The Barbarians of Ancient Europe Realities and Interactions [Paperback]

Deals with the reality of the indigenous peoples of Europe - Thracians, Scythians, Celts, Germans, Etruscans, and other peoples of Italy, the Alps, and beyond.The authors of this beautifully illustrated book show how art and archaeology can illuminate the past lives and beliefs of the ethnic groups located on the fringes of the classical world  the barbarian, non-Greek Others of Europe: Celts, Scythians, Thracians, and Etruscans  and how the standard for the classical set by the Greeks has influenced the ever-shifting attitudes of ancient peoples and of modern scholars toward these barbarians.The authors of this beautifully illustrated book show how art and archaeology can illuminate the past lives and beliefs of the ethnic groups located on the fringes of the classical world  the barbarian, non-Greek Others of Europe: Celts, Scythians, Thracians, and Etruscans  and how the standard for the classical set by the Greeks has influenced the ever-shifting attitudes of ancient peoples and of modern scholars toward these barbarians.The Barbarians of Ancient Europe deals with the reality of the indigenous peoples of Europe, in contrast to many publications that explore these peoples in the context of the Greek idea of barbarians as the Other. These varied groups  Thracians, Scythians, Celts, Germans, Etruscans, and other peoples of Italy, the Alps, and beyond  had contact with one another and with Greek culture during its flowering. Images on the spectacular gold and silver objects buried in royal tombs show how the horse-riding nomads and the barbarian women warriors known in antiquity as Amazons saw themselves. Archaeological discoveries show how they dressed, what they ate and drank, where they lived, and how they honored their dead kings with barbaric splendor and human sacrifices, allowing us to change, correct, or confirm the picture given in Greek and Roman literature.1. Classical and barbarian Larissa Bonfante; 2. Greek geography of western barbarilÓ: