corners of the northern enclosure, superficially similar to that at Gournay, were constructed at least three ossuaries built of human long bones. Mixed with the human remains (which represented around 300 adult males) were horse bones and fragments of iron weaponry. The best-preserved ossuary enclosed a pit full of cremated human and animal bone. Nearby were dense concentrations of human remains representing hundreds of adult males with significant perimortem trauma, associated with weapons dating to around 260 bce. All appeared to have been decapitated prior to being displayed as a huge and grotesque human trophy. The heads appear to have been removed to some other location as none have been found on the site.