Station: [4] Late La Tène culture

The last two centuries BC are also known as the late La Tène period. During this time, many goods other than salt were also traded in Boiodurum. Raw graphite, which was mined in the Passau region near Hauzenberg, was used in the manufacture of heat-resistant ceramics. Salt, graphite and ceramics were exported from Boiodurum across the entire Celtic world via the Danube. Celtic Passau grew to a size it would only reach again as a mediaeval town in the 12th and 13th centuries. Finds show that the Celtic settlement extended from the so-called “Ortsspitze” all the way to today’s Nikolastrasse, and even across some parts south of the River Inn. All settlement activity appears suddenly to have ceased between 50 and 30 BC – although we do not know the reason why. Had trading in Boiodurum died out, depriving the town of its economic backbone? Or did frequent flooding force the inhabitants to abandon their homes? These are questions that still remain unanswered today. The earliest Roman finds date to around AD 50. These pottery fragments suggest that the peninsula had previously been uninhabited for 70 to 100 years. Nevertheless, some elements appear to have survived this period of abandonment. The Roman fort, as well as the surrounding settlement, kept the Celtic name “Boiodurum”. The Romans also adopted the use of local tribal names for their urban settlements, known as Civitates. The continued use of the same name reflects some form of continuity between these periods.