This paper argues for a new way of thinking about Early Celtic art in the context of changes taking place throughout Eurasia during the fifth and fourth centuries bce. It applies ideas of anthropologist Alfred Gell, among others, regarding art as a stimulus to action. It asks, in the spirit of papers by Chris Gosden and W.J.T. Mitchell, ‘what did the art do’? The paper argues that this complex new art can be understood in terms of agency contributing to and even stimulating aggressive attitudes and practices on the part of elites during the late fifth and early fourth centuries bce. The new worldviews that are apparent in the new style, and actions driven by them, played major roles in Iron Age Europeans’ participation in the so-called Axial Age of dynamic change throughout Eurasia.

中文翻译：

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图像与代理：早期凯尔特艺术的动态和欧亚大陆的轴心时代


本文主张在公元前五世纪和四世纪整个欧亚大陆发生的变化的背景下，对早期凯尔特艺术进行一种新的思考方式。它应用了人类学家阿尔弗雷德·盖尔等人的观点，将艺术视为行动的刺激。本着 Chris Gosden 和 W.J.T. 论文的精神，它提出了这样的问题：米切尔，“艺术做了什么”？该论文认为，这种复杂的新艺术可以从公元前五世纪末四世纪初精英们促成甚至刺激侵略态度和实践的机构来理解。新风格中明显的新世界观以及由它们驱动的行动，在铁器时代的欧洲人参与整个欧亚大陆动态变革的所谓轴心时代中发挥了重要作用。