Abstract
There has been a tendency to regard druidism as a largely western European phenomenon of the late Iron Age, partly because La Tène material culture is found in all the areas in which the Druids are attested by the Classical sources. ‘The European theatre’ argues that druidism was not restricted to this period: indeed, it is likely that the beliefs and practices of druidism were deeply rooted in western European prehistory. Tangible data reflecting behaviour conditioned by belief systems consists of burial rites, depositions, ‘ritual’ structures, and iconography. Without access to narratives of belief or the underpinning philosophy, we may only offer interpretations based on the physical evidence.
