Talk:Celtic maze

Dubious definitions and some suggestions

I removed a picture of stones at Gavrinis, which was captioned "Celtic spirals at Gavrinis". In what sense are these motifs spirals? According to the official website there are some "false spirals" at Gavrinis, and one possible true one, but not on these stones (which are actually replicas). And in what sense are they Celtic? The earliest Celtic culture can be traced back to c.1200BCE; Gavrinis dates from c.3500BCE.

While on the subject of definitions, what is a "straight-line spiral"? At first glance it sounds like a contradiction in terms. Presumably it's a spiral drawn with sections made up of straight lines? In which case the tile pattern illustration should probably be captioned more clearly, with one of the tiled sections made slightly bolder than the others. Superficially it seems more akin to the "Greek key" pattern or meander (not mentioned here) than to the labyrinth, classical or mediaeval (which seems out of place here, without a more comprehensible reasoning being given for its inclusion). The term "Celtic labyrinth" is used as if synonymous with "Celtic maze" but the labyrinth shown is a Classical one. If a labyrinth is to be illustrated here, wouldn't it be more appropriate to use one of the squared-off versions of the motif here than the curved one? (Such as [1] or [2].) And some diagrams of its construction, perhaps, such as those given at this site[3].

Sorry to sound so grumpy! I'm genuinely looking forward to seeing this page develop. I'm intrigued by the description of labyrinths with eyes. Are there any illustrated online? And I'd love to see the ones with the possible Cernunnos figure at the centre, too. I know that a horned god is sometimes shown holding a snake (notably on the Gundestrup cauldron - which may be Thracian rather than Celtic) but are there any genuinely ancient examples showing him with a snake around his waist? If there are any examples online you should link to them. (Some of this material could be repeated on the Labyrinth page.) The statement about path-line reversal could do with some expansion and clarification, as could the final throw-away reference to constructing a classical labyrinth "from figure with serpent through waist and ocular spiral"! SiGarb | (Talk) 17:30, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

Terminology

Bain calls them "key" patterns... AnonMoos (talk) 09:53, 7 March 2013 (UTC)

Meehan seems to be the only author I can find who calls them mazes. Here is a much earlier source that also uses key. A move discussion for this article is well warranted. Ibadibam (talk) 20:43, 17 July 2020 (UTC)

Camonica, Knossos

I have entirely removed the paragraph about Valcamonica and Knossos, after an anonymous editor removed its first sentence. Without having an opportunity to review the source supporting it, it appears to be based on the author's conjecture, and concerns a figure different from the "straight-line" pattern that is this article's topic. Ibadibam (talk) 20:15, 17 July 2020 (UTC)