Celtic Archeology - 5

Glauberg

Glauberg, in Germany, is like Bibracte in France. It was an oppidum, a fortified city on a hill. It also has an associated few burial mounds that were undisturbed until recently excavated. The aerial surveys I mentioned in the last archeological post led to the discovery of these mounds in 1988.

The burial mound recreated at Glauberg. There are posts in the ground around a trench that people hoped would be some sort of celestial calendar. Nope, just posts, in the ground.

There are some typical grave goods like swords made of iron, and rings made of copper, and bronze. There are belt parts and shield parts, but the amazing find is a life-sized sandstone statue made to look like the buried prince. The details on the statue match the parts found in his grave. It is a stunning statue in how well preserved it is and realistic. The Celts left very few human images in their art. That is part of what makes this item so interesting.

This is a powerful thing to behold. A statue of sandstone taller than me and quite a bit older than Jesus.

The loops above the head appear to have been iron hoops that may have held some organic material  to make him appear larger than life. The gold torc is a very interesting work of art. It has repeated human head motifs and animal figures and three pointy bits. All the evidence points to this grave being about 500BC. So just a little later than the prince at Hochdorf, but what a difference in what was interred.

A close up reveals the torc that was discovered in the grave. Amazing work for our time, let alone their time.

They did a really interesting recreation of what the princely grave looked like as it was uncovered. Of course they took pictures at every step along the way. Below you can see the torc as it was and the bones of the upper ribs and collarbones.

A recreation of the uncovering of the torc in situ.

All these new excavations have led to interesting insights into how the Celts lived. In particular there is one other artifact that stands out. There is a bronze pitcher with a thin spout that contained traces of mead that had pollen from plants from a 100 mile radius. This pitcher was almost fully intact. It is as you see in the picture. The small deformations and dents are the only damage done by centuries of burial. It is a really interesting piece of art featuring human faces on animal bodies and a crossed legged sitting human figure.

The Pitcher

Closeup of the top.

Perhaps the most interesting thing for me to learn so far is: in the writings of the Romans about the Celts there was much propaganda to smear the Celts and prepare the Romans to march against them. While Rome was conducting human sacrifices to their Gods, there is no evidence the Celts ever did. The propaganda told the opposite. The early conflicts between Rome and the Celts paved the way for the eventual wholesale slaughter of Celts and the absorption of the remainder into the Roman system.

The Celts at Glauberg maintained a fortified city on top of this hill with fortifications similar to those at Bibracte until defeated by the Romans sometime shortly after the time of Christ. The hill was abandoned because the fortified border line between the Romans and the untamed Germanic tribes was only about 3 miles away. Since those times the hill has waxed and waned in importance several times over the centuries and the burial mounds laid undisturbed right there. Today one can walk all over the top of the hill and read interpretive markers all over. It is a lovely park with excellent views.