Decapitated heads on Celtic Coins
The Celts had a fearsome reputation among the Greeks and Romans. Even Alexander the Great made sure of avoiding war with the Celts, eagerly signing a peace treaty with them in 335 BC, before embarking on his conquest of Persia.
Celtic warriors decapitated the defeated after a battle, took the heads back home as trophies (depicted on the coin), and exposed the headless bodies hanging on wooden frames. Greek writers recall that, when meeting Alexander the Great, the Celts boasted that they feared nothing unless it were the Heavens falling on them.
The coin:
A gold Stater of the Namnetes tribe of Gaul, c. 70 - 50 AD. Obverse: a Celt warrior with a baton and four chains, each of which contain a decapitated human head on the end. Below his chin is a bridle-bit. - Reverse: a human-headed horse galloping with a rider holding the reins. Below the horse is the upper part of man, with outstretched arms, grasping a hindleg and a foreleg of the horse.
The Namnetes capital was Condevicnum in Gaul, modern day Nantes, France.
