ABSTRACT
The collective remembrance of war constitutes a focal point for memory studies, and as such it has also found an echo in Ancient History. In this chapter, the author considers the way in which Late Iron Age individuals and communities in Gaul and Iberia remembered war, particularly the zenith of battle, and the role of this remembrance in the construction and enunciation of their identities. In southern Gaul the veneration of the heroic ancestors took the form of monumental sculpture, with the cross-legged warrior as an archetype – sometimes holding several trophy heads, as at Roquepertuse or Entremont. Sanctuaries and necropolises were relevant lieux de memoire, often associated with a cult of the ancestors and becoming heroa related to the origins of the community. Through performance and lieux de memoire, in the negotiation between what had to be remembered and what had to be forgotten, the selective remembrance of particular warfare experiences was extended to the non-combatant population.
