Recent geophysical survey of the plateau has yielded a detailed picture of the organization of the settlement on Mont Lassois.9 An arterial ‘Main Street’ ran almost the length of the plateau from north to south. On either side were neighbourhoods defined by ditches and palisades which contained buildings of various sizes, from small to monumental. The impression is of a well-planned, structured community, surrounded by timber and stone ramparts.
In one of the compounds two very large buildings were built between 530/20 and 480/50 BC. The larger one measures 35 by 22 metres (115 × 72 ft), with an interior area of over 500 square metres (5,000 sq. ft), while the smaller is 25 by 14 metres (82 × 46 ft). They are expertly laid out and consist of three sections: an entrance hall, a main hall and a large curving apse that gives them distinctive church-like plans. The height of the larger building is estimated at about 15 metres (50 ft), making it truly immense. At one point it was destroyed by fire and rebuilt. Sitting on top of the plateau, it was probably visible for miles around. The function of these large apsidal buildings is unclear. Were they elite residences, locations of rituals or communal meeting houses? Perhaps they served several different functions.
The Heuneburg
Perhaps the most celebrated princely site overlooks the Danube in southwestern Germany. The Heuneburg lies on a hilltop that began to be fortified late in the Bronze Age as the site of a small village, which was then abandoned. Around 650 BC, intense building activity began, leading to the enclosure of 3.3 hectares (8 acres). During the next two centuries, walls around the hilltop were destroyed and rebuilt at least ten times.
During an early reconfiguration of the Heuneburg ramparts, around 600 BC, a part of the wall was built from sun-dried clay bricks, up to a height of 4 metres (13 ft), on a base of limestone blocks.10 Such construction is unique in central Europe, for the very good reason that it is unsuited to the wet, seasonal environment. Sun-dried mud bricks, after a while, simply dissolve, although those at the Heuneburg were conserved by frequent replastering. In the end, the burning of its wooden walkway, evidently by an attack, caused the destruction of the mud-brick wall.
The only plausible reason to build a Mediterranean-style wall in central Europe was that its patron wished to demonstrate familiarity with exotic practices from distant lands to enhance his prestige. Perhaps he had been to Massalia, seen similar walls, tried to copy them. Mud brick was probably a challenge to make and maintain. After the mud-brick wall was destroyed around 540–530 BC, the fortification was rebuilt using traditional methods of timber cribbing filled with stone.
Mont Lassois, Burgundy, France, seat of an Iron Age ‘prince’ with monumental structures, which overlooks the Vix tomb.
The mud-brick wall at the Heuneburg is a vivid demonstration of connections between the central European elites and the Mediterranean world. Imported objects found at the Heuneburg included Greek black-figure pottery and amphorae made in Provence, in the hinterland of Massalia, that presumably contained wine brought up the Rhône drainage. The central European elites in the sixth century BC were really into wine, and the Greeks were only too happy to indulge their tastes.
It was long thought that settlement at the Heuneburg was confined to the fortified hilltop. Since the early 1990s, investigations at the base of the hill and in the surrounding countryside revealed a fortified lower settlement surrounded by a ditch and rampart. It covered nearly 20 hectares (50 acres) and contained both houses and workshops for working bronze and weaving cloth. To level the uneven land, small terraces were constructed. Excavations revealed a massive gate into the lower settlement, constructed, like the wall of the hillfort above, of mud brick on a stone foundation. A bridge across the ditch led into the gate, which was designed to provide a monumental entrance. Wood from the bridge was dated to 590 BC using tree rings.11
Beyond the lower settlement was an agrarian landscape covering over 100 hectares (250 acres), with closely spaced farmsteads grouped into larger quarters. The quarters were divided by ditches, and the farmsteads were surrounded by rectangular palisades. Other elements of the surrounding landscape were burial mounds and small hamlets. Thus the Heuneburg did not sit alone but was the centre of an immense settlement complex. Population estimates run into several thousands. The complexity of the settlement, the evidence for craft production and specialization and the long-distance trade and high populations have led some to propose that these sites have an ‘urban’ quality and qualify as early cities. Monumental buildings and evidence for planning at Mont Lassois have also led to use of the term ‘quasi-urban’ in recent interpretations. Whether or not this proves to be the case, the Heuneburg and the other princely compounds are the residential and industrial part of the Hallstatt florescence.
Princely graves
The story of the Hallstatt elites of central Europe is not only about the fortified residences, however. Even more luminous elements of the archaeological landscape are the massive tumuli with single main burials in chambers packed full of luxury items.12 The discovery in the late 1970s of an unrobbed burial of an Iron Age ‘prince’ at Hochdorf in southwestern Germany was a sensation. The mound that covered it had been overlooked not only by grave robbers but also by archaeologists until 1977.13 The contents of the Hochdorf tomb make it perhaps the richest burial in central Europe.
The Hochdorf ‘prince’
The burial mound at Hochdorf originally stood about 6 metres (20 ft) high, but erosion and ploughing reduced its height so much that it was scarcely visible. It is nearly 60 metres (200 ft) in diameter. Dug 2.5 metres (8 ft) below the original ground surface was a square burial chamber about 11 metres (36 ft) on each side. Inside the chamber were two wooden boxes, one inside the other, both made from oak, each covered with a timber roof. The inner box contained the burial and its grave goods. Space between the boxes was filled with stones, with more stones piled up over the roofs of the compartments, 50 metric tons (55 tons) in all. Unfortunately, this weight was too much for even the stout oak timbers, and they caved in. The good thing was that this allowed many perishable items in the tomb such as wood and textiles to become waterlogged and preserved.
The man buried in the Hochdorf tomb was about forty years old and stood around 1.8 metres (6 ft) tall. He was wearing a conical birchbark hat, perhaps not as warm as the hide one from Hallstatt but still stylish, and a gold neck ring. A small bag on his chest contained a wooden comb, an iron razor, five amber beads and three iron fishhooks. His clothing and even his shoes were adorned with bands of hammered gold. Lying next to him was his bow and a quiver of arrows.
The man’s body was lying on a bronze settee, like a sofa, draped with badger skins. On the back and sides of the settee are scenes of wagons and dancers, while its legs are bronze figures of women with raised arms. Wheels under their feet enabled it to be rolled. This remarkable piece of furniture has no known parallels in ancient Europe. At the foot of the settee is a bronze vessel decorated with three lions, made in a workshop in Magna Graecia. It could hold about 500 litres (110 gal.). Residue in the vessel was from a fermented honey beverage, probably drunk from a small gold bowl found inside the vessel. Drinking was clearly important, for nine drinking horns hung from the fabric-covered walls of the chamber.
On the opposite side of the chamber was a four-wheeled wagon with harnesses for two horses. Although sheathed in iron with sturdy ten-spoke wheels, the body of the wagon was so lightweight that it clearly was not intended for actual use, just for burial. More grave goods sat on its platform, including a set of bronze dishes, service for nine.
Despite the abundance of sumptuous grave goods, we know little about the man in the Hochdorf tomb, but we can make some inferences. We know his age and his height, and also that he was strongly built. He liked to hunt, fish, eat and drink. The number nine was also important, perhaps representing clients or retainers. The artefacts point towards a burial date of around 530–520 BC, which means he probably saw the mud-brick wall at the Heuneburg before it was destroyed.
He and his people were rich, for the total weight of the gold around him is around 600 grams (21 oz), more than any other burial of this time. It is not difficult to infer that this was a very important individual in the upper tier of his society with access to considerable wealth.
Detail of a lion on the rim of a bronze wine vessel at Hochdorf, Germany
The Lady of Vix
Along the Seine at Vix, in the shadow of Mont Lassois, lies a mound 38 metres (125 ft) in diameter. At its centre is a burial chamber, excavated in 1953, much like at Hochdorf.14 Like Hochdorf, it contained a four-wheeled wagon, although the wheels of the wagon had been taken off and laid against the wall of the chamber. On the wagon’s platform lay the body of a woman. She was wearing a large gold neck ring with bulbous terminals decorated with tiny winged horses. Elsewhere in the tomb was a rich assortment of objects made from gold, amber and coral. Clearly a high-status person, she has become known as ‘The Lady of Vix’.
Looming over everything in the tomb was a gigantic bronze vessel known as a krater. Standing around 1.64 metres (5 ft 4 in.) tall and weighing about 209 kilograms (460 lb), the Vix krater could hold around 1,100 litres (nearly 300 u.s. gallons or 240 imperial gallons). No doubt, the liquid it contained was wine, mixed with water, since that was the purpose of such large vessels in the Greek world. It was made in a workshop in the Greek colony of Magna Graecia, near the cities of Tarent (modern Taranto) and Sybaris (known archaeologically along the Gulf of Taranto) around 530 BC. Along with it were Attic black-figure drinking cups made about 520/515 BC.
The krater found in the Vix burial reminds us of the thirst for wine and prestige goods among the Hallstatt elites. It also shows that wine was consumed ostentatiously. The krater itself is an ostentation. Normally in the Greek world, these were made from pottery. Making a bronze vessel that weighed so much and then transporting it about 1,600 km (1,000 miles) over mountains and across rivers, or perhaps by sea to the mouth of the Rhône and then upstream from there, was all part of the show. So was its burial in the tomb. The Lady of Vix and her elite family were performing for their retainers to demonstrate their prestige and status. Were these the same elite who built the apsidal buildings on Mont Lassois? Very possibly.
A new tomb at Lavau
Traces of Hallstatt elites keep coming to light. In 2014, another princely burial was found at Lavau, near Troyes in France.15 Since it looked like a natural low hill, it escaped looting, both in modern times and in antiquity. The mound at Lavau is 40 metres (130 ft) across. It concealed a collapsed burial chamber containing a single skeleton. Key elements of princely burials were present: a body with gold jewellery; a vehicle, in this case a two-wheeled chariot; and copious amounts of wine-drinking and feasting paraphernalia, including Greek and Etruscan bronze vessels. The centrepiece was an immense bronze vat just under 1 metre (3 ft) in diameter decocircular handles, each bearing the head of the Greek river god Achelous. Achelous has a distinctive appearance with a squared-off beard, a moustache and the ears and horns of a bull. Inside this massive vessel was a Greek black-figure wine pitcher called an oinochoe, with gold trim around the rim and base. Other bronze vessels and a silver sieve complete the wine-serving set.
Detail of a lion on the rim of a bronze wine vessel at Lavau, France.
The individual buried at Lavau had an immense gold ring, or torc, around the neck weighing 0.7 kilograms (1½ lb) and decorated with winged figures and prominent pear-shaped terminals. This form of personal ornament, along with amber beads, additional gold bracelets and coral garment ornaments, plus the absence of weapons, led to initial speculation that the person was a woman of high social standing, much like the Lady of Vix, about 65 kilometres (40 mi.) away. Subsequent testing, however, demonstrated that the individual in the Lavau tomb was a man.
The hill compounds and noble burials at the headwaters of major rivers like the Seine, Danube and Rhine show that the great portages between the major river systems of eastern central Europe were ideally suited for control of the trade along these corridors. The flow of goods in ancient times would be what transportation engineers today call ‘intermodal’, a combination of waterborne and overland transport. In the case of the Iron Age elites, the luxury goods they received from the Mediterranean world were one side of the story. The other involved the commodities moving south in exchange for them. Furs, beeswax, amber and perhaps slaves were acquired from the north, probably in exchange for fairly mundane agricultural and locally made craft products. These passed through the portages and were aggregated by the communities who lived there. As middlemen, they then could satisfy their taste for Mediterranean luxury goods.
Unfortunately, this arrangement did not last, and the conspicuous consumption in central Europe seems to have tailed off about 450 BC. Whether this reflects social turmoil or simply a reorientation of exchange networks is not known, but social complexity does not develop in a straight line. Since Mediterranean goods were essentially status symbols, perhaps the arc of popularity taken by such objects that we see today also prevailed in the past, and Greek goods ceased to be markers of power and wealth. Perhaps lower strata of society could also acquire them, so they were no longer signs of elite distinction. Whatever the reason, during the fifth century BC this chapter in the story of the Barbarian World ended.
Hillforts beyond the Channel
The decline in trade between the Greeks and central Europe did not signal the end of hillforts in other parts of western Europe, however. In the British Isles, particularly in Britain, the construction, occupation and development of central fortified sites continued apace. The hillforts of southern Britain did not depend on trade in exotic goods but rather appear to have been local responses to a need for centres of defence, crafts and authority by small, loosely integrated polities. Among the dozens of Iron Age hillforts, two of the best known are Maiden Castle in Dorset and Danebury in Hampshire.
Maiden Castle is a long, steep hill that had been the site of a ditched enclosure and long barrow during the Stone Age.16 Around 500 BC a small hillfort was established on its eastern end. Over the next several centuries, it was expanded and strengthened, such that the contours of its slopes were dramatically transformed by three immense chalk ramparts and corresponding ditches. When they were first built, the white exposed chalk would have been visible from far away, extremely impressive and intimidating. In final form, Maiden Castle covered 47 hectares (116 acres).
The interior of Maiden Castle contained multiple roundhouses, typical for the British Iron Age, and four-post granaries. The latter are just over 2 metres (6 ft) square. They occur on Iron Age sites in southern Britain, and in a six-post form in other parts of the Barbarian World. Maiden Castle was reorganized several times, with a haphazard distribution of houses giving way to an organized settlement plan with arterial paths. Evidence for textile production and metalworking indicate that it was not a purely agrarian settlement or a temporary refuge.
The gateways are some of the most interesting features of Maiden Castle. Passages through the ramparts did not line up to provide a direct route into the interior but instead were offset, often by some distance, forcing an attacking force to move laterally through the intervening ditch and giving defenders an opportunity to rain arrows, spears and stones from above. While such complicated entrances are typical features of hillforts, the ramparts at Maiden Castle display them particularly vividly.
Danebury was excavated during the late twentieth century, and thus its interior and ramparts are known in considerable detail.17 The hill on which it sits is not as steep as at Maiden Castle, and thus its defences are not as spectacular but dominate the surrounding landscape nonetheless. Its ramparts were expanded multiple times over several centuries of occupation, becoming progressively more elaborate and complex. Gates through them were strengthened with timber gatehouses which provided the complexity needed to slow down an attacking force. Bodies in mass graves suffered gruesome injuries or have been dismembered, presumably the outcome of an attack.
The interior of Danebury was occupied by roundhouses and four-post granaries as at Maiden Castle and other British hillforts. Settlement features have yielded nearly a quarter of a million animal bones. Of these about two-thirds were from sheep, clearly indicating the basis of the animal economy, used for meat, wool and milk. Cattle were also a substantial component of the economy, accounting for about a fifth of the bones, while pigs constituted about an eighth of the sample. Horses were used for riding, light pulling and as pack animals, although their remains in ritual deposits indicate that they were seen in a different category from the other livestock.
Aerial photo of the Danebury hillfort in England showing multiple banks and ditches.
Hillforts like Maiden Castle and Danebury did not supplant the pattern of rural farmstead settlement that emerged in earlier millennia, however. They were centres for economic, ritual and commercial activity as well as refuges in times of conflict. Warfare, in the form of organized raiding parties and warrior bands, was constant, especially in southern England, during the second half of the first millennium BC.
The Barbarian World in 450 BC
Beginning about 800 BC, iron came into common use across the Barbarian World. It permitted the production of utilitarian objects on one hand and the manufacture of sharp weapons on the other, although it did not replace bronze for fine ornamental goods. Iron did not have the procurement and transport costs of copper and tin, and its production provided a new pathway to economic success for communities not yet so blessed.
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