Station: [40] Celts in the Iron Age: The Hallstatt Period

Between roughly 800 and 14 BC, the Iron Age followed on from the Bronze Age. Iron—which was now the main material-– became the universal primary commodity used for tools, weapons and jewellery.

The Iron Age is the first period in which we have a name for one of the peoples behind the archaeological finds. In the 5th century BC, Greek authors wrote about the Celts. Because settlement habits, burial customs, metalwork and pottery shapes developed continuously from the 8th to the early 4th century BC, we can assume a corresponding continuity of population.

The settlement landscape of the Hallstatt period in northern Bavaria is characterised by isolated farmsteads and small hamlets. One striking feature is the absence of fortified hilltop settlements in the region. Only a few prominent hilltop sites in northern Bavaria have ever produced Hallstatt period finds.

Hallstatt burials, which were often marked with barrows as visible grave monuments, sometimes include rich grave furnishings, such as wooden chariots or rich women's jewellery.

In the mid-4th century BC, settlement activity across the whole of north-eastern Bavaria and the eastern Upper Palatinate suddenly came to an abrupt stop. This halt is generally associated with the Celtic migrations. The area probably wasn’t resettled until more than a century later, in the 3rd century BC, beginning with a few central locations.

During the first century BC, the Celts again found themselves under pressure. An incursion of Germanic tribes from the north forced them on to the defensive after about 50 BC, and some of them migrated out of the region. In 15 BC, Roman legions marched into southern Bavaria, bringing the prehistoric period to an end and heralding the start of recorded history.