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92-506: The derivation of the name Tauern has been variously ascribed: If the name Tauern is pre-Slavic, it could possibly be Celtic , and thus presumably linked to the Taurisci, or it could be Illyrian , a collective term possibly for the pre- and early Celtic population in the Alpine region. There is no clear link with the name of the municipality of Thaur near Innsbruck, which could be analogous to

184-465: A Brittonic language of northern Britain. Celtic regions of mainland Europe are those whose residents claim a Celtic heritage, but where no Celtic language survives; these include western Iberia, i.e. Portugal and north-central Spain ( Galicia , Asturias , Cantabria , Castile and León , Extremadura ). Continental Celts are the Celtic-speaking people of mainland Europe and Insular Celts are

276-682: A Celtic language are the Lepontic inscriptions of Cisalpine Gaul (Northern Italy), the oldest of which pre-date the La Tène period . Other early inscriptions, appearing from the early La Tène period in the area of Massilia , are in Gaulish , which was written in the Greek alphabet until the Roman conquest. Celtiberian inscriptions, using their own Iberian script, appear later, after about 200 BC. Evidence of Insular Celtic

368-559: A borrowing from Frankish * Walholant , 'Roman-land' (see Gaul: Name ) , the root of which is Proto-Germanic * walha- , 'foreigner, Roman, Celt', whence the English word Welsh ( Old English wælisċ ). Proto-Germanic * walha comes from the name of the Volcae , a Celtic tribe who lived first in southern Germany and central Europe, then migrated to Gaul. This means that English Gaul , despite its superficial similarity,

460-840: A chamber, rather large in some cases, lined with timber and with the body and grave goods set about the room. There are some chariot or wagon burials , including Býčí Skála and Brno-Holásky in the Czech Republic, Vix , Sainte-Colombe-sur-Seine and Lavau in France, Hochdorf , Hohmichele and Grafenbühl in Germany, and Mitterkirchen in Austria. A model of a chariot made from lead has been found in Frög , Carinthia , and clay models of horses with riders are also found. Wooden "funerary carts", presumably used as hearses and then buried, are sometimes found in

552-798: A collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia , identified by their use of Celtic languages and other cultural similarities. Major Celtic groups included the Gauls ; the Celtiberians and Gallaeci of Iberia; the Britons , Picts , and Gaels of Britain and Ireland; the Boii ; and the Galatians . The interrelationships of ethnicity, language and culture in the Celtic world are unclear and debated; for example over

644-752: A common cultural and linguistic heritage more than a genetic one. Celtic cultures seem to have been diverse, with the use of a Celtic language being the main thing they had in common. Today, the term 'Celtic' generally refers to the languages and cultures of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall , the Isle of Man , and Brittany ; also called the Celtic nations . These are the regions where Celtic languages are still spoken to some extent. The four are Irish , Scottish Gaelic , Welsh , and Breton ; plus two recent revivals, Cornish (a Brittonic language ) and Manx (a Goidelic language ). There are also attempts to reconstruct Cumbric ,

736-593: A few of the largest settlements, like Heuneburg in the south of Germany , were towns rather than villages by modern standards. However, at the end of the period these seem to have been overthrown or abandoned. According to Paul Reinecke 's time-scheme from 1902, the end of the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age were divided into four periods: Bronze Age Urnfield culture: Early Iron Age Hallstatt culture: Paul Reinecke based his chronological divisions on finds from

828-420: A large prehistoric cemetery near Hallstatt , Austria ( 47°33′40″N 13°38′31″E  /  47.561°N 13.642°E  / 47.561; 13.642 ), which he excavated during the second half of the 19th century. Eventually the excavation would yield 1,045 burials, although no settlement has yet been found. This may be covered by the later village, which has long occupied the whole narrow strip between

920-728: A result, these items quickly became associated with the Celts, so much so that by the 1870s scholars began to regard finds of the La Tène as 'the archaeological expression of the Celts'". This cultural network was overrun by the Roman Empire, though traces of La Tène style were still seen in Gallo-Roman artifacts . In Britain and Ireland, the La Tène style survived precariously to re-emerge in Insular art . The Urnfield-Hallstatt theory began to be challenged in

1012-615: A rethinking of the meaning of "Celtic". John T. Koch and Barry Cunliffe have developed this 'Celtic from the West' theory. It proposes that the proto-Celtic language arose along the Atlantic coast and was the lingua franca of the Atlantic Bronze Age cultural network, later spreading inland and eastward. More recently, Cunliffe proposes that proto-Celtic had arisen in the Atlantic zone even earlier, by 3000 BC, and spread eastwards with

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1104-524: A revival. The first recorded use of the name 'Celts' – as Κελτοί ( Keltoi ) in Ancient Greek – was by Greek geographer Hecataeus of Miletus in 517 BC, when writing about a people living near Massilia (modern Marseille ), southern Gaul . In the fifth century BC, Herodotus referred to Keltoi living around the source of the Danube and in the far west of Europe. The etymology of Keltoi

1196-651: A single culture or ethnic group. A new theory suggested that Celtic languages arose earlier, along the Atlantic coast (including Britain, Ireland, Armorica and Iberia ), long before evidence of 'Celtic' culture is found in archaeology. Myles Dillon and Nora Kershaw Chadwick argued that "Celtic settlement of the British Isles" might date to the Bell Beaker culture of the Copper and Bronze Age (from c. 2750 BC). Martín Almagro Gorbea (2001) also proposed that Celtic arose in

1288-454: A specific story. The Strettweg cult wagon from Austria (c. 600 BC) has been interpreted as representing a deer goddess or 'Great Nature Goddess' similar to Artemis . Hallstatt culture musical instruments included harps , lyres , zithers , woodwinds, panpipes , horns, drums and rattles. A small number of inscriptions have been recovered from Hallstatt culture sites. Markings or symbols inscribed on iron tools from Austria dating from

1380-536: A tribal surname, which epigraphic findings have confirmed. A Latin name for the Gauls, Galli ( pl. ), may come from a Celtic ethnic name, perhaps borrowed into Latin during the Celtic expansion into Italy from the early fifth century BC. Its root may be Proto-Celtic *galno , meaning "power, strength" (whence Old Irish gal "boldness, ferocity", Welsh gallu "to be able, power"). The Greek name Γαλάται ( Galatai , Latinized Galatae ) most likely has

1472-521: Is available only from about 400 AD, in the form of Primitive Irish Ogham inscriptions . Besides epigraphic evidence, an important source of information on early Celtic is toponymy (place names). Arnaiz-Villena et al. (2017) demonstrated that Celtic-related populations of the European Atlantic (Orkney Islands, Scottish, Irish, British, Bretons, Basques, Galicians) shared a common HLA system . Hallstatt culture The Hallstatt culture

1564-532: Is named for its type site , Hallstatt , a lakeside village in the Austrian Salzkammergut southeast of Salzburg , where there was a rich salt mine, and some 1,300 burials are known, many with fine artifacts. Material from Hallstatt has been classified into four periods, designated "Hallstatt A" to "D". Hallstatt A and B are regarded as Late Bronze Age and the terms used for wider areas, such as "Hallstatt culture", or "period", "style" and so on, relate to

1656-502: Is not actually derived from Latin Gallia (which should have produced * Jaille in French), though it does refer to the same ancient region. Celtic refers to a language family and, more generally, means 'of the Celts' or 'in the style of the Celts'. Several archaeological cultures are considered Celtic, based on unique sets of artefacts. The link between language and artefact is aided by

1748-571: Is now thought that at least most of these were not miners themselves, but from a richer class controlling the mines. Finds at Hallstatt extend from about 1200 BC until around 500 BC, and are divided by archaeologists into four phases: Hallstatt A–B (1200–800 BC) are part of the Bronze Age Urnfield culture . In this period, people were cremated and buried in simple graves. In phase B, tumulus (barrow or kurgan ) burial becomes common, and cremation predominates. The "Hallstatt period" proper

1840-474: Is possibly the earliest evidence of smelted iron in Central Europe). By the later Urnfield (Hallstatt B) phase, some swords were already being made and embellished in iron in eastern Central Europe, and occasionally much further west. Initially iron was rather exotic and expensive, and sometimes used as a prestige material for jewellery. Iron swords became more common after c.  800 BC , and steel

1932-526: Is primarily a linguistic label. In his 'Celtic from the Centre' theory, he argues that the proto-Celtic language did not originate in central Europe nor the Atlantic, but in-between these two regions. He suggests that it "emerged as a distinct Indo-European dialect around the second millennium BC , probably somewhere in Gaul [centered in modern France] ... whence it spread in various directions and at various speeds in

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2024-475: Is restricted to HaC and HaD (800–450 BC), corresponding to the early European Iron Age . Hallstatt lies in the area where the western and eastern zones of the Hallstatt culture meet, which is reflected in the finds from there. Hallstatt D is succeeded by the La Tène culture . Hallstatt C is characterized by the first appearance of iron swords mixed amongst the bronze ones. Inhumation and cremation co-occur. For

2116-497: Is unclear. Possible roots include Indo-European * kʲel 'to hide' (seen also in Old Irish ceilid , and Modern Welsh celu ), * kʲel 'to heat' or * kel 'to impel'. It may come from the Celtic language . Linguist Kim McCone supports this view and notes that Celt- is found in the names of several ancient Gauls such as Celtillus, father of Vercingetorix . He suggests it meant the people or descendants of "the hidden one", noting

2208-641: The Histories of Herodotus, which placed the Celts at the source of the Danube . However, Stephen Oppenheimer shows that Herodotus seemed to believe the Danube rose near the Pyrenees , which would place the Ancient Celts in a region which is more in agreement with later classical writers and historians (i.e. in Gaul and Iberia). The theory was also partly based on the abundance of inscriptions bearing Celtic personal names in

2300-520: The 3rd millennium BC , suggesting that the spread of the Bell Beaker culture explained the wide dispersion of the Celts throughout western Europe, as well as the variability of the Celtic peoples. Using a multidisciplinary approach, Alberto J. Lorrio and Gonzalo Ruiz Zapatero reviewed and built on Almagro Gorbea's work to present a model for the origin of Celtic archaeological groups in Iberia and proposing

2392-569: The Burgstallkogel in Austria and Molpír in Slovakia . However, most settlements were much smaller villages. The large monumental site of Alte Burg may have had a religious or ceremonial function, and possibly served as a location for games and competitions. At the end of the Hallstatt period many major centres were abandoned and there was a return to a more decentralized settlement pattern. Urban centres later re-emerged across temperate Europe in

2484-677: The Gaels ( Irish , Scots and Manx ) and the Celtic Britons ( Welsh , Cornish , and Bretons ) of the medieval and modern periods. A modern Celtic identity was constructed as part of the Romanticist Celtic Revival in Britain, Ireland, and other European territories such as Galicia . Today, Irish , Scottish Gaelic , Welsh , and Breton are still spoken in parts of their former territories, while Cornish and Manx are undergoing

2576-568: The Hochdorf Chieftain's Grave are one of a kind in finds from the Hallstatt period, though they can be related to objects from other periods. More common objects include weapons, in Ha D often with hilts terminating in curving forks ("antenna hilts"). Jewellery in metal includes fibulae , often with a row of disks hanging down on chains, armlets and some torcs . This is mostly in bronze, but "princely" burials include items in gold. The origin of

2668-528: The Iberian Peninsula , Ireland and Britain. The languages developed into Celtiberian , Goidelic and Brittonic branches, among others. The mainstream view during most of the twentieth century is that the Celts and the proto-Celtic language arose out of the Urnfield culture of central Europe around 1000 BC, spreading westward and southward over the following few hundred years. The Urnfield culture

2760-533: The Lepontic inscriptions from the 6th century BC. Continental Celtic languages are attested almost exclusively through inscriptions and place-names. Insular Celtic languages are attested from the 4th century AD in Ogham inscriptions , though they were being spoken much earlier. Celtic literary tradition begins with Old Irish texts around the 8th century AD. Elements of Celtic mythology are recorded in early Irish and early Welsh literature. Most written evidence of

2852-665: The Neolithic period, and in this period were extensively mined with a peak from the 8th to 5th centuries BC. The style and decoration of the grave goods found in the cemetery are very distinctive, and artifacts made in this style are widespread in Europe. In the mine workings themselves, the salt has preserved many organic materials such as textiles, wood and leather, and many abandoned artifacts such as shoes, pieces of cloth, and tools including miner's backpacks, have survived in good condition. In 1846, Johann Georg Ramsauer (1795–1874) discovered

Tauern - Misplaced Pages Continue

2944-445: The Vače situla is a Slovenian example from near the final period. The style is also found on bronze belt plates, and some of the vocabulary of motifs spread to influence the emerging La Tène style. According to Ruth and Vincent Megaw , "Situla art depicts life as seen from a masculine viewpoint, in which women are servants or sex objects; most of the scenes which include humans are of

3036-807: The Vix palace further demonstrates a "mastery of geometry and carpentry capable of freeing up vast interior spaces." Analyses of building remains in Silesia have found evidence for the use of a standard unit of length (equivalent to 0.785 m). Remarkably, this is almost identical to the length of a measuring stick found at Borum Eshøj in Denmark (0.7855 m), dating from the Bronze Age (c. 1350 BC). Pythagorean triangles were likely used in building construction to create right angles , and some buildings had ground plans with dimensions corresponding to Pythagorean rectangles. At least

3128-457: The first millennium BC ". Sims-Williams says this avoids the problematic idea "that Celtic was spoken over a vast area for a very long time yet somehow avoided major dialectal splits", and "it keeps Celtic fairly close to Italy, which suits the view that Italic and Celtic were in some way linked ". The Proto-Celtic language is usually dated to the Late Bronze Age. The earliest records of

3220-463: The wiggle matching technique. Therefore, dating in this time-period has been based mainly on Dendrochronology and relative dating . For the beginning of HaC wood pieces from the Cart Grave of Wehringen (Landkreis Augsburg) deliver a solid dating in 778 ± 5 BC (Grave Barrow 8). Despite missing an older Dendro-date for HaC , the convention remains that the Hallstatt period begins together with

3312-539: The 10th century BC, was virtually identical in every aspect to the Celtic necropolis of the Golasecca culture. Older assumptions of the early 20th century of Illyrians having been the bearers of especially the Eastern Hallstatt culture are indefensible and archeologically unsubstantiated. Trade with Greece is attested by finds of Attic black-figure pottery in the elite graves of the late Hallstatt period. It

3404-417: The 3rd and 2nd centuries BC during the La Tène period. The burials at Hallstatt itself show a movement over the period from cremation to inhumation , with grave goods at all times (see above). In the central Hallstatt regions toward the end of the period (Ha D), very rich graves of high-status individuals under large tumuli are found near the remains of fortified hilltop settlements. Tumuli graves had

3496-453: The 7th to early 6th century BC bear signs possibly resembling Greek or Etruscan letters. A single-word inscription (possibly a name) on a locally produced ceramic sherd from Montmorot in eastern France, dating from the late 7th to mid-6th century BC, has been identified as either Gaulish or Lepontic , written in either a 'proto-Lepontic' or Etruscan alphabet. A fragment of an inscription painted on local pottery has also been recovered from

3588-557: The 7th-6th century BC inscription from Montmorot "is at the beginning of a still limited series of documents attesting to the use of alphabetic signs and the use of writing in Eastern Gaul during the entire period characterised by the appearance, development and end of the Hallstattian 'princely phenomenon'. ... The first transmission of the alphabet north of the Alps, at the end of the 7th or in

3680-587: The Alps". Typical sites of this type are the Heuneburg on the upper Danube surrounded by nine very large grave tumuli, and Mont Lassois in eastern France near Châtillon-sur-Seine with, at its foot, the very rich grave at Vix . The Heuneburg is thought to correspond to the Celtic city of ' Pyrene ' mentioned by Herodotus in 450 BC. Other important sites include the Glauberg , Hohenasperg and Ipf in Germany,

3772-467: The Bell Beaker culture over the following millennium. His theory is partly based on glottochronology , the spread of ancient Celtic-looking placenames, and thesis that the Tartessian language was Celtic. However, the proposal that Tartessian was Celtic is widely rejected by linguists, many of whom regard it as unclassified. Celticist Patrick Sims-Williams (2020) notes that in current scholarship, 'Celt'

Tauern - Misplaced Pages Continue

3864-474: The Britons resembled the Gauls in customs and religion. For at least 1,000 years the name Celt was not used at all, and nobody called themselves Celts or Celtic, until from about 1700, after the word 'Celtic' was rediscovered in classical texts, it was applied for the first time to the distinctive culture, history, traditions, language of the modern Celtic nations – Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, and

3956-484: The Celtic word for "king", written in the Lepontic alphabet. According to Olivier (2010), "this graffito represents one of the earliest attested occurrences of the word rîx which designates the "king" in the Celtic languages. ... It would also seem to represent the first co-occurrence in the Celtic world of a funerary archaeological context and a contemporaneous linguistic qualification as ‘royal’.” According to Verger (1998)

4048-554: The Celtic-speaking people of the British and Irish islands, and their descendants. The Celts of Brittany derive their language from migrating Insular Celts from Britain and so are grouped accordingly. The Celtic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages . By the time Celts are first mentioned in written records around 400 BC, they were already split into several language groups, and spread over much of western mainland Europe,

4140-580: The Celts with the Iron Age Hallstatt culture which followed it ( c.  1200 –500 BC), named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt , Austria, and with the following La Tène culture ( c.  450 BC onward), named after the La Tène site in Switzerland. It proposes that Celtic culture spread westward and southward from these areas by diffusion or migration . A newer theory, " Celtic from

4232-498: The Eastern Hallstatt region ( Noricum ). However, Patrick Sims-Williams notes that these date to the later Roman era, and says they suggest "relatively late settlement by a Celtic-speaking elite". In the late 20th century, the Urnfield-Hallstatt theory began to fall out of favour with some scholars, which was influenced by new archaeological finds. 'Celtic' began to refer primarily to 'speakers of Celtic languages' rather than to

4324-502: The Gauls claimed descent from an underworld god (according to Commentarii de Bello Gallico ), and linking it with the Germanic Hel . Others view it as a name coined by Greeks; among them linguist Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel , who suggests it meant "the tall ones". In the first century BC, Roman leader Julius Caesar reported that the Gauls called themselves 'Celts', Latin : Celtae , in their own tongue . Thus whether it

4416-641: The Greek hydria from Grächwil , the Greek cauldron from Hochdorf and the Greek or Etruscan cauldron from Lavau . The largest settlements were mostly fortified, situated on hilltops, and frequently included the workshops of bronze, silver and gold smiths. Major settlements are known as 'princely seats' (or Fürstensitze in German), and are characterized by elite residences, rich burials, monumental buildings and fortifications. Some of these central sites are described as urban or proto-urban, and as "the first cities north of

4508-505: The Greeks to apply this name for the type of Keltoi that they usually encountered". Because Classical writers did not call the inhabitants of Britain and Ireland Κελτοί ( Keltoi ) or Celtae , some scholars prefer not to use the term for the Iron Age inhabitants of those islands. However, they spoke Celtic languages, shared other cultural traits, and Roman historian Tacitus says

4600-533: The Illyrian for 'rock', but could also be derived from the Rhaeto-Romance word Tgaura 'goat'. There are several mountain ranges that bear the name Tauern today. In German, the first part of these names is usually the adjectival version of a placename. It is common in English sources, however, just to use the original name without the adjectival inflexion: The High and Low Tauern together were historically called

4692-432: The Iron Age Hallstatt C and D. By the 6th century BC, it had expanded to include wide territories, falling into two zones, east and west, between them covering much of western and central Europe down to the Alps , and extending into northern Italy . Parts of Britain and Iberia are included in the ultimate expansion of the culture. The culture was based on farming, but metal-working was considerably advanced, and by

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4784-425: The Isle of Man. 'Celt' is a modern English word, first attested in 1707 in the writing of Edward Lhuyd , whose work, along with that of other late 17th-century scholars, brought academic attention to the languages and history of the early Celtic inhabitants of Great Britain. The English words Gaul , Gauls ( pl. ) and Gaulish (first recorded in the 16–17th centuries) come from French Gaule and Gaulois ,

4876-508: The Tauern Alps ( Tauernalpen ) and are still described as such in many sources today. They also extend to the Brenner Pass –Liesing/Palten valley, i.e. including the Zillertal Alps . The following transport links facilitate the crossing of the Tauern from north to south: The following passes bear the name Tauern (from west to east): Corresponding to the passes there are also several places called Tauerntal ('Tauern valley'), Tauernbach ('Tauern stream') and Taurach ('Tauern river'),

4968-493: The West ", suggests proto-Celtic arose earlier, was a lingua franca in the Atlantic Bronze Age coastal zone, and spread eastward. Another newer theory, "Celtic from the Centre", suggests proto-Celtic arose between these two zones, in Bronze Age Gaul, then spread in various directions. After the Celtic settlement of Southeast Europe in the 3rd century BC, Celtic culture reached as far east as central Anatolia , Turkey . The earliest undisputed examples of Celtic language are

5060-410: The alignment was marked with a large timber palisade. The knowledge required to create these alignments would have required long-term observation of the skies, possibly over several generations. At Glauberg other ditches and postholes associated with the mound may have been used to observe astronomical phenomena such as the solstices , with the whole ensemble functioning as a calendar . According to

5152-648: The archaeologist Allard Mees, the numerous burials within the Magdalenenberg mound were positioned to mirror the constellations as they appeared at the time of the summer solstice in 618 BC. Mees argues that the Magdalenenberg represented a lunar calendar and that knowledge of the 18.6 year lunar standstill cycle would have enabled the prediction of lunar eclipses . According to Mees many other burial mounds in this period were also aligned with lunar phenomena. An analysis of Hallstatt period burials by Müller-Scheeßel (2005) similarly suggested that they were oriented towards specific constellations. According to Gaspani (1998)

5244-463: The area show the language of the Golasecca culture was clearly Celtic making it probable that the 13th-century BC precursor language of at least the western Hallstatt was also Celtic or a precursor to it. Lepontic inscriptions have also been found in Umbria , in the area which saw the emergence of the Terni culture, which had strong similarities with the Celtic cultures of Hallstatt and La Tène. The Umbrian necropolis of Terni , which dates back to

5336-407: The arrival of the iron ore processing technology around 800 BC. HaC is dated according to the presence of Mindelheim-type swords, binocular brooches, harp brooches, and arched brooches. Based on the quickly changing fashions of brooches, it was possible to divide HaD into three stages (D1-D3). In HaD1 snake brooches are predominant, while in HaD2 drum brooches appear more often, and in HaD3

5428-567: The burials "dated to roughly the time when Celts are mentioned near the Danube by Herodotus , Ramsauer concluded that the graves were Celtic". Similar sites and artifacts were found over a wide area, which were named the 'Hallstatt culture'. In 1857, the archaeological site of La Tène was discovered in Switzerland. The huge collection of artifacts had a distinctive style. Artifacts of this 'La Tène style' were found elsewhere in Europe, "particularly in places where people called Celts were known to have lived and early Celtic languages are attested. As

5520-408: The diffusion of Hallstatt culture took place in a Celtic -speaking context. In northern Italy the Golasecca culture developed with continuity from the Canegrate culture . Canegrate represented a completely new cultural dynamic to the area expressed in pottery and bronzework, making it a typical western example of the western Hallstatt culture. The Lepontic Celtic language inscriptions of

5612-413: The double-drum and embellished foot brooches. The transition to the La Tène period is often connected with the emergence of the first animal-shaped brooches, with Certosa -type and with Marzabotto -type brooches. The community at Hallstatt was untypical of the wider, mainly agricultural, culture, as its booming economy exploited the salt mines in the area. These had been worked from time to time since

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5704-452: The early Celts comes from Greco-Roman writers, who often grouped the Celts as barbarian tribes. They followed an ancient Celtic religion overseen by druids . The Celts were often in conflict with the Romans , such as in the Roman–Gallic wars , the Celtiberian Wars , the conquest of Gaul and conquest of Britain . By the 1st century AD, most Celtic territories had become part of the Roman Empire . By c. 500, due to Romanisation and

5796-426: The early Iron Age (Ha C, 800-650 BC) show continuity with symbols from the Bronze Age Urnfield culture , and are thought to be related to mining and the metal trade. Inscriptions engraved on situlas or cauldrons from the Hallstatt cemetery in Austria, dating from c. 800-500 BC, have been interpreted as numerals, letters and words, possibly related to Etruscan or Old Italic scripts. Weights from Bavaria dating from

5888-411: The end of the period long-range trade within the area and with Mediterranean cultures was economically significant. Social distinctions became increasingly important, with emerging elite classes of chieftains and warriors, and perhaps those with other skills. Society is thought to have been organized on a tribal basis, though very little is known about this. Settlement size was generally small, although

5980-414: The feasts in which the situlae themselves figure, of the hunt or of war". Similar scenes are found on other vessel shapes, as well as bronze belt-plaques. The processions of animals, typical of earlier examples, or humans derive from the Near East and Mediterranean, and Nancy Sandars finds the style shows "a gaucherie that betrays the artist working in a way that is uncongenial, too much at variance with

6072-399: The final phase, Hallstatt D, daggers, almost to the exclusion of swords, are found in western zone graves ranging from c.  600 –500 BC. There are also differences in the pottery and brooches . Burials were mostly inhumations. Halstatt D has been further divided into the sub-phases D1–D3, relating only to the western zone, and mainly based on the form of brooches. Major activity at

6164-443: The first half of the 6th century, seems to be only the beginning of a process that was regularly renewed until the second half of the fifth century." The monumental burial mounds at Glauberg and Magdalenenberg in Germany featured structures aligned with the point of the major lunar standstill , which occurs every 18.6 years. At Glauberg this took the form of a 'processional avenue' lined by large ditches, whilst at Magdalenenberg

6256-419: The grandest graves. Pottery and bronze vessels, weapons, elaborate jewellery made of bronze and gold , as well as a few stone stelae (especially the famous Warrior of Hirschlanden ) are found at such burials. The daggers that largely replaced swords in chief's graves in the west were probably not serious weapons, but badges of rank, and used at the table. The material culture of Western Hallstatt culture

6348-449: The invention of shrunk-on tyres in the La Tène period. The potter's wheel also appeared in the Hallstatt period. The extensive use of planking and massive squared beams indicates the use of long saw blades and possibly two-man sawing. The planks of the Hohmichele burial chamber (6th c. BC), which were over 6m long and 35 cm wide, appear to have been sawn by a large timber-yard saw. The construction of monumental buildings such as

6440-399: The late Hallstatt and early La Tène periods, until the mid-4th century BC, when a major landslide destroyed the mineshafts and ended mining activity. Much of the material from early excavations was dispersed, and is now found in many collections, especially German and Austrian museums, but the Hallstatt Museum in the town has the largest collection. It is probable that some if not all of

6532-453: The late Hallstatt site of Bragny-sur-Saône in eastern France, dating from the 5th century BC. A letter inscribed on a gold cup was deposited in a princely tomb at Apremont in eastern France, dating from c. 500 BC. Another fragmentary inscription on pottery was found in a princely burial near Bergères-les-Vertus in north-eastern France, dating from late 5th century BC (at the beginning of La Tène A). The inscription has been identified as

6624-472: The later periods of Hallstatt art from the western zone are generally agreed to form the early period of Celtic art . Decoration is mostly geometric and linear, and best seen on fine metalwork finds from graves (see above). Styles differ, especially between the west and east, with more human figures and some narrative elements in the latter. Animals, with waterfowl a particular favourite, are often included as part of other objects, more often than humans, and in

6716-408: The latter 20th century, when it was accepted that the oldest known Celtic-language inscriptions were those of Lepontic from the 6th century BC and Celtiberian from the 2nd century BC. These were found in northern Italy and Iberia, neither of which were part of the 'Hallstatt' nor 'La Tène' cultures at the time. The Urnfield-Hallstatt theory was partly based on ancient Greco-Roman writings, such as

6808-825: The latter sometimes descending from a Tauern pass in both directions. The following places also take their names from the term Tauern: Several mountains, especially near the passes, bear names derived from the term Tauern: Celts Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The Celts ( / k ɛ l t s / KELTS , see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( / ˈ k ɛ l t ɪ k / KEL -tik ) were

6900-445: The migration of Germanic tribes, Celtic culture had mostly become restricted to Ireland, western and northern Britain, and Brittany . Between the 5th and 8th centuries, the Celtic-speaking communities in these Atlantic regions emerged as a reasonably cohesive cultural entity. They had a common linguistic, religious and artistic heritage that distinguished them from surrounding cultures. Insular Celtic culture diversified into that of

6992-528: The narrative scenes of the eastern zone, from Hallstatt C onwards, is generally traced to influence from the Situla art of northern Italy and the northern Adriatic, where these bronze buckets began to be decorated in bands with figures in provincial Etruscan centres influenced by Etruscan and Greek art. The fashion for decorated situlae spread north across neighbouring cultures including the eastern Hallstatt zone, beginning around 600 BC and surviving until about 400 BC;

7084-462: The presence of inscriptions. The modern idea of a Celtic cultural identity or "Celticity" focuses on similarities among languages, works of art, and classical texts, and sometimes also among material artefacts, social organisation , homeland and mythology . Earlier theories held that these similarities suggest a common "racial" ( race is now a contested concept) origin for the various Celtic peoples, but more recent theories hold that they reflect

7176-555: The redistribution of luxury goods from the Mediterranean world that is also characteristic of the La Tène culture . The apparently largely peaceful and prosperous life of Hallstatt D culture was disrupted, perhaps even collapsed, right at the end of the period. There has been much speculation as to the causes of this, which remain uncertain. Large settlements such as Heuneburg and the Burgstallkogel were destroyed or abandoned, rich tumulus burials ended, and old ones were looted. There

7268-532: The same origin, referring to the Gauls who invaded southeast Europe and settled in Galatia . The suffix -atai might be a Greek inflection. Linguist Kim McCone suggests it comes from Proto-Celtic *galatis ("ferocious, furious"), and was not originally an ethnic name but a name for young warrior bands . He says "If the Gauls' initial impact on the Mediterranean world was primarily a military one typically involving fierce young *galatīs , it would have been natural for

7360-464: The site appears to have finished about 500 BC, for reasons that are unclear. Many Hallstatt graves were robbed, probably at this time. There was widespread disruption throughout the western Hallstatt zone, and the salt workings had by then become very deep. By then the focus of salt mining had shifted to the nearby Hallein Salt Mine , with graves at Dürrnberg nearby where there are significant finds from

7452-477: The south of Germany. Already by 1881 Otto Tischler had made analogies to the Iron Age in the Northern Alps based on finds of brooches from graves in the south of Germany. It has proven difficult to use radiocarbon dating for the Early Iron Age due to the so-called "Hallstatt-Plateau" , a phenomenon where radiocarbon dates cannot be distinguished between 750 and 400 BC. There are workarounds however, such as

7544-428: The steep hillsides and the lake. Some 1,300 burials have been found, including around 2,000 individuals, with women and children but few infants. Nor is there a "princely" burial, as often found near large settlements. Instead, there are a large number of burials varying considerably in the number and richness of the grave goods, but with a high proportion containing goods suggesting a life well above subsistence level. It

7636-477: The temper of the craftsmen and the craft". Compared to earlier styles that arose organically in Europe "situla art is weak and sometimes quaint", and "in essence not of Europe". Except for the Italian Benvenuti Situla , men are hairless, with "funny hats, dumpy bodies and big heads", though often shown looking cheerful in an engaging way. The Benevenuti Situla is also unusual in that it seems to show

7728-629: The ways in which the Iron Age people of Britain and Ireland should be called Celts. In current scholarship, 'Celt' primarily refers to 'speakers of Celtic languages' rather than to a single ethnic group. The history of pre-Celtic Europe and Celtic origins is debated. The traditional "Celtic from the East" theory, says the proto-Celtic language arose in the late Bronze Age Urnfield culture of central Europe, named after grave sites in southern Germany, which flourished from around 1200 BC. This theory links

7820-548: The west there is almost no narrative content such as scenes of combat depicted. These characteristics were continued into the succeeding La Tène style. Imported luxury art is sometimes found in rich elite graves in the later phases, and certainly had some influence on local styles. The most spectacular objects, such as the Strettweg Cult Wagon , the Warrior of Hirschlanden and the bronze couch supported by "unicyclists" from

7912-416: Was also produced from 800 BC as part of the production of swords. The production of high-carbon steel is attested in Britain after c.  490 BC . The remarkable uniformity of spoked-wheel wagons from across the Hallstatt region indicates a certain standardisation of production methods, which included techniques such as lathe-turning . Iron tyres were developed and refined in this period, leading to

8004-450: Was apparently sufficient to provide a stable social and economic equilibrium. The founding of Marseille and the penetration by Greek and Etruscan culture after c.  600 BC , resulted in long-range trade relationships up the Rhone valley which triggered social and cultural transformations in the Hallstatt settlements north of the Alps. Powerful local chiefdoms emerged which controlled

8096-583: Was given to them by others or not, it was used by the Celts themselves. Greek geographer Strabo , writing about Gaul towards the end of the first century BC, refers to the "race which is now called both Gallic and Galatic ", though he also uses Celtica as another name for Gaul. He reports Celtic peoples in Iberia too, calling them Celtiberi and Celtici . Pliny the Elder noted the use of Celtici in Lusitania as

8188-552: Was preeminent in central Europe during the late Bronze Age , circa 1200 BC to 700 BC. The spread of iron-working led to the Hallstatt culture (c. 800 to 500 BC) developing out of the Urnfield culture in a wide region north of the Alps. The Hallstatt culture developed into the La Tène culture from about 450 BC, which came to be identified with Celtic art . In 1846, Johann Georg Ramsauer unearthed an ancient grave field with distinctive grave goods at Hallstatt , Austria. Because

8280-464: Was probably a significant movement of population westwards, and the succeeding La Tène culture developed new centres to the west and north, their growth perhaps overlapping with the final years of the Hallstatt culture. Occasional iron artefacts had been appearing in central and western Europe for some centuries before 800 BC (an iron knife or sickle from Ganovce in Slovakia, dating to the 18th century BC,

8372-578: Was probably imported via Massilia ( Marseilles ). Other imported luxuries include amber , ivory (as found at the Grafenbühl Tomb ) and probably wine . Red kermes dye was imported from the south as well; it was found at Hochdorf . Notable individual imports include the Greek Vix krater (the largest known metal vessel from Western classical antiquity), the Etruscan lebes from Sainte-Colombe-sur-Seine ,

8464-526: Was the predominant Western and Central European archaeological culture of the Late Bronze Age (Hallstatt A, Hallstatt B) from the 12th to 8th centuries BC and Early Iron Age Europe (Hallstatt C, Hallstatt D) from the 8th to 6th centuries BC, developing out of the Urnfield culture of the 12th century BC ( Late Bronze Age ) and followed in much of its area by the La Tène culture . It is commonly associated with Proto-Celtic speaking populations. It

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