THE GLAUBERG AND THE CELTS

7000 years of settlement history

The enigmatic farmers, craftsmen and warriors from the Iron Age

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7000 YEARS OF SETTLEMENT HISTORY

The Glauberg has exerted a great attraction on people for many millennia.
The first farmers and cattle breeders settled on the 8-hectare plateau on the edge of the fertile Wetterau in the 5th millennium BC (Rössen culture) at the latest. As early as the 4th millennium BC (Michelsberg culture), the Glauberg was extensively and intensively populated, possibly already secured with a small rampart on the gently sloping north-eastern slope. The plateau was fortified for the first time in sections during the Late Bronze Age Urnfield Period in the 10th - 9th century BC. Outstanding artefacts such as bronze garment pins, knives, spearheads and a shoe-shaped pottery vessel testify to the importance of the settlement.

 

 

 

The entire mountain plateau was surrounded by a wood-reinforced stone wall (so-called post-slot wall) towards the end of the 6th century BC (Wall I). It fell victim to a major fire in the 5th century BC together with the inner buildings. In the 5th century BC, a similar wall was rebuilt in almost the same place (Wall II). At the same time, the area surrounding the Glauberg was included in a monumental expansion phase. For example, two ramparts - the so-called Annex - led down from the mountain plateau to the north and dammed up water in a large basin in their corner. On the southern side of the hill, an extensive area was sealed off by a system of ramparts and ditches, a second hill - the Enzheimer Kopf - was partially included and two burial mounds with a total of three graves were erected. All three of the dead are characterised as warriors by the weapons they were given. Unique and exquisite grave goods, some made of gold, bronze, iron, coral, wood, leather and textiles, characterise them as members of an early Celtic elite.

The dead body from grave 1 is particularly striking due to its unique furnishings. Burial mound 1, which has now been reconstructed on the site, is also part of a complex ditch system in which an almost complete, almost fully sculpted sandstone statue of a Celtic warrior with a so-called leaf crown was discovered during archaeological excavations in 1996, whose features are strikingly similar to those of the deceased in grave 1 from burial mound 1. Fragments of at least three other statues were also found in this area. From the end of the 4th century BC, the Celtic sites gradually fell into disrepair. The Glauberg only regained importance in the early Middle Ages, in the Alamannic and Frankish periods (4th/5th century and 7th century AD) (Wall III). In the 12th/13th century, the plateau was fortified again (Wall IV) and expanded as the Hohenstaufen imperial castle of Glauburg (Glouburgh) and as a town foundation (Wall V), the remains of which are still clearly visible in the Archaeological Park.

THE ENIGMATIC FARMERS, CRAFTSMEN AND WARRIORS FROM THE IRON AGE

They were referred to as "Keltoi" by the Greeks around 500 BC and were later called "Galli" by the Romans. They were the first inhabitants north of the Alps to be mentioned by ancient geographers and writers: the Celts. However, it is not known whether the Celts or Gauls were a single tribe or different groups with similar customs, artistic styles and technologies. Nor do we know whether the Celts referred to themselves as such or whether only a sub-tribe had this (or a similar) name, which was transferred by the ancient authors from Greece or Rome to all similar population groups.

Initially indigenous to a small area between eastern France and Bohemia, northern Switzerland and the Main region in the 7th/6th century BC, Celtic art and culture spread through emigrants, adventurers and mercenaries from the 5th century BC at the latest. Eventually, an extensive area from the Atlantic coast to far across the Alps to northern Italy and Greater Greece was "Celtically infected", although not necessarily with the same dialects, customs and rites everywhere.
At its core, it was an agrarian society, but innovations such as iron technology (from the 8th century BC), the potter's wheel (from around 520 BC) from the south and coin minting (from around the 3rd century BC) were not only adopted, but also implemented and developed further in their own style.

In addition, there were contacts to the south, as evidenced by the outstanding and sometimes unique southern imports that appeared as grave goods in the early Celtic period of the 6th century BC at topographically outstanding hilltop settlements ("princely seats") such as the Heuneburg near Sigmaringen, the Breisach Münsterberg and Mont Lassois in Burgundy, as well as in exceptionally furnished large burial mounds of early Celtic personalities ("princely tombs") such as in Eberdingen-Hochdorf near Stuttgart or Vix in Burgundy. At this time, the distinctive social structure described in detail by later ancient writers such as Gaius Julius Caesar already seems to have existed.
"Oppida" are known from the late Celtic period of the 2nd and 1st centuries BC: large city-like complexes such as Manching near Ingolstadt, Alkimoenis (Kelheim) or Bibracte (Mont Beuvray in Burgundy). Settlements of over 100 hectares are not uncommon here: the Heidengraben on the Swabian Alb had a total area of over 1600 hectares. Craftsmen's quarters indicate specialisation within a society that was still predominantly agricultural. The late Celts adopted coin minting and casting from the Greeks just as readily as they adopted wine from the Romans: imported wine amphorae bear witness to this, as do the reports of ancient writers about the Gallic barbarians, who drank wine undiluted and in large quantities. However, it was not only their drinking habits that differed from their neighbours from the Mediterranean region; the aforementioned Greek coins were not copied 1:1, but were instead implemented in their own Celtic artistic style.

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The photos show a compilation of typical Early La Tène finds from Glauberg

During the Roman expansion in the 1st century BC, the typical Celtic legacies gradually disappeared; the local population adapted to the customs of the new "masters".

On the British Isles in the south-east, there are isolated objects in the Celtic mainland style, but even the ancient writers did not refer to the Britons as "Celts". The so-called Celtic art style of Irish book illumination of the early Middle Ages is ultimately also a combination of Celtic ornaments, Germanic animal style patterns and Roman art styles. The Irish, Welsh and Scots, who are often labelled as "Celtic", are therefore not descendants of "our" continental European Celts.

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