A prince's grave
In 1849, a burial mound near the German village of Schwarzenbach revealed a complete set of ceremonial drinking vessels. The find was part of a "princely grave" (Fürstengrab) dating to the 5th century BCE. This period corresponds to the early La Tène culture, an Iron Age civilization that flourished across Europe. The grave contained an amphora for mixing wine, a beaked pitcher, a golden bowl, and the remains of two drinking horns. Only the decorative gold and bronze fittings from the organic horns survived. One set of fittings has a complex design, which creates a subtle but deliberate optical effect.
The decoration follows the Waldalgesheim, or Vegetal, style. This artistic movement is defined by its use of classical plant motifs, like lotus blossoms and palmettes, which are deconstructed and reassembled into fluid, abstract patterns. The Schwarzenbach horn's gold trim has a lower band of repeating lotus flowers. Above this, a more complex pattern of palmettes and sinuous tendrils creates a shifting visual field. The artists used a technique of outlining some shapes in gold while leaving others as negative space, forcing the viewer's eye to organize the patterns. This clever use of positive and negative space is central to the horn's perceptual puzzle.