Among the ancient Greeks strigiles had a pratical function but also a symbolic significance related to gymnasium activities and body care. This symbolic significance was adopted by the Etruscans and the Italic populations through the Greeks of Southern Italy: the practice is testified by the strigiles found in burials; but this use never spred to central Europe. Strigiles in Celtic necropolis of Italy are the consequence of processes of acculturation between Celts and other populations of Italy, which varied according to the periods and ethnic communities involved. The present article considers those populations showing the most numerous attestations of strigiles: the Senones and Boii during the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C. and the Insubres in the Late Republican period.
