The Hallstatt culture, named after an archaeological site in Austria and traditionally divided into four phases, was the main cultural complex in Western Europe during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. It coincides with the North Alpine complex, extending over modern-day central and southern Germany, northern Italy, and Switzerland.
[1]
Population and political organization
The Hallstatt D period (c. 600-475 BCE)
[2]
saw the intensification of processes that had been occurring throughout the Hallstatt era. Some polities disintegrated while others gained power. Thus, the number of hillforts decreased but they grew in size;
[3]
Mont Lassois is a prime example.
[4]
Chiefs controlled the prestige economy at the local level, trading with their Mediterranean counterparts. Extreme social differentiation can be observed in burials;
[2]
the lavish Vix Burial, a cairn 42 metres wide and 6 metres high associated with the site of Mont Lassois,
[5]
includes gold and bronze objects as well as prestigious imports.
This period was also marked by the rise of urban centres specializing in administrative and mercantile activities, including colonies and entrepôts established for the purpose of long-distance trade.
[6]
Population estimates are more easily accessible for the Hallstatt D period. The Heuneburg, a hillfort reaching c. 100 hectares in the mid-6th century BCE, may have been home to about 5000 inhabitants.
[7]
[1]: (Brun 1995, 14) Brun, Patrice. 1995. “From Chiefdom to State Organization in Celtic Europe.” In Celtic Chiefdom, Celtic State: The Evolution of Complex Social Systems in Prehistoric Europe, edited by Bettina Arnold and D. Blair Gibson, Cambridge University Press, 13-25. Cambridge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/RZWRCEPH.
[2]: (Collis 1995, 75) Collis, John. 1995. “States without Centers? The Middle La Tène Period in Temperate Europe.” In Celtic Chiefdom, Celtic State: The Evolution of Complex Social Systems in Prehistoric Europe, edited by Bettina Arnold and D. Blair Gibson, 75-80. Cambridge University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/QFU68CIQ.
[3]: (Allen 2007, 26-27) Allen, Stephen. 2007. Lords of Battle: The World of the Celtic Warrior. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/F9D9PI8A.
[4]: (Collis 1984, 16) Collis, John. 1984. The European Iron Age. London; New York: Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2HS6EBNS.
[5]: (Collis 1984, 16, 95) Collis, John. 1984. The European Iron Age. London; New York: Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2HS6EBNS.
[6]: (Collis 1984, 22) Collis, John. 1984. The European Iron Age. London; New York: Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2HS6EBNS
[7]: (Fernández Götz and Krausse 2012, 31) Fernández-Götz, Manuel, and Dirk Krausse. 2012. “Heuneburg. First City North of the Alps.” Current World Archaeology, no. 55: 28-34. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/PMS9IF2F.
| 31 U |
| Hallstatt D |
| Mont Lassois | |
| Heuneburg |
| Senones | |
| Early Celts | |
| Western Hallstatt | |
| Hallstatt D |
| vassalage to [---] |
| Hallstatt |
| La Tene A-B1 |
| continuity |
| Succeeding: La Tene A-B1 (fr_la_tene_a_b1) [population migration] | |
| Preceding: Hallstatt C (fr_hallstatt_c) [continuity] |
| loose |
| inferred absent |
| unknown |
| inferred absent |
| inferred absent |
| inferred absent |
| inferred absent |
| inferred absent |
| inferred present |
| unknown |
| inferred present |
| unknown |
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| unknown |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| inferred absent |
| inferred present |
| present |
| absent |
| absent |
| present |
| absent |
| inferred absent |
| absent |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| absent |
| absent |
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| absent |
| unknown |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
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| inferred present |
| present |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| present |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| absent |
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| unknown |
| inferred present |
| absent |
| inferred present |
| unknown |
| inferred present |
| Year Range | Hallstatt D (fr_hallstatt_d) was in: |
|---|---|
| (600 BCE 475 BCE) | Paris Basin |
"The appearance of urban ‘central places’ was one of the major innovations in Europe of the first millennium BC. Even if we reject centres such as the Heuneburg as truly urban, despite the concentration of wealth, trade and industry on them (the social structure would have prevented the full de- velopment of exchange as we know it on later sites), we still have a number of different urban types; administrative centres, market centres, colonies, and entrepôts for long-distance trade including ports-of-trade. Each of these classes would have its own characteristics in terms of who was resident, what public amenities were present, and in the spatial layout of the town."
[1]
"In less developed forms we may detect centralised control on the sites of the late Hallstatt period of the sixth century BC, sites such as the Heuneburg and Mont Lassois in western Europe."
[2]
[1]: (Collis 1984, 22)
[2]: (Collis 1984, 16)
"The appearance of urban ‘central places’ was one of the major innovations in Europe of the first millennium BC. Even if we reject centres such as the Heuneburg as truly urban, despite the concentration of wealth, trade and industry on them (the social structure would have prevented the full de- velopment of exchange as we know it on later sites), we still have a number of different urban types; administrative centres, market centres, colonies, and entrepôts for long-distance trade including ports-of-trade. Each of these classes would have its own characteristics in terms of who was resident, what public amenities were present, and in the spatial layout of the town."
[1]
"In less developed forms we may detect centralised control on the sites of the late Hallstatt period of the sixth century BC, sites such as the Heuneburg and Mont Lassois in western Europe."
[2]
[1]: (Collis 1984, 22)
[2]: (Collis 1984, 16)
"In European archaeology today the term "early Celts" refers to late Hallstatt culture, part of early La Tene culture, Hallstatt D and La Tene A of Paul Reinecke’s nomenclature, or the time of the sixth and fifth centuries BC."
[1]
Senones in Champagne: "From the beginning of the fourth century, numerous Celtic groups, organized under the authority of aristocratic chiefs, were established in northern Italy. The first, the Senones, probably came from Champagne."
[2]
[1]: (Fischer 1995, 34)
[2]: (Brun 1995, 16)
"In European archaeology today the term "early Celts" refers to late Hallstatt culture, part of early La Tene culture, Hallstatt D and La Tene A of Paul Reinecke’s nomenclature, or the time of the sixth and fifth centuries BC."
[1]
Senones in Champagne: "From the beginning of the fourth century, numerous Celtic groups, organized under the authority of aristocratic chiefs, were established in northern Italy. The first, the Senones, probably came from Champagne."
[2]
[1]: (Fischer 1995, 34)
[2]: (Brun 1995, 16)
"In European archaeology today the term "early Celts" refers to late Hallstatt culture, part of early La Tene culture, Hallstatt D and La Tene A of Paul Reinecke’s nomenclature, or the time of the sixth and fifth centuries BC."
[1]
Senones in Champagne: "From the beginning of the fourth century, numerous Celtic groups, organized under the authority of aristocratic chiefs, were established in northern Italy. The first, the Senones, probably came from Champagne."
[2]
[1]: (Fischer 1995, 34)
[2]: (Brun 1995, 16)
"In European archaeology today the term "early Celts" refers to late Hallstatt culture, part of early La Tene culture, Hallstatt D and La Tene A of Paul Reinecke’s nomenclature, or the time of the sixth and fifth centuries BC."
[1]
Senones in Champagne: "From the beginning of the fourth century, numerous Celtic groups, organized under the authority of aristocratic chiefs, were established in northern Italy. The first, the Senones, probably came from Champagne."
[2]
[1]: (Fischer 1995, 34)
[2]: (Brun 1995, 16)
Later Hallstatt culture (600-475 BCE) based in France, in the Massalia border region. Extended as far as Vix / Mount Lassois (Châtillon-sur-Seine), the northwest edge of what archaeologists consider the Western Hallstatt zone.
Consequence of the "intensification of Greek-led trade" in the 6th century passing through Massalia: "hillforts became fewer in number but more massive in size. The number of elite burials also fell, but those which have survived intact display extraordinary riches. The term ’Halstatt Princedoms’ has been coined to describe these communities whose elites were able to control the flow of the exotic Mediterranean products..." [1]
[1]: (Allen 2007, 26-27)
"late Hallstatt society was in a liminal phase, on the threshold between a chiefdom and a state."
[1]
While from 900-600 "a north-south axis of exchange gradually superseded all other axes" it involved mainly "the eastern part of the North-Alpine Complex." During the sixth century BC, the founding of the Greek colony at Massalia introduced exotic products to "chiefs that were located directly on the principal communication routes." Thus "In the framework of a prestige economy, they gained in power, reinforcing their control of exchange with the Mediterranean civilizations, monopolizing redistribution, and finally subjugating neighbouring chiefs. In this manner, centralized political units of a scale previously unknown in Europe were formed."
[2]
The princedoms "disintegrated in the fifth century BC" when other communities "situated at the north-western periphery of the area held by the princedoms" became more powerful: the Tessin community; Hunsruck-Eifel region; Aisne-Marne region; Berry region."
[3]
[1]: (Arnold 1995, 44)
[2]: (Brun 1995, 15-16)
[3]: (Brun 1995, 16)
in squared kilometers Around 500 BCE, politically independent polities in the northern alpine region (which includes central France
[1]
) had a radius of about 50 km, which gives an area of about 7,854 sq kilometers.
[2]
[2]
Territorial scale: "The economic foundations put in place in the ninth and eighth centuries BC were ... incapable of supporting a political scale of integration greater than tens of square kilometers."
[3]
"The primacy of this site was short-lived, but by Hallstatt D2 Asperg and the Heuneburg had become centres of ‘complex chiefdoms.’ Within a 5- 10km radius of a central defended site is a cluster of rich burials, characterised by massive mounds, timber-lined graves, wagons, gold objects, bronze vessels, and imported Mediterranean goods."
[4]
[1]: (Brun 2007, 380)
[2]: (Brun 2007, 381)
[3]: (Brun 1995, 24)
[4]: (Collis 1984, 82)
levels.
"The period between 600 and 500 BC in west central Europe was characterized by rapid, regionally specific changes in social organization which are documented directly in the burial record and indirectly in the settlement evidence ... The increase in social complexity does not seem to have survived the late Hallstatt/early La Tene transition, although the late La Tene Viereckschanzen and relatively rapid appearance of many Late Lat Tene oppida from a dispersed settlement base (Murray forthcoming) indicate that continuity was maintained throughout this time."
[1]
relationship between small dispersed settlements and hilltop settlements unclear
[2]
[1]: (Arnold 1995, 51)
[2]: (Arnold 1995, 52)
levels.
Same as earlier period as no new information to code higher.
levels.
Warrior society implies at least 2 levels of military hierarchy.
levels.
"In their influential paper, Frankenstein and Rowlands [propose] the existence of a four-tiered hierarchy of chieftains, consisting of a paramount chieftain, "vassal chiefs," "sub-chiefs," and "village chiefs." Bintliff (1984) agreed with this suggesting "the spacing of centres suggests large territories and even "proto-state" structures, to be linked perhaps to the emergence of paramount chiefs or princes from an aristocratic stratum scattered throughout the region. The paramounts associated with the major putative centres and their particularly impressive burials, seem to have dominated numerous district chiefs whose rich tumuli are found at various points around the suggested territory of each princedom."
[1]
1. Paramount chieftain
2. Vassal chief
3. Sub-chief
4. Village chief
[1]: (Arnold and Gibson 1995, 6-7)
Warrior aristocracy probably lived on own resources?
previous code: inferred present | primitive irrigation system known from Beaker culture. "Silo" present during this time period.
[1]
Does this refer to food storage? Surplus production might also indicate irrigation systems.
"Silo" present during this time period. [1] Does this refer to food storage?
"Voire" or road is known in France in this period [1] but the two cases are far from the Paris basin region, apparently associated with the Mediterranean and Alps trade.
monnaie de Marsaille and monnaie gauloise finds within France 560-500 BCE but not close to Paris Bain region. [1]
Not implausible, but not mentioned by sources.
Finds close to Paris Basin region. [1]
"Rempart en pierres seches" finds within France but not close to the Paris Basin region. [1]
Villeneuve-Saint Germaine [1] is an oppidium just outside (NE) of the Paris basin NGA. 70 ha area. From medium-late Hallstatt (Ha D).EXTERNAL_INLINE_LINK: http://www.oppida.org/page.php?lg=fr&rub=00&id_oppidum=168
[1]: (Buchsenschutz 1995, 55)
"Mur terre" finds within France but not close to the Paris Basin region. [1] Hillforts: "large fortified hilltop sites often enclosed by an intricate system of earth banks and ditches." [2] NOTE: undated reference - does the code apply to this time period?
[1]: (http://www.chronocarto.ens.fr/gcserver/atlas#)
[2]: (Allen 2007, 21)
Not mentioned in the literature.
"The general impression of the Celtic swords, here covering a period from roughly 650 to 100 B.C., is that the blade was normally manufactured from a single iron bar of no particularly good quality. The same material could as well have been utilized for nails. ... Common to all the Celtic swords is the extensive coldwork that has taken place. ... evidently the finishing part of the blacksmith’s usual hotwork, only that he continued hammering in the temperature range 800-600C ... Significant coldwork at room temperature must also have taken place, since the metal is work-hardened to high hardness and displays slip lines and Neumann bands. ... The 24 swords do not show any metallurgical development with time, except for one, the oldest, from Hallstatt. That one seems to be a rather mediocre sword based on an improper ore and an inexperienced blacksmith. ... three of them ... of superior quality, being pearlitic-ferritic and probably representing the famous Noric steel. If this argument, based on slag composition and structure - and an inscription on No. 510 - holds true, the manufacture of Noric steel began as early as 300 B.C."
[1]
"Almost all the Celtic swords here examined were of good quality and would undoubtedly have yielded good service."
[2]
Not sure of the reason for the contradiction between "no particularly good quality" and "of good quality" but we have the 300 BCE date for Noric steel.
[1]: (Buchwald 2005, 122-124) Vagn Fabritius Buchwald. 2005. Iron and steel in ancient times. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab.
[2]: (Buchwald 2005, 125-127) Vagn Fabritius Buchwald. 2005. Iron and steel in ancient times. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab.
Finds close to Paris Basin region. [1] Bows used on the continent. [2]
[1]: (http://www.chronocarto.ens.fr/gcserver/atlas#)
[2]: (Koch ed. 2006, 1469) John T. Koch ed. Celtic Culture. A historical Encyclopedia. Volume I. A-Celti. ABC-CLIO. Santa Barbara.
Finds within France during this time period but not close to Paris Basin region. [1] Javelins used on the continent. [2]
[1]: (http://www.chronocarto.ens.fr/gcserver/atlas#)
[2]: (Koch ed. 2006, 1469) John T. Koch ed. Celtic Culture. A historical Encyclopedia. Volume I. A-Celti. ABC-CLIO. Santa Barbara.
Not mentioned in the literature.
Inferred from the absence of composite bows in past and future polities in Paris Basin
Inferred from the absence of composite bows in past and future polities in Paris Basin
Inferred from previous and subsequent (quasi)polities.
Finds close to Paris Basin region. [1] "long slashing swords representative of the aristocratic warrior" from 8th century onwards. [2] Battle axe more common in the East Hallstatt area while in the Western Hallstatt region use of the dagger and sword was more common. [3]
[1]: (http://www.chronocarto.ens.fr/gcserver/atlas#)
[2]: (Allen 2007, 22)
[3]: (Koch ed. 2006, 1469) John T. Koch ed. Celtic Culture. A historical Encyclopedia. Volume I. A-Celti. ABC-CLIO. Santa Barbara.
Inferred from previous and subsequent (quasi)polities.
Finds close to Paris Basin region. [1] Battle axe more common in the East Hallstatt area while in the Western Hallstatt region use of the dagger and sword was more common. [2]
[1]: (http://www.chronocarto.ens.fr/gcserver/atlas#)
[2]: (Koch ed. 2006, 1469) John T. Koch ed. Celtic Culture. A historical Encyclopedia. Volume I. A-Celti. ABC-CLIO. Santa Barbara.
Finds within France during this time period but not close to Paris Basin region. [1]
No finds within France until 620-560 BCE. ("Umbo" = shield boss?) [1] 6th century scabbard illustration shows Hallstatt warriors with spears and shields [2] Organic/metal armour, shields, helmets. [3]
[1]: (http://www.chronocarto.ens.fr/gcserver/atlas#)
[2]: (Allen 2007, 22)
[3]: (Koch ed. 2006, 1469) John T. Koch ed. Celtic Culture. A historical Encyclopedia. Volume I. A-Celti. ABC-CLIO. Santa Barbara.
Finds within France during this time period but not close to Paris Basin region. [1] Organic/metal armour, shields, helmets. [2]
[1]: (http://www.chronocarto.ens.fr/gcserver/atlas#)
[2]: (Koch ed. 2006, 1469) John T. Koch ed. Celtic Culture. A historical Encyclopedia. Volume I. A-Celti. ABC-CLIO. Santa Barbara.
"Chaîne de suspension" present. Is this chainmail? [1] Iron chain mail was introduced in the third century BCE, probably by the Celtic peoples. [2]
[1]: (http://www.chronocarto.ens.fr/gcserver/atlas#)
[2]: (Gabriel 2002, 21) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport.
Not mentioned in the literature.
Mediterranean amphore close to Paris Bain shows long-distant trade. [1]
Not mentioned in the literature.