Lesson Notes
Key Questions
What was a settlement like in various periods?
What was the economic basis of Celtic Culture?
Why did the Celts develop Hill Forts?
What is an Oppidum?
How had societies changed?
Walk through an Iron Age Settlement
Butser Ancient Farm (reconstruction)
The Hallstatt Period
Hallstatt culture is characterised in 4 stages, according to James(2005: 21): A & B late Bronze Age, from c 1200 to 700 BC; C Early Iron Age, from c700-600 BC; D from c 600 to 475 BC
The Hallstatt culture spanned central Europe, with its centre in the area around Hallstatt in Central Austria. There were two distinct cultural zones - the eastern:including Croatia, Slovenia, Western Hungary, Austria, Moravia, and Slovakia; western: including Northern Italy, Switzerland, Eastern France, Southern Germany, and Bohemia (Wikipedia).
At the start of the period, long distance trade was already well established in copper and tin - the basic requirements for manufacture of bronze. From about 700 BC, trade in iron also became established. The Hallstat area also already controlled the trade in salt, crucial when there were few other means to preserve food. Control of these two crucial trade goods - iron and salt - provided the basis for the accumulation of wealth and influence. From 800 BC, some burials of rich people can be identified,in central Europe, with grave goods such as wheeled wagons and iron swords.
Hallstatt C saw the construction of fortified hilltop settlements to the North of the Alps. These had burial mounds holding very high quality goods, such as vehicles and expensive imported treasures. By the time of the Hallstatt D period, these increasingly extravagant burial mounds were clustered around a few major hillforts to the southwest of the region. This suggests a development and a concentration of wealth of social power, possibly based on the development of Massilia (present-day Marseilles) as a Greek trading port. The expansion of luxury trade brought greater opportunities for profit and helped to create an increasingly stratified society, with the development of a wealthy nobility (James, 2005: 21).
Over the period from 1846 to 1863, a thousand graves were found at Hallstatt, with an astonishing range of artefacts, including clothing and saltmining equipment as well as weapons, jewellery, pottery and imported bronze vessels in the "chieftains'" graves.
James, S (2005) "Exploring the World of the Celts" Thames and Hudson
- Hallstatt (700 – 500BCE)
- The Round House & Farming
- Settlement Patterns
- Landscape Use through time
- The Heuneburg hill fort
- Oppidum
Key Questions
What was a settlement like in various periods?
What was the economic basis of Celtic Culture?
Why did the Celts develop Hill Forts?
What is an Oppidum?
How had societies changed?
Walk through an Iron Age Settlement
Butser Ancient Farm (reconstruction)
The Hallstatt Period
Hallstatt culture is characterised in 4 stages, according to James(2005: 21): A & B late Bronze Age, from c 1200 to 700 BC; C Early Iron Age, from c700-600 BC; D from c 600 to 475 BC
The Hallstatt culture spanned central Europe, with its centre in the area around Hallstatt in Central Austria. There were two distinct cultural zones - the eastern:including Croatia, Slovenia, Western Hungary, Austria, Moravia, and Slovakia; western: including Northern Italy, Switzerland, Eastern France, Southern Germany, and Bohemia (Wikipedia).
At the start of the period, long distance trade was already well established in copper and tin - the basic requirements for manufacture of bronze. From about 700 BC, trade in iron also became established. The Hallstat area also already controlled the trade in salt, crucial when there were few other means to preserve food. Control of these two crucial trade goods - iron and salt - provided the basis for the accumulation of wealth and influence. From 800 BC, some burials of rich people can be identified,in central Europe, with grave goods such as wheeled wagons and iron swords.
Hallstatt C saw the construction of fortified hilltop settlements to the North of the Alps. These had burial mounds holding very high quality goods, such as vehicles and expensive imported treasures. By the time of the Hallstatt D period, these increasingly extravagant burial mounds were clustered around a few major hillforts to the southwest of the region. This suggests a development and a concentration of wealth of social power, possibly based on the development of Massilia (present-day Marseilles) as a Greek trading port. The expansion of luxury trade brought greater opportunities for profit and helped to create an increasingly stratified society, with the development of a wealthy nobility (James, 2005: 21).
Over the period from 1846 to 1863, a thousand graves were found at Hallstatt, with an astonishing range of artefacts, including clothing and saltmining equipment as well as weapons, jewellery, pottery and imported bronze vessels in the "chieftains'" graves.
James, S (2005) "Exploring the World of the Celts" Thames and Hudson
The Iron Age Village at Chysauster
The evidence for this phase in Wroxeter comprises at least two ditched enclosures, one excavated underneath the legionary fortress established by the Roman Army in the late 50s AD and the other seen in geophysics. Study of the hinterland around Wroxeter has indicated a broad pattern of single-ditched enclosures of this type in the landscape and, where excavated, these are Iron Age, Roman, or Iron Age and Roman in date. The widespread nature of these enclosures indicate a settled and farmed landscape in Wroxeter and its region with evidence for a mixed farming pattern of arable and pastoral agriculture set within a network of tracks and field boundaries. The Roman Army, when it arrived, thus moved into a settled and farmed landscape broadly similar to that which still exists today in the region.
One of the distinctive elements of this period is the relative lack of material culture found in these farms and settlements. The inhabitants do not seem to have used pottery in any large quantities, other than a coarse pottery containing salt imported from the brine springs operating in Nantwich, Middlewich and Northwich to the north of Wroxeter.
Metalwork is rare but often of high quality; an iron scabbard is known from an enclosure excavated beneath the modern Shrewsbury Town football club while elaborate bronze brooches dating from 300 BC to the 1st century AD are known from the region.
Coins do not seem to have been used in the Iron Age at all and it is unlikely that Roman pottery was being imported into the region, in contrast to the south and east of Britain where considerable quantities of Roman pottery were being imported and used before AD 43.
source: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/wroxeter-roman-city/history-and-research/history/1-pre-roman-land-use/
The evidence for this phase in Wroxeter comprises at least two ditched enclosures, one excavated underneath the legionary fortress established by the Roman Army in the late 50s AD and the other seen in geophysics. Study of the hinterland around Wroxeter has indicated a broad pattern of single-ditched enclosures of this type in the landscape and, where excavated, these are Iron Age, Roman, or Iron Age and Roman in date. The widespread nature of these enclosures indicate a settled and farmed landscape in Wroxeter and its region with evidence for a mixed farming pattern of arable and pastoral agriculture set within a network of tracks and field boundaries. The Roman Army, when it arrived, thus moved into a settled and farmed landscape broadly similar to that which still exists today in the region.
One of the distinctive elements of this period is the relative lack of material culture found in these farms and settlements. The inhabitants do not seem to have used pottery in any large quantities, other than a coarse pottery containing salt imported from the brine springs operating in Nantwich, Middlewich and Northwich to the north of Wroxeter.
Metalwork is rare but often of high quality; an iron scabbard is known from an enclosure excavated beneath the modern Shrewsbury Town football club while elaborate bronze brooches dating from 300 BC to the 1st century AD are known from the region.
Coins do not seem to have been used in the Iron Age at all and it is unlikely that Roman pottery was being imported into the region, in contrast to the south and east of Britain where considerable quantities of Roman pottery were being imported and used before AD 43.
source: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/wroxeter-roman-city/history-and-research/history/1-pre-roman-land-use/
Video: Construction of a plank built round house based on CS1 from Danebury hillfort, excavated by Prof Barry Cunnliff |
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Hillforts
Readings: Hillforts of Britain
Hill forts are what archaeologists call single households, elite residences, whole villages, or urban settlements built on the tops of hills and/or with defensive structures such as enclosures, moats, or ramparts--not all "hill forts" were built on hills. Although best known in Europe, similar structures are found throughout the world and throughout time, as you might imagine, since we humans are at times a fearful, violent race.
The first fortified residences date to the Neolithic period, although they are not normally called 'hill forts', where defensive structures are found at such sites as Podgoritsa (Bulgaria) and Berry au Bac (France). Many hill forts appeared at the end of the late Bronze Age, around 1100-1300 BC, when people lived in small separate communities with differing levels of wealth and status. During the early Iron Age (ca 600-450 BC), several hillforts in central Europe were the residences of a select elite. Trade throughout Europe was established and some of these individuals were buried in graves with lots of fancy, imported goods; differential wealth and status may well have been one of the reasons for the building of defensive structures.
Hill Fort Construction Hill forts were constructed by the addition of ditches and timber palisades, stone- and earth-filled wooden frames or cobble stone structures such as towers, walls and ramparts. As trade expanded and luxury items from the Mediterranean became available to the growing elite classes of Europe, hill forts grew in size and complexity. By Roman times, hill forts (called oppida) were spread throughout the Mediterranean region.
Champion, Timothy. 1996. Hill forts. pp. 277-279 in The Oxford Companion to Archaeology, Brian Fagan, ed. Oxford University Press, Osford.
By K. Kris Hirst
Readings: Hillforts of Britain
Hill forts are what archaeologists call single households, elite residences, whole villages, or urban settlements built on the tops of hills and/or with defensive structures such as enclosures, moats, or ramparts--not all "hill forts" were built on hills. Although best known in Europe, similar structures are found throughout the world and throughout time, as you might imagine, since we humans are at times a fearful, violent race.
The first fortified residences date to the Neolithic period, although they are not normally called 'hill forts', where defensive structures are found at such sites as Podgoritsa (Bulgaria) and Berry au Bac (France). Many hill forts appeared at the end of the late Bronze Age, around 1100-1300 BC, when people lived in small separate communities with differing levels of wealth and status. During the early Iron Age (ca 600-450 BC), several hillforts in central Europe were the residences of a select elite. Trade throughout Europe was established and some of these individuals were buried in graves with lots of fancy, imported goods; differential wealth and status may well have been one of the reasons for the building of defensive structures.
Hill Fort Construction Hill forts were constructed by the addition of ditches and timber palisades, stone- and earth-filled wooden frames or cobble stone structures such as towers, walls and ramparts. As trade expanded and luxury items from the Mediterranean became available to the growing elite classes of Europe, hill forts grew in size and complexity. By Roman times, hill forts (called oppida) were spread throughout the Mediterranean region.
- Hillforts, a list of descriptions of several Iron Age hillforts
Champion, Timothy. 1996. Hill forts. pp. 277-279 in The Oxford Companion to Archaeology, Brian Fagan, ed. Oxford University Press, Osford.
By K. Kris Hirst
Oppidum
Resource: Oppidum by Wikipedia
An oppidum (plural oppida) is a large defended Iron Age settlement. They are associated with the Celtic La Tène culture, emerging during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, spread across Europe, stretching from Britain and Iberia in the west to the edge of the Hungarian plain in the east. They continued in use until the Romans began conquering Europe. North of the River Danube, where the population remained independent from Rome, oppida continued to be used into the 1st century.