Before we start to look at recent developments in the study of eastern Celtic culture, it is necessary to review past discoveries.
At the beginning of this century, Reinecke (1902, 1911, [1965]) pointed out that Celtic artefacts show not only chronological but also regional differences. He was describing the earliest La Tene grave goods from north-east Bavaria; and by comparing these with chronologically similar materials he was able to conclude that the eastern provinces were quite distinct within the La Tene area. The most important characteristic of this eastern material is that it bears witness to strong links with Italy, especially with the Venetic culture (Jacobsthal 1944; Kruta 1986; Moosleitner 1985, 1991; Pauli 1991, 1994)- The Veneti also functioned as middlemen through whom Etruscan cultural traits were transmitted to their Celtic neighbours north of the Alps.
It was not until much later that Reinecke’s fundamental observations concerning the eastern early La Tene culture and its marked connection with the classical world were corroborated by later finds and new research. Kossack (1982) sums up the history of research in his study ‘Siidbayern Im 5. Jahrhundert v. Chr. Zur Frage der Uberlieferungskontinuitat’. In this he draws particular attention to the rise of the Illyrian theory in the early 1930s (Kersten 1933). At about this time Bittel (1934) and later Giessler-Kraft (1942 [1950]) felt justified in proposing that a Celtic population could already be identified in the middle Rhine area and in south-west Germany during the Hallstatt period. They noted, like Kersten, that the Hallstatt cemeteries show a continuity of population. The same situation could not be readily assumed for the eastern area, since at that time no characteristic late Hallstatt or early La Tene material had been identified in those parts. For this reason and in particular because of the lack of comparable western early La Tene artefacts, it was generally believed that the Hallstatt culture, or the population groups with whom it was associated, had continued in the whole eastern area into the early La Tene. Only the individuals buried in ‘flat cemeteries’ were regarded as ‘Celts’, and considered to be immigrants in the sense of ethnically intrusive, the concept favoured by these authors (Hunyady 1944; Pittioni 1954, 1959; Willvonseder 1953). By way of a compromise it was
Believed that the Hallstatt culture had continued until the arrival of the ‘Celts’. An alternative view of the Celts, held at the same time, was that they had appeared in the east with a distinct cultural assemblage which they brought with them from their ‘Urheimat’ and by means of which they could be identified. For this reason, scholars used to speak of a ‘La Tene-ized Hallstatt population’ of Celts, and of the continued co-existence of two separate cultures (Ziirn 1942, 1952; and papers in: Hamburger Beitrdge zur Archdologie 1972). An important publication in the field of Celtic study was that by Jan Filip (1956), later published in English as well (1976). He also carried out the typological and chronological evaluation of the material at his disposal at the time. This work provided the basis of all subsequent research for a long time.
Recent research has concentrated on establishing detailed fine chronologies of specific types of finds and of their particular characteristics, such as forms and decoration of pottery (Dehn 1951, 1962/3, 1964, 1969; Schwappach 1973, 1975, 1979; Gosden 1984, 1987), and on working out horizons characterized by the chronologically most sensitive types and assemblages of grave goods (Parzinger 1988).
An increasing number of excavations of settlements and cemeteries contemporary with them have offered improved opportunities to classify the artefacts according to chronological as well as functional principles. It became clear that there exists, in the eastern province, a number of sites where there is evidence for continuous occupation and where it is possible to distinguish the latest Hallstatt from the La Tene A phase. With regard to this, the Diirrnberg grave groups are of particular importance because here we can assume uninterrupted usage as well as witness the continuity of culture change from the late Hallstatt period onwards (Penninger 1972; Moosleitner et al. 1974; Pauli 1978, 1980). In addition, the key position of the site In topographical terms makes it possible to trace the influence of diverse cultures and to chart the widespread contacts of the local population. It Is also of great importance that the assemblages of grave goods found at these cultural complexes, and the chronological indicators derived from them, serve as a link between the western and eastern territories. Results of Intensive field surveys and settlement excavations not only provide an Insight into everyday life in a traditional sense. Depending on the site’s specific character, they also permit observations relevant to stratigraphy, architectural techniques and relative chronology. Excavations at the so-called ‘industrial quarters’ or workshops as well as In the salt-mines are worthy of mention here. The good preservation of artefacts (e. g. wooden vessels, various implements) and palaeoecological studies carried out in such areas can reveal entirely new aspects that enhance our previous observations (Fischer 1984; Maier 1974; Pauli 1974; Zeller 1984, 1989; Stollner 1991; 1995). Figure 30.1 illustrates one of the most impressive products of local metalworking which has incorporated both stylistic and methodological elements (Moosleitner 1985, 1991; Megaw and Megaw 1989a).
Further to the east there is substantial evidence - mainly obtained from an increasing number of recent excavations - of the emergence of the early La Tene culture. In spite of local differences the overriding Impression is of cultural similarity.
Figure 30.1 Bronze wine-flagon from Grave 112 at Diirrnberg bci Hallcin, Austria (second half of the fifth century BC or early fourth century lie). Museum Carolino Augustcum,
Salzburg. (After Moosicitner 1985.)
World History
