9th century BC
Hallstatt culture — an Iron Age archaeological culture that developed for 500 years (approximately from 900 to 400 BC) from the Urnfield culture in Central Europe and the Balkans. It was named after the burial ground near the town of Hallstatt (German: Hallstatt), which was excavated in 1846 by the Austrian miner Johann Georg Ramsauer. The main bearers of the Hallstatt culture were Celts, and in the Balkans — also Illyrians and Thracians.
It developed on the basis of the Urnfield culture, displacing a number of autochthonous cultures — the Elp culture and others.
Closer to the 4th century BC, the Hallstatt culture disintegrates, gradually being replaced in the western regions by the La Tène culture. While the Hallstatt culture was Celtic-Illyrian in composition, the La Tène culture was Celtic-Daco-Thracian, and the Celtic-Illyrian unity was preserved only in the relatively small territory of the Atestine culture in Italy.
Two main areas of distribution of the Hallstatt culture can be distinguished:
- eastern (modern Austria, Yugoslavia, Albania, partly the Czech Republic and Slovakia), which coincides with the territory of settlement of tribes attributed to the ancient Illyrians;
- western (southern parts of Germany, the Rhine departments of France), where they are associated with Celtic tribes.
The Hallstatt culture was also distributed:
- in the eastern part of the Po River valley in Italy;
- in Hungary and part of Western Ukraine, there was a local variant — the Gava-Goligrad culture, which probably belonged to the Thracians.
Products of Hallstatt craftsmen were items of trade. For example, they are found in the Baltic region. Innovations such as bronze bits and harness, ornamental pendants (many hoards discovered in the coastal zone between the Oder and Sambia contain the same weapons, horse harness, and decorations as in northwestern and central Europe). The first iron objects reached the Baltic region (finds in Pomerania, East Prussia, and Western Lithuania) through the mediation of the Lusatian Slavs. Metal finds from the 8th and 6th centuries BC indicate the continuation of ties with the Lusatians in Central Europe and Germanic tribes. Amber products went back.
Each of these local types of the Hallstatt culture is characterized by specific forms of burial rites. The transition from bronze to iron occurred gradually, and at the initial stage of the Hallstatt culture (900-700 BC), bronze and iron tools coexisted with an increasing predominance of the latter. In the economy, agriculture was gaining increasing importance. Plow agriculture spread. In social relations, the disintegration of the clan and the transition to class society relations were taking place. Dwellings of the Hallstatt culture were wooden post houses, as well as semi-dugouts and pile dwellings. The most common type of settlement was a weakly fortified village with a regular street layout. Salt mines, copper mines, iron-smelting workshops, and forges have been well studied.
Characteristic items: bronze and iron swords with a bell-shaped or upward-curved arc handle (the so-called antenna), daggers, axes, knives, iron and copper spearheads, bronze conical helmets with wide flat brims and crests, armor made of individual bronze plates sewn onto leather, bronze vessels of various shapes, special types of fibulae, hand-molded ceramics, necklaces made of opaque glass. The art of the Hallstatt tribes was predominantly applied and ornamental, tending toward rich painting and luxury; diverse decorations made of bronze, gold, glass, bone, fibulae with animal figures, bronze belt plaques with embossed patterns, ceramic vessels — yellow or red, with polychrome, carved or stamped geometric ornaments.
The potter's wheel was used. Figurative art also appeared: tombstones, clay and bronze figurines that adorned vessels or formed compositions (the stone statue of the Hirschlanden warrior, the bronze chariot from Strettweg in Austria with a sacrificial scene, 800-600 BC); engraved or embossed friezes on clay vessels, belts, and situlae depict feasts, celebrations, warriors and farmers, sometimes people or animals, duels, scenes of war and hunting, and religious rituals. Burials of the Hallstatt culture testify to significant social stratification and the emergence of tribal nobility.
Sources:
Ethnogenesis of the Abkhazians. D.A. Arshba, 2015
Hallstatt culture — an Iron Age archaeological culture that developed for 500 years (approximately from 900 to 400 BC) from the Urnfield culture in Central Europe and the Balkans. It was named after the burial ground near the town of Hallstatt (German: Hallstatt), which was excavated in 1846 by the Austrian miner Johann Georg Ramsauer. The main bearers of the Hallstatt culture were Celts, and in the Balkans — also Illyrians and Thracians.
It developed on the basis of the Urnfield culture, displacing a number of autochthonous cultures — the Elp culture and others.
Closer to the 4th century BC, the Hallstatt culture disintegrates, gradually being replaced in the western regions by the La Tène culture. While the Hallstatt culture was Celtic-Illyrian in composition, the La Tène culture was Celtic-Daco-Thracian, and the Celtic-Illyrian unity was preserved only in the relatively small territory of the Atestine culture in Italy.
Two main areas of distribution of the Hallstatt culture can be distinguished:
- eastern (modern Austria, Yugoslavia, Albania, partly the Czech Republic and Slovakia), which coincides with the territory of settlement of tribes attributed to the ancient Illyrians;
- western (southern parts of Germany, the Rhine departments of France), where they are associated with Celtic tribes.
The Hallstatt culture was also distributed:
- in the eastern part of the Po River valley in Italy;
- in Hungary and part of Western Ukraine, there was a local variant — the Gava-Goligrad culture, which probably belonged to the Thracians.
Products of Hallstatt craftsmen were items of trade. For example, they are found in the Baltic region. Innovations such as bronze bits and harness, ornamental pendants (many hoards discovered in the coastal zone between the Oder and Sambia contain the same weapons, horse harness, and decorations as in northwestern and central Europe). The first iron objects reached the Baltic region (finds in Pomerania, East Prussia, and Western Lithuania) through the mediation of the Lusatian Slavs. Metal finds from the 8th and 6th centuries BC indicate the continuation of ties with the Lusatians in Central Europe and Germanic tribes. Amber products went back.
Each of these local types of the Hallstatt culture is characterized by specific forms of burial rites. The transition from bronze to iron occurred gradually, and at the initial stage of the Hallstatt culture (900-700 BC), bronze and iron tools coexisted with an increasing predominance of the latter. In the economy, agriculture was gaining increasing importance. Plow agriculture spread. In social relations, the disintegration of the clan and the transition to class society relations were taking place. Dwellings of the Hallstatt culture were wooden post houses, as well as semi-dugouts and pile dwellings. The most common type of settlement was a weakly fortified village with a regular street layout. Salt mines, copper mines, iron-smelting workshops, and forges have been well studied.
Characteristic items: bronze and iron swords with a bell-shaped or upward-curved arc handle (the so-called antenna), daggers, axes, knives, iron and copper spearheads, bronze conical helmets with wide flat brims and crests, armor made of individual bronze plates sewn onto leather, bronze vessels of various shapes, special types of fibulae, hand-molded ceramics, necklaces made of opaque glass. The art of the Hallstatt tribes was predominantly applied and ornamental, tending toward rich painting and luxury; diverse decorations made of bronze, gold, glass, bone, fibulae with animal figures, bronze belt plaques with embossed patterns, ceramic vessels — yellow or red, with polychrome, carved or stamped geometric ornaments.
The potter's wheel was used. Figurative art also appeared: tombstones, clay and bronze figurines that adorned vessels or formed compositions (the stone statue of the Hirschlanden warrior, the bronze chariot from Strettweg in Austria with a sacrificial scene, 800-600 BC); engraved or embossed friezes on clay vessels, belts, and situlae depict feasts, celebrations, warriors and farmers, sometimes people or animals, duels, scenes of war and hunting, and religious rituals. Burials of the Hallstatt culture testify to significant social stratification and the emergence of tribal nobility.
Sources:
Ethnogenesis of the Abkhazians. D.A. Arshba, 2015
Lusatian culture