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Projects

Celts, Crops and Centralisation

Among the settlements of the ‘Celts’, the oppida, which emerged in Central Europe from around 150 BC, are particularly famous. They played an important role as fortifications, craft and trading centres, and in some cases as tribal centres. Long before the first oppida were founded, however, an equally significant transformation took place in the settlement structure of the Late Iron Age. This refers to the emergence of large lowland settlements in the 3rd century BC, where the first sanctuaries and mints flourished in the La Tène culture. They often arose out of nowhere but were located in the midst of fertile farmland. A core region of this development is the ‘amber corridor’ between Silesia, Moravia and Lower Austria.

Most archaeologists assume that a boom in production and trade were the main factors behind the emergence of these agglomerations or central settlements. In our project, however, we want to look at the phenomenon from the perspective of agriculture and land use. Could improvements in agriculture, accompanied by more surplus production, have been not only an effect but even the cause of the emergence of these densely populated settlements? After all, the late Iron Age was a predominantly agrarian society, and without surpluses, further specialisation in crafts would have been inconceivable.

Since Iron Age agriculture and land use were complex systems, testing this hypothesis requires the collaboration of many disciplines. Based on archaeological findings, the settlement structure, population density and storage facilities will therefore be investigated. Archaeobotanical analyses will contribute to the reconstruction of agriculture, with systematic isotope analyses of charred plant remains being carried out in the study area for the first time. Finally, from a palaeoecological perspective, vegetation and land use will be examined in selected sediment archives. Only by combining these three approaches will it be possible to capture agricultural production in a model and make comparisons with historical periods.

The project is being carried out by researchers from the University of Innsbruck, Masaryk University in Brno, and the Czech and Austrian Academies of Sciences in collaboration with specialists from Slovakia and Hungary. One challenge is to standardise the archaeological database across national borders and close gaps in the source material. The result should shed new light on the role of agriculture and provide a new historical assessment of the period of change in the 3rd century BC.