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.

本文论证了在公元前 5 世纪和 4 世纪整个欧亚大陆发生的变化背景下思考早期凯尔特艺术的新方式。它应用了人类学家阿尔弗雷德·盖尔 （Alfred Gell） 等人的思想，将艺术视为行动的刺激。它本着克里斯·戈斯登 （Chris Gosden） 和 W.J.T. 米切尔 （W.J.T. Mitchell） 的论文的精神，问道“艺术做了什么”？本文认为，这种复杂的新艺术可以理解为公元前 5 世纪末和 4 世纪初精英们的能动性促成甚至刺激了精英的侵略性态度和做法。在新风格中显而易见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化的所谓轴心时代中发挥了重要作用。