Hunsrück-Eifel culture

The Hunsrück - Eifel culture is a regional, Iron Age cultural group in the Middle Rhine region .

overview

The Hunsrück-Eifel culture lasted around the end of the 7th century BC. Until around 250 BC Chr. And can be parallelized with the late Hallstatt period (Ha D) and the early La Tène period (Lt A and B) according to the southern German chronology .

The term 'Hunsrück-Eifel-Kultur' was coined in 1914 by Karl Schumacher . It replaced the term “Mehrener Typus” coined in the late 19th century from the Middle Rhine Hallstatt cultures. The culture and its chronology were mainly described using ceramics from graves.

The Hunsrück-Eifel culture is roughly divided into an older (HEK I) and a younger Hunsrück-Eifel culture (HEK II), the older of which corresponds to the late Hallstatt period and the younger to the early La Tène period. The transition is around 480-470 BC. Adopted. Finer subdivisions are based on three levels of the older and four levels of the younger HEK.

The older HEK developed from the previous early Iron Age Laufelder culture and was until the 6th century BC. BC still strongly caught in late Bronze Age traditions. In the second half of the 6th century BC The region came increasingly under the influence of the Hallstatt culture to the south and was, as it were, "Hallstattized". The younger HEK, on the other hand, is clearly shaped by the spring Atène culture and can be described as " Celtic ".

The Hunsrück-Eifel culture is considered to be a relatively uniform culture that developed over several centuries without any major breaks. The majority of archaeologists who dealt with it therefore assume that there was neither significant immigration nor emigration of population. The bearers of the Hunsrück-Eifel culture are also associated with the Celtic tribe of the Treveri, which is documented much later in writing .

In comparison, a large number of grave fields and a number of settlements of the Hunsrück-Eifel culture are known, so that a high population density compared to other regions and epochs is assumed.

Of particular importance is a series of "splendid graves", which began around 500 BC. And which culminated at the end of the 5th and 4th centuries BC. Found. Some of these graves are among the best equipped (with gold, imported bronzes, chariots, etc.) graves of the early La Tène period and were therefore also of importance for the study of Celtic artistic styles.

Some sites are on or not far from the Nahe-Mosel Celtic Trail .

Important sites of the Hunsrück-Eifel culture

Horath burial ground

Bell carriage grave (Hunsrück)

Burial ground from notification

Polch burial ground

Locations of the following Trevererkultur

Altburg fortification near Bundenbach
Oppidum on the Titelberg in Luxembourg
Ring wall of Otzenhausen
Cemetery of Wederath - Belginum

literature

Hans-Eckart Joachim : The Hunsrück-Eifel culture on the Middle Rhine (= Bonn yearbooks. Supplements. Vol. 29, ISSN 0067-4893 ). Böhlau, Cologne et al. 1968 (at the same time: Freiburg (Breisgau), university, dissertation, from July 29, 1966).
Alfred Haffner: The western Hunsrück-Eifel culture (= Roman-Germanic research. Vol. 36). 2 volumes (text volume, table volume). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-11-004889-2 (also: Saarbrücken, University, dissertation, 1967).
Rosemarie Cordie: Hunsrück-Eifel culture. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 15, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2000, ISBN 3-11-016649-6 , pp. 266-271.
Sabine Hornung : The southeastern Hunsrück-Eifel culture. Studies on the late Hallstatt and early La Tène periods in the German low mountain range (= university research on prehistoric archeology. Vol. 153). 2 volumes. Habelt, Bonn 2008, ISBN 978-3-7749-3462-7 .
Florian N. Schneider: New studies on the Hunsrück-Eifel culture (= Munich Archaeological Research Vol. 2). Verlag Marie Leidorf, Rahden (Westfalen) 2012, ISBN 978-3-86757-152-4 (also: Munich, University, dissertation, 2008).

Remarks

^ Karl Schumacher: Gallic and Germanic tribes and cultures in the Upper and Middle Rhine region for the later La Tène period , in: Prehistoric Journal 6 (1914) 230-292.

↑ Thomas Knopf: Continuity and Discontinuity in Archeology , Waxmann, 2002, p. 38.

↑ There are around fifty urn and body burials from the 10th to 5th centuries BC. BC, which have been excavated since 2015 (CA Jost: Rare gem of the Hunsrück-Eifel culture , in: Archeology in Germany 1 (2016) 50-51).

[1] Karl Schumacher: Gallic and Germanic tribes and cultures in the Upper and Middle Rhine region for the later La Tène period , in: Prehistoric Journal 6 (1914) 230-292.

[2] Thomas Knopf: Continuity and Discontinuity in Archeology , Waxmann, 2002, p. 38.

[3] There are around fifty urn and body burials from the 10th to 5th centuries BC. BC, which have been excavated since 2015 (CA Jost: Rare gem of the Hunsrück-Eifel culture , in: Archeology in Germany 1 (2016) 50-51).