Celtic Archeology - 2

Hochdorf

Wednesday I woke up near Stuttgart. I drove to Hochdorf and visited the Keltenmuseum there. It is a museum built around a find in 1978 of the grace of a Prince. It had lain undisturbed for about 2600 years. So many interesting things about this situation. The original burial mound was huge, but over time, farming in the area had worn it down. They have rebuilt a mound to resemble the mound as it once was.

The mound had a marker on top and posts to mark the edges.

The Celts did not leave a written record of their beliefs, practices, or even lists of who was important. Because of this burial sites have given a great deal of information about who there were and how they lived. For a bit of perspective the museum listed some contemporaries of this unknown prince: Solon, Pythagoras, Anaximander, Nebuchadnezzar, Siddhartha, and Confucius all lived within 50 years or so of this fellow.

Silhouettes of contemporaries of the prince

The grave goods were extensive and rich. They had the prince reclined on an amazing couch wrapped in many layers of amazing fabric and surrounded with drinking vessels, utensils, food and a wagon. They stacked multiple layers of rocks and wood above the grave, maybe to help obscure it from possible robbers later. In any case one would guess these people definitely had ideas about the afterlife.

The burial chamber

 There are so many interesting parts and details. Lots of iron work and gold and bronze. A couple of things that really stood out for me were the legs of the couch. They are little men, on wheels, holding up the couch. They were made using a lost wax method of casting, which means they could make many exactly alike. Wheels were a big deal in this culture and so were horses. The other amazing thing was the quality of bow and arrow they had at the time. So here are images of the little bronze man and recreated bow and arrows.

Bronze man on a wheel.

reproduced arrows

And finally for this post - the quality and detail of the fabrics in this burial is astounding. Many layers of wool, linen and hemp were wrapped around his fellow. No doubt this represented a tons of hand labor. The spinning wheel was far in the future, so people were spinning thread by hand. Then they would weave it or make complicated braids to show patterns. It is estimated that as much as 400 hours of work would be needed to get fibers into the form of a ribbon braid just a few feet long.

The ribbon on the left is about 2 inches wide and a foot and a half long and is a reproduction based on a fragment found. The photo of the fragment is next, followed by a drawing to enhance detail and finally on the right a plan for the final look.

Humans have accomplished so much over time. I have taken for granted the hard work of ancient generations that lead to all the developments that allow me to wear Hawaiian shirts. The intricate interconnectedness of so many ideas and developments that lead to our lives today leaves me humble.