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The Celts in the Nahe Valley and the HunsrückPeople of European HistoryThe Celts of the Latène age (475 to 20 BC) are named for the important archaeological finds at La Tène on the lake of Neuchâtel in Switzerland and are counted among the most important people of European history. Their central area of influence stretched from the Marne and Mosel, over southern France, and southern Germany, reaching to southern Poland and the Carpathians. The actual origins of the Celts is unknown. Myths and legends give a very contradictory picture. Origins and Early History
Clear references to the history of the Celts are first found in the late Bronze age (the 13th century BC) with the beginning of the Canegrate culture. The name comes from the archaeological excavation at "Canegrate" near Legnano north of Milan, where important finds were made. The Canegrate culture was founded by Celts who came from the Northwest alpine region and settled in the area between the Lake of Maggiore and the Lake of Como. They brought a language with them from which "Old-Celtic" continuously developed. They lived in direct proximity to the Golasecca-Celts of the Ticino (their name stems from the important archaeological finds in "Golasecca" at the place where the Ticino river flows out of the Lake of Maggiore) and the Helvetians in the north whose settlements reached far towards southern Germany. In the 13th century BC, the Mycenaeans ruled the mediterranean area. They were miners of metal deposits on a large scale. In the "world" of that time there was a large demand for the copper and tin ores necessary for the production of bronze. After the break down of the Mycenaean culture, other high cultures developed around the mediterranean area. These included the Assyrians, Phoenecians and Greeks. The power and wealth of the Phoenecians and Greeks was based upon extremely well organized sea trade which extended over the entire Mediterranean as well as along the Atlantic coast as far as Britain and Ireland. Iron Ore TradeWith the emergence of the new raw material "iron", two more regions of Italy developed enormously both economically and culturally. This happened around 800 BC and included Vulci in the western area of Etruria and, in the east, Picenum on the Adriatic coast. It was the Etruscans of Vulci who intensified and developed "European" trade in raw materials during the Hallstatt era (800 to 475 BC) named for the area of archaeological finds at Hallstatt on the lake of Hallstatt in Austria. The most important trade routes were the "Tin Street" in the west which started in Marseille and continued along the Rhone and Saône rivers, past Bragny and further along the Seine and Loire rivers to Brittania and in the east, the "Amber Street" through the Moravian Gate into the Weichsel valley and on into the Baltic. These two trade routes were connected together by the Celts of southern Germany by the "Danube Street". An impressive monument to this epoch is the castle Heuneburg, located near the source of the Danube and built around the year 625 BC. For more than 150 years it was the most important Celtic trade center on the right of the Rhine. It was over these trade routes that Etruscan wine and the crockery for drinking it as well as an enormous amount of Etruscan art was brought to the Celtic people in exchange for raw materials. The Hunsrück-Eifel-CultureAround the year 475 BC, at the beginning of the Latène era, a fundamental change in the social structure of the Celts began. Its origins and reasons are unknown. A new and incomparable style of art developed, with unique ornamentation and design. It was found on weapons, equipment, and jewelry of the Celtic upper class. This "Celtic Style" as it is called by art historians, has its own masterpieces and iconography which is very obviously inspired by Celtic mythology. The region of Hunsrück-Eifel played a very crucial role here. The term "Hunsrück-Eifel-Culture" is used to describe the importance of this area for those times. Unique works of art and gold smith's work found in the graves of the upper class attest to the economic prosperity of the Hunsrück-Eifel region at that time. The pictures show a drinking cup in the early Celtic style found in the "Prince's grave" of Schwarzenbach/Hunsrück and dating from between 450 and 375 BC and gold rings of the tendril style found in the grave of the "Princess" of Waldalgesheim/Nahe and dating from about 325 BC. Hunsrück Economic Area
Iron ore, which could be surface mined (i.e., in Schwarzenbach), made up the basis of the wealth of the Etruscans. Raw iron was traded in the form of "double point" bars of about 50 cm length. The smelting process used a large amount of charcoal, which caused a ruinous exploitation of the forests in the area (125 kg of iron ore and 125 kg of charcoal resulted in 10 kg of iron). The backbone of the trade was a well developed route which crossed over the Hunsrück heights and led to the Rhine and known up to today as the "Via Ausonia". In addition, a north-south axis was created over the San Bernardino pass so that the Hunsrück region was directly accessible over the waterways of the Walensee, the lake of Zurich, the Limmat, the Aare and the Rhine up to the mouths of the Nahe and Mosel rivers. The First High Civilization of West- and Middle EuropeIt is assumed that writing came to the Celtic language area at the beginning of the Latène era. This created a basis for the development of an "urban" economic and social system called an "Oppida-Civilization" (from the Latin oppidum which means urban). The largest "oppida" in the region were Otzenhausen in the Hunsrück and Donnersberg in the Pfalz, about 35 km south of the Nahe valley. The introduction of Celtic coin minting in the 3rd century BC was one more indication of a high civilization which prospered for more that 200 years. It should be remembered though, that the "Celts" never had an actual kingdom or state, but were organized into individual tribes and tribal connections ruled by a monarchy (only in the resistance to the Roman conquerers 58 to 51 BC, did the western tribes unite for a short time under Vercingétorix). In spite of this, the Celts attained a wide cultural federation in which there was probably one group of connected languages. Celtic ExpansionAround 400 BC, the Celtic tribes began migrating to northern Italy, mostly to unpopulated land areas which they cultivated and built upon. They also conquered and plundered important cities like Como, Milan and Bologna. The city of Rome was under siege for seven months in 387 to 386 BC, until it was ransomed with gold. Only in 225 BC, after the victorious battle of Telamon, did Rome reconquor all of northern Italy and thereby becoming the super power of Italy. A new Celtic migration began then, this time in the northern direction. Starting with their migration around the year 400 BC, the Celts became an important part of history. The first detailed reports are found in Ephorus (405 to 330 BC), Plato (429 to 347 BC), and Aristotle (384 to 322 BC). Later ones can be found in the historical works by Poseidonios of Apameia (135 to 50 BC), Diodorus (around 50 BC) and the "Gallic Wars" of Julius Caesar (100 to 44 BC). These are usually rather biased pictures of the "barbarians" which were portrayed to be uncivilized wild men, violent, pugnacious, quarrelsome and belligerent. Such descriptions served Caesar well as reasons for bringing order to Gaul. Oppida-CivilizationsThe key to understanding the Celtic economic and social systems is their early urban way of living which was based upon a prosperous economy. The distinguishing feature of this Oppida-Civilization was its forms of settlement. The individual farmsteads (latin: aedificia), the unfortified villages (latin: vici) and the fortified towns (latin: oppida) were all a part of this. The individual farmsteads ranged from simple farms to the agricultural estates of the aristocracy. In the towns and villages people specialized in various kinds of craftmanship (i.e., ironworking or pottery making) and in certain well situated towns there were centralized political and religious activities. These political administrative units were called a "state" by Caesar (latin: civitas), meaning a political entity which comprised a certain territory and was governed from a central location and whose politics was in the hands of local elite groups. The Druids represented religious leadership, administering the religious sites and were responsible for education and law. They were the embodiment of the church, high court and university. The Fall of Celtic CultureAfter Caesar's conquest of Gaul, during which more than a million people lost their lives, the Celts adapted astoundingly quickly to the Romanizing process that followed. This can be traced to the finds of artifacts in the graves of the Treverians in the Hunsrück. The newly founded Roman towns and villages added to this even though the crushing taxes imposed by the Romans led to many uprisings. With the end of the Roman Empire in the year 486 AD, and the start of migration, the last forms of the Celtic culture disappeared. Celtic FortressesIn the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, numerous fortresses and castles were built near settlements between the Nahe, Mosel and Saar rivers. The most well known of these are the Altburg near Bundenbach (expanded to its present form in about 120 BC) and Otzenhausen (the present form dating from around 80 BC). In the following list are the most important archaeological locations in the Hunsrück and Nahe valley for Celtic and early Celtic discoveries. All of these locations are in beautiful landscapes and are good destinations for exciting weekend excursions.
LiteratureSabine Rieckhoff und Jörg Biel: Die Kelten in Deutschland. Stuttgart: Theiss, 2001 |
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