Celtic Ornament in the British Isles down to AD 700

Abstract

IN this study of Celtic ornament, Mr. E. T. Leeds has elaborated a communication presented to the first International Congress of Pre- and Proto-historic Sciences in 1932. It is a survey of the subject as a whole from the earliest appearance of distinctively Celtic art after the coming of the early Iron Age peoples to Britain down to the beginning of Anglo-Saxon times. The various types of characteristic motifs are traced in the folds from initiation to decay and their relations and distributions analysed. Such detailed discussion was eminently desirable, as nothing of a similarly comprehensive nature had been attempted since Romilly Alien's work on Celtic art in pagan and Christian times of more than thirty years ago. In the meantime, not only has the material which Alien had before him come to be more clearly understood, but also much new material has accrued, bringing with it a clearer appreciation of the problems which call for solution. Mr. Leeds's views on the renaissance of Celtic art after the Romano-British eclipse, especially when they differ from those of Mr. T. D. Kendrick, will repay careful consideration.