27 March 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Famous Celtic hero bust of the Czech Republic “The head of Mšecké Žehrovice”

Located in the Czech Republic, the Mšecké Žehrovice’s head makes an appealing piece with its delightful curling mustaches- “perhaps the closest thing to a Celtic self-portraiture”.

This Celtic Hero was found during a course of 1943 excavation of an oppidum in Mšecké Žehrovice in central Bohemia, Czech Republic. It was probably created at the end of the third or at beginning of the second century BC. Ever since its discovery in 1943, the head has become one of the icons of Celtic art.

Mšecké Žehrovice’s head is one of the most well-known surviving pieces of Celtic art not just in the Czech Republic, but across Europe.

The Celts were one of the great peoples of antiquity that inhabited much of Western and Central Europe. To their contemporaries, the Romans and the Greeks, they were known as great warriors who carried out deep invasions into Italy, the Balkans, and even modern Turkey.

The Mšecké Žehrovice Head. Photo: National Museum in Prague
The Mšecké Žehrovice Head. Photo: National Museum in Prague

They created art that is now known as “La Tène culture” between the fifth and first centuries BC. It is named after the site of La Tène in Switzerland, where thousands of objects deposited in a lake were found during the 19th century.

The Mšecké Žehrovice Head, also known as The Celtic Hero from Bohemia was probably created at the end of the third or at beginning of the second century BC.

The sculpture was buried in a pit on a southwest corner of a square enclosure located within the oppidum. The stone head, sculpted from local Cretaceous limestone, has a maximum height of 234mm and width of 174mm. The sculpture was broken into at least five pieces sometime in antiquity. Four pieces have been found in fairly good condition.

The Mšecké Žehrovice Head. Photo: National Museum in Prague

The face is quite flattened. Facial features are projected on an almost flat surface surrounded by braid-like shaped hair. It has little combed hairs in the area above the forehead. At the back of the head, the hair appears to be shaved in a tonsure. The most prominent are the bulging oval eyes, contoured by a curvilinear eyebrow matching a similarly imposing curvilinear mustache. The mouth is suggested by a mere downward bending line. The ears are not naturalistic but rather represented as lotus buds, a stylistic form representative of La Tène art. The neck is formed in a shape of a torc, a traditional Celtic necklace.

Unfortunately, some parts of this precious sculpture were never recovered, including the right-hand side of the head and the upper part of the ear.

Along with the Glauberg “Prince” and the Warrior of Hirschlanden, it is one of the most well-known pieces of Celtic art from Iron Age Europe.

Related Articles

An Interesting Ottoman Tradition Resembling Christmas tree: “NAHIL” OR WISHING TREE

28 December 2022

28 December 2022

Nahıl, a word of Arabic origin, means date palm. This word was later used by the people to mean the...

Unsolvable Megalithic Mystery of ancient Greek “Dragon Houses”

8 January 2025

8 January 2025

The Dragon Houses of Euboea, which probably dates to the Preclassical period of ancient Greece, are one of the historical...

Portugal’s Enigmatic Roman Building “Tower of Centum Cellas”

4 February 2024

4 February 2024

The Tower of Centum Cellas (also known as the “Tower of St. Cornelius”), located in the Mount of Santo Antão...

Khirbet Midras pyramid and  Archaeological Site in Israel

28 November 2022

28 November 2022

Khirbet Midras (Arabic) or Horvat Midras (Hebrew) is one of several antiquities sites located within the Adullam Grove National Park,...

A birthplace of complex musical instruments “Iran”

9 January 2022

9 January 2022

Music is a form of art, which derives from the Greek word meaning “art of the Muses.” While it is...

Some interesting facts regarding its use the Galata Tower in Istanbul

10 July 2021

10 July 2021

The Galata Tower is one of Istanbul’s most recognizable landmarks, and its bright lights can be seen from all across...

Tajik Buddha in Nirvana – the Largest in the World: 42 feet long and 9 feet high

31 December 2023

31 December 2023

In the past, while Taliban soldiers in Afghanistan destroyed two immense statues of Buddha, art historians in neighboring Tajikistan meticulously...

Jordan’s mysterious ancient wall “Khatt Shebib”

22 October 2022

22 October 2022

The accomplishments of ancient civilizations are typically woefully underappreciated because we stereotype them as primitives who only wore loincloths, and...

Georgia’s Holy City Mtskheta

13 March 2022

13 March 2022

Georgia’s ancient capital city, Mtskheta, is located 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Tbilisi at the confluence of two mountainous...

The Nightmare of the Roman Soldiers “Carnyx”

9 July 2023

9 July 2023

The Carnyx was a brass musical instrument used as a psychological weapon of war by the ancient Celts between 300...

Bristol Redcliff Quarter’s outstanding medieval knife

17 May 2022

17 May 2022

In 2017 and 2018, Cotswold Archeology and Oxford Archeology, in a joint venture, undertook excavations ahead of redevelopment at Redcliff...

Iran’s legendary ruined city “Susa”

12 August 2021

12 August 2021

Ancient Susa is one of the oldest cities in the world. The Elamite, Persian, and Parthian empires formerly ruled over...

Seven Roman altars multicolored in the Great Northern Museum

12 November 2021

12 November 2021

We know that the ancient world is now very colorful. But these colors weren’t just limited to robes and other...

Birkleyn Caves is “the Place Where The World Ends”

18 January 2025

18 January 2025

The Birkleyn Caves were known as “the place where the world ends” and as “the place where the water of...

Ancient Tamil Nadu’s Metalworking Legacy Traced Back to 3300 BCE

7 February 2025

7 February 2025

Recent archaeological research has uncovered compelling evidence that Tamil Nadu’s metalworking traditions date back to at least 3300 BCE, highlighting...