Hallstatt culture

The Hallstatt culture was an important group of people in Western and Central Europe during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, from about 1200 to 500 BC. It grew from an earlier culture called the Urnfield culture and was later followed by the La Tène culture. We think the people of this culture spoke early forms of Celtic languages.

The name "Hallstatt" comes from a village in Austria near a rich salt mine. Many burials from this time have been found there, along with beautiful objects made from metal and other materials. Experts divide Hallstatt culture into four periods, called Hallstatt A to D.

By around 500 BC, Hallstatt culture had spread across much of Western and Central Europe, reaching as far as the Alps, Italy, Britain, and Iberia. These people were farmers, but they were also very skilled at working with metal. They traded over long distances, especially with cultures around the Mediterranean Sea. Society seemed to be organized into tribes, with leaders and warriors becoming more important over time. Some settlements grew large enough to be called towns, like Heuneburg in Germany, though many were still small villages.

Chronology

According to a system created by Paul Reinecke in 1902, the end of the Bronze Age and the start of the Iron Age were split into four periods. These periods are:

HaA (1200–1050 BC)
HaB (1050-800 BC)
HaC (800-620 BC)
HaD (620-450 BC)

Reinecke used items found in southern Germany to create these time periods.

Dating these periods can be tricky. One way to date objects, called radiocarbon dating, does not work well for this time because of a problem called the "Hallstatt-Plateau." Instead, scientists use another method called dendrochronology and look at changes in styles over time to figure out the dates.

For the start of HaC, pieces of wood from a grave in Wehringen give a date of 778 ± 5 BC. Even though it can be hard to find exact dates for HaC, many believe the Hallstatt period began around 800 BC when people started using iron ore.

The period HaC is identified by certain types of swords and brooches. HaD is divided into three stages based on the styles of brooches found, such as snake brooches, drum brooches, and double-drum brooches. The move to the next period, called La Tène, is linked to the appearance of the first animal-shaped brooches.

Hallstatt type site

The village of Hallstatt had a special job because of its rich salt mines, which people used since very old times. These mines helped the village grow and become important. Many things found in the graves there, like decorations on items, show a special style that spread all over Europe.

In 1846, a person named Johann Georg Ramsauer found a very old burial place near Hallstatt in Austria. He dug there and found many burials with valuable items. These items tell us about life from about 1200 BC to 500 BC. The items found include clothes, wood, leather, and tools that stayed well because of the salt. The burials show that many people lived good lives, even if they were not the miners themselves.

The time from 800 to 450 BC is called the Hallstatt period, when iron started to appear along with bronze. Later, around 500 BC, the main activity at Hallstatt stopped, and people began mining salt in nearby places instead. Many items from Hallstatt are now kept in museums, with the Hallstatt Museum having the biggest collection.

Culture and trade

Further information: Greeks in pre-Roman Gaul

Languages

It is likely that some of the spread of Hallstatt culture happened in areas where people spoke Celtic languages.

Model of the Heuneburg, Germany, c. 600 BC

In northern Italy, the Golasecca culture developed from the Canegrate culture. Canegrate, which began in the 13th century BC, showed strong links to Central European Urnfield traditions. Both cultures are seen as early examples of the wider Hallstatt movement, known for their skilled pottery and metalwork. Lepontic inscriptions from this area show that the Golasecca language was Celtic, suggesting that people in the Canegrate culture and the western Hallstatt culture were early speakers of Celtic languages.

Trade

Trade with Greece is shown by finds of Attic black-figure pottery in rich graves from the late Hallstatt period. These items were likely brought through Massilia, which is Marseille. Other imported goods included amber, ivory (found at the Grafenbühl Tomb), and probably wine. Red kermes dye came from the south and was found at Hochdorf. Famous imports include the Greek Vix krater (the largest known metal container from Western classical times), the Etruscan lebes from Sainte-Colombe-sur-Seine, the Greek hydria from Grächwil, the Greek cauldron from Hochdorf and the Greek or Etruscan cauldron from Lavau. Some tools for measuring and trading were also used during this time.

Settlements

The biggest settlements were usually protected, built on hills, and often had workshops for making bronze, silver, and gold items. Important places, known as 'princely seats', had big homes for leaders, rich graves, large buildings, and walls. Some of these places are thought to be the first cities north of the Alps. Examples include the Heuneburg on the upper Danube, surrounded by large burial mounds, and Mont Lassois in eastern France near Châtillon-sur-Seine, where a very rich grave was found at Vix. The Heuneburg may be the Celtic city of Pyrene mentioned by Herodotus in 450 BC.

Other key sites are the Glauberg, Hohenasperg and Ipf in Germany, the Burgstallkogel in Austria and Molpír in Slovakia. However, most places were small villages. The large site of Alte Burg may have been used for special events or games.

By the end of the Hallstatt period, many big centres were left, and people lived in smaller, scattered groups. Urban centres appeared again in Europe during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC in the La Tène period.

Burial rites

Burials at Hallstatt show a change from cremation to inhumation, with gifts for the dead at all times.

In central Hallstatt areas toward the end of this time, very rich graves of important people were found near the remains of fortified hilltop settlements. These graves, often under large tumuli, had rooms made of wood where the body and gifts were placed. Some graves included chariot or wagon burials, such as at 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.

Models of chariots made from lead have been found in Frög, Carinthia, and clay models of horses with riders are also common. Wooden "funerary carts", thought to be used as hearses and then buried, are sometimes found in the most grand graves. Items found in these burials include pottery, bronze containers, weapons, detailed jewellery made of bronze and gold, and a few stone stelae (like the famous Warrior of Hirschlanden). Daggers, which replaced swords in some western graves, were likely symbols of status rather than real weapons.

Social structure

The material culture of Western Hallstatt culture seemed to support a stable social and economic system. The founding of Marseille and the influence of Greek and Etruscan culture after around 600 BC led to long-distance trade along the Rhone valley, causing changes in Hallstatt settlements north of the Alps. Strong local leaders emerged, controlling the trade of valuable goods from the Mediterranean, a feature also seen in the later La Tène culture.

Studies of ancient DNA have shown the presence of 'ruling families' during the Hallstatt period.

The generally peaceful and prosperous life of the Hallstatt D culture ended suddenly at the period's close. Many large settlements such as Heuneburg and the Burgstallkogel were destroyed or left, rich tumulus burials stopped, and older ones were looted. There was likely a big movement of people moving west, and the new La Tène culture developed centres further west and north, growing during the last years of the Hallstatt culture.

Technology

Iron tools began appearing in central and western Europe before 800 BC (an iron knife or sickle from Ganovce in Slovakia, from the 18th century BC, may be the earliest evidence of iron in Central Europe). By the later Urnfield (Hallstatt B) phase, some swords were made and decorated with iron in eastern Central Europe, and sometimes much further west.

At first, iron was rare and expensive, and sometimes used for jewellery. Iron swords became more common after about 800 BC, and steel was also made from that time for sword production. The making of high-carbon steel is known in Britain after about 490 BC.

The same design of spoked-wheel wagons across the Hallstatt region shows a standard way of making them, including methods like lathe-turning. Iron tyres were made and improved during this time, leading to the invention of tyres that fit tightly in the La Tène period. The potter's wheel also appeared in the Hallstatt period.

The widespread use of wood planks and large squared beams shows the use of long saw blades and possibly saws worked by two people. The planks from the Hohmichele burial chamber (from the 6th century BC), which were over 6m long and 35 cm wide, seem to have been cut with a big saw used in a timber yard. Building big structures like the Vix palace shows skill in geometry and carpentry, able to create large open spaces.

Studies of building remains in Silesia found evidence of a standard unit of length (about 0.785 m). This is almost the same as the length of a measuring stick found at Borum Eshøj in Denmark (0.7855 m) from the Bronze Age (around 1350 BC). Pythagorean triangles were probably used in building to make right angles, and some buildings had shapes based on Pythagorean rectangles.

[Cuirasses](/wiki/Muscle_cuirass) and helmet from [Kleinklein](/wiki/Burgstallkogel_\(Sulm_valley\)), Austria, 6th-7th centuries BC.

Funerary wagon, reconstruction, [Strasbourg Museum](/wiki/Musée_archéologique_\(Strasbourg\)), France

Wagon wheel hub from the [Vix Grave](/wiki/Vix_Grave), France

Pottery from [Heuneburg](/wiki/Heuneburg), Germany

[Amber](/wiki/Amber) [necklace](/wiki/Necklace) from the [Magdalenenberg](/wiki/Magdalenenberg), Germany

Gold bracelets from [Sainte-Colombe-sur-Seine](/wiki/Graves_of_Sainte-Colombe-sur-Seine), France

.jpg)

The Vix krater, imported from Greece

Cult wagon from [La Côte-Saint-André](/wiki/La_Côte-Saint-André), France.

Hallstatt 'C' swords in [Wels](/wiki/Wels) Museum, Austria.

Dagger with "antenna hilt"

Ceramics and sword with gold hilt from Gomadingen [de]

Metal vessels from [Kleinklein](/wiki/Burgstallkogel_\(Sulm_valley\))

Gold artefacts from the [Heuneburg](/wiki/Heuneburg)

Burial goods from [Oss](/wiki/Vorstengraf_\(Oss\)), Netherlands

Art

Hallstatt art, especially from the later periods in the western areas, is considered the beginning of Celtic art. The designs are mostly simple shapes and lines, and we can see these best on beautiful metal items found in old graves. In the eastern areas, there are more pictures of people and stories told through art, while animals, like water birds, are popular in both places.

Rich graves sometimes have special, one-of-a-kind items, like the Strettweg Cult Wagon, the Warrior of Hirschlanden, and a bronze couch from the Hochdorf Chieftain's Grave. Common items include weapons, jewelry like brooches and armbands, and items made from bronze or gold. Musical instruments such as harps, lyres, and panpipes were also part of Hallstatt culture.

Inscriptions

A few inscriptions have been found at Hallstatt culture sites. Symbols on iron tools from Austria, made between 800 and 650 BC, show links to older symbols from the Bronze Age and may be connected to mining and trading metals. Inscriptions on metal bowls from a cemetery in Austria, made between about 800 and 500 BC, look like numbers, letters, or words and might be related to scripts from Etruscan or Old Italic cultures. Weights from Bavaria, made between the 7th and early 6th century BC, have signs that look like letters from Greek or Etruscan writing.

One word written on a piece of pottery from Montmorot in eastern France, made between the late 7th and mid-6th century BC, might be Gaulish or Lepontic. A painted inscription was also found on pottery from Bragny-sur-Saône in eastern France, dating to the 5th century BC. A letter was written on a gold cup found in a tomb at Apremont in eastern France, made around 500 BC.

Another broken inscription was found on pottery in a burial near Bergères-les-Vertus in north-eastern France, dating to the late 5th century BC. This inscription is thought to be the Celtic word for "king," written in the Lepontic alphabet.

Calendar

The big burial mounds at Glauberg and Magdalenenberg in Germany had special designs pointing toward important points in the sky, such as when the moon reaches its farthest point from Earth every 18.6 years. People long ago needed to watch the sky for many years to plan these designs. At Glauberg, ditches and posts might have helped track special days like the solstices. Some experts think the burials at Magdalenenberg were placed to match how stars looked in the sky a long time ago.

Other places also show that people knew about special moon patterns. In England, wooden paths used for special ceremonies were built in ways that match these moon patterns. The shapes of mountains around Hallstatt might have helped people tell time by the sun, too. Some believe an old piece of jewelry from Hallstatt shows symbols for different times of the year.

Geography

There were two main areas in the Hallstatt culture: an eastern zone and a western zone. They had different ways of burying their people and different items placed with them. In the western zone, important people were buried with swords or daggers, and some were placed in chariots. In the eastern zone, warriors were often buried with helmets and armor. The eastern zone also had more detailed art on their pottery and metal items. The eastern settlements and burial places were usually larger than those in the west.

The line separating these two zones ran from north to south through central Bohemia and Lower Austria, and then followed the eastern and southern edges of the Alps to Eastern and Southern Tyrol.

Western Hallstatt zone

The western Hallstatt zone included parts of:

northeastern France: Burgundy, Franche-Comté, Champagne-Ardenne, Lorraine, Alsace
northern Switzerland: Swiss plateau
Southern Germany: much of Swabia and Bavaria
western Czech Republic: Bohemia
western Austria: Vorarlberg, Tyrol, Salzkammergut

The influence of the western Hallstatt culture was later seen in the rest of France, England, Ireland, northern Italy, and parts of central, northern, and western Iberia.

Eastern Hallstatt zone

The eastern Hallstatt zone included:

eastern Austria: Lower Austria, Upper Styria
eastern Czech Republic: Moravia
southwestern Slovakia: Danubian Lowland
western Hungary: Little Hungarian Plain
eastern Slovenia: Hallstatt Archaeological Site in Vače, Novo Mesto
western Slovenia: Svetolucijska Hallstatt culture Most na Soči
northern Croatia: Hrvatsko Zagorje, Istria
northern and central Serbia
parts of southwestern Poland
northern and western Bulgaria

Trade and cultural exchanges spread Hallstatt culture into Britain and Ireland.

Genetics

Scientists studied the remains of people from the Hallstatt culture to learn about their ancestors. They looked at people buried near Litoměřice in the Czech Republic, who lived between about 600 BC and 400 BC. They also studied people from France who lived during the Bronze Age and Iron Age. These studies showed that people from the Hallstatt culture shared many genetic traits with people from earlier times, like the Bell Beaker culture. They also found that many of these ancient people had similar genetic links to modern populations in France, Great Britain, and Spain. In southern Germany, scientists found that most men from the Hallstatt culture had certain genetic markers, showing how their families were connected across different places and times.