Bogucki P., Crabtree P. Ancient Europe 8000 B.C.-A.D. 1000: Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World. Volume 2
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Principal coinages in the different regions of Iron Age Europe.
THE “SILVER” ZONE
The earliest Iron Age coinages began during the late
fourth century
B.C. in the modern Balkans and were
faithful imitations of posthumous silver tetra-
drachms of Philip II of Macedon, with a bearded
head on one side and a horseman on the other.
They were not so much a local coinage as substi-
tutes for the real thing. The first unmistakably na-
tive coinages emerged in the early third century
B.C.
They were all based on the same model, except in
the regions closest to the Black Sea, where the silver
tetradrachms of Alexander the Great or his succes-
sor, Philip III Arrhidaeus, provided the preferred
model; these portray a seated figure instead of the
horseman. A few Greek gold types also were copied
in this area, but this production quickly ceased.
Over the next century silver coinage spread
through eastern Europe, sometimes employing
other Greek models. The overall volume increased
markedly, and distinctive regional traditions devel-
oped, stylistically much further removed from their
prototypes, such as the initially dumpy and later
broader scyphate (dished) coinages found in the
southeastern Carpathians or the facing and double-
headed issues found in Moesia. Eventually, in the
first century
B.C., many groups first abandoned Hel-
lenistic models in exchange for Roman types and
added legends; they then stopped striking coinage
altogether. Silver fractional units or bimetallic coin-
ages in gold and silver, such as the Biatec series of
Bohemia and southern Slovakia, also occur, but
bronze coins are seen only in Pannonia.
Elsewhere in the silver zone the initial models
were provided mainly by the coinages of various
Greek colonies. The Celtic inhabitants of northern
Italy adopted silver types imitated from the drachms
of Massalia, to which legends in Italiote characters
later were added; the Massalia drachms also influ-
enced the weight standard of the first silver coinages
of the Rhône Valley. In southwestern France several
peoples issued coinages with a distinctive cross-
shaped emblem on one side, copied from the Greek
colony of Rhode (Rosas) in northeastern Spain.
This series probably started in the third century
B.C.
and lasted to the early first century
B.C. The peoples
of west-central France opted instead to copy coins
issued by the neighboring colony at Emporion; sub-
sequently this coinage provided the model for the
first small-scale silver coinages in Britain and north-
ern France.
THE “GOLD” ZONE
In western Europe the earliest Iron Age coinages
were gold staters or, more rarely, divisions copied
from pieces struck by Philip II of Macedon and his
successors from c. 340
B.C. onward, with a head on
one side and a two-horse chariot on the other.
These imitations even faithfully reproduce the sym-
bols used by particular Greek mints, allowing differ-
ent groups of primary copies to be identified, dis-
persed over an area extending from southwestern
Germany through northern Switzerland and eastern
and central France as far as the Atlantic coast. As in
eastern Europe, distinctive regional traditions grad-
ually developed, as, for example, in Picardy, where
the designs also were influenced by the Greek coin-
age of southern Italy, or in Brittany, where debased
alloys of silver and bronze replaced gold.
In central Europe developments followed a
more diverse pattern. The earliest Iron Age coins in
Moravia and Bohemia copy a gold stater of Alexan-
der the Great with Victory standing on one side;
6: THE EUROPEAN IRON AGE, C. 800 B.C.– A.D. 400
170
ANCIENT EUROPE
these coins were in their turn copied in other areas,
such as the Upper Danube. In the late third century
B.C. the Alexander copies were supplanted by Biatec
superficially similar types, influenced by both Greek
and Roman coinage. These “Alkis” types them-
selves had various derivatives, including virtually
formless coins shaped somewhat like mussels (in-
cluding ultimately the series mentioned earlier).
The influence of late-third-century
B.C. Roman
coinage also is apparent on a series of tiny gold coins
(about
1
⁄
24
of a stater) from southern Germany bear-
ing a double head, soon supplanted by concave
coins with affinities to the “mussels” tradition,
known as “rainbow cups.” The rainbow cup coin-
age in due course spread into the middle Rhineland
and eventually surfaced—in very debased form—in
the Netherlands.
The minting of Greek-style gold coinage in
western and central Europe apparently began short-
ly after the initial copying of silver in eastern Eu-
rope, suggesting that broadly similar processes were
at work. One possibility is that barbarians serving as
mercenaries for various Hellenistic rulers in the wars
following the death of Alexander the Great in 323
B.C. became accustomed to being paid off in pre-
cious metal coins and introduced the concept to
their home territories, whence the practice gradual-
ly spread. The extensive migrations of Celtic-
speaking peoples around the same time may be an-
other relevant factor. Neither idea explains why the
peoples over such large regions systematically opted
for particular models—although, in more general
terms, it is easy to see why motifs such as severed
heads, mounted warriors, and chariots on the rele-
vant prototypes must have appealed to them.
LATER DEVELOPMENTS IN
WESTERN EUROPE
In the early to middle second century B.C. various
peoples in east-central and northern France and the
extreme southeast of Britain began to make cast
bronze coinage, known as potin after its high tin
content. These started as close copies of the bronze
coinage of Massalia, but various regional traditions,
often with purely native designs, soon emerged.
Slightly later several groups in the Rhône Valley and
east-central France began striking inscribed silver
coinages on a weight standard close to half the
Roman denarius (which weighed about 4 grams),
Fig. 1. Silver coin of Biatec, Czech Republic. © COPYRIGHT THE
BRITISH MUSEUM. REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION.
many of them clearly directly inspired by Roman
types. These so-called quinarius coinages soon
spread into other areas, such as the Rhineland, or as
in central and western France, stimulated compara-
ble silver coinages on a slightly different weight
standard. By the early first century
B.C. these new
silver coinages had all but ousted gold, apart from
in regions north of the Seine (including Britain),
where gold remained the preferred metal.
The Roman conquest of France in the middle
of the first century B.C. brought further changes.
COINAGE OF IRON AGE EUROPE
ANCIENT EUROPE
171
Fig. 2. Potin coin of the Remi, northern France. © COPYRIGHT
THE BRITISH MUSEUM. REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION.
Across central France quinarius types proliferated
and in places even expanded in volume, while every-
where potin was replaced by struck bronze coinage,
which until then had been confined to a few areas,
such as western Picardy. Unlike potin, which often
circulated over very large areas, many of the new
struck bronze issues were quite localized, and some
show strong Roman influence. At this stage a few
northern rulers, who were probably Roman client
kings (the title commonly given to barbarian rulers
who had entered into treaties of friendship with
Rome), issued trimetallic sets of gold, silver, and
bronze coinage.
With the organization of conquered peoples
and Roman allies alike into full Roman provinces,
native minting rapidly declined. By the beginning of
the first century
A.D. most Iron Age peoples inside
and beyond the boundaries of the empire had
stopped issuing coinage altogether or had turned to
producing versions of official Roman bronze types.
The sole exception was Britain, where in the regions
closest to the Continent, Roman client kings issued
coinages with Romanized designs and legends, al-
though the other regional coinages retained their
traditional types up until the Roman conquest of
the island. Under Roman influence, the kingdoms
around the Thames estuary seem to have evolved a
more complex system of denominations, with nu-
merous base metal types struck in copper or brass as
well as in bronze or at different weights; elsewhere
in Britain, however, only gold and silver units and
divisions were minted.
THE ROLE OF IRON AGE COINAGE
The function of Iron Age coinage is the subject of
controversy. The distribution of different types of
coins and the kinds of archaeological sites at which
they occur provide the best sources of evidence, but
the resultant picture is biased toward the location
where the coins finally were abandoned, which is
not necessarily where they were used. From study-
ing the contexts of discovery, it is clear that most
Iron Age gold and silver finds, and many base metal
coins as well, were not casual losses but were depos-
ited intentionally by their users, whether for votive
reasons or for security. This applies even to settle-
ment finds. Another problem is that in the earlier
period only a tiny proportion of coinage was ever
deposited—most of it presumably was recycled—
further limiting what can be said about the likely
uses.
Because coins were predominantly precious
metal and thus presumably of high value, the princi-
pal reason for issuing Iron Age coinages cannot
have been to facilitate exchange, either local or in-
terregional. Like Greek and Roman coinage, Iron
Age coinage is far more likely to have been minted
to enable its issuers to make various types of pay-
6: THE EUROPEAN IRON AGE, C. 800 B.C.– A.D. 400
172
ANCIENT EUROPE
ment as well as providing a convenient store of
wealth. While the context in which coinage was
adopted suggests that securing or rewarding mili-
tary services was one of its main functions, the na-
ture of the finds leaves little doubt that gold and sil-
ver soon were used in many other forms of social
and political transactions between members of the
elite, often over long distances, and also as religious
offerings to their gods.
Although potin coinages were of base metal,
their silvery appearance and widespread distribu-
tions imply that they, too, were intended primarily
for discharging social and perhaps religious obliga-
tions. Most struck bronze coinages, on the other
hand, are found close to their places of origin and
are associated in particular with the leading centers
and settlements. This suggests that they were used
in a more limited range of payments than other
types of Iron Age coinage and only in places where
their face values were guaranteed by the issuers.
See also Coinage of the Early Middle Ages (vol. 2, part
7); Agriculture (vol. 2, part 7).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Allen, Derek F. The Coins of the Ancient Celts. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 1980.
Clogg, P. W., and Colin C. Haselgrove. “The Composition
of Iron Age Struck ‘Bronze’ Coinage in Eastern En-
gland.” Oxford Journal of Archaeology 14, no. 1 (1995):
41–62.
Creighton, John. Coins and Power in Late Iron Age Britain.
Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Fischer, Brigitte. “Les différents monétaires des premières
imitations du statère de Philippe II de Macédoine.”
Études celtiques 28 (1991): 137–156.
Haselgrove, Colin C. “The Incidence of Iron Age Coinage
on Archaeological Sites in Belgic Gaul.” In Die Kelten
und Rom: Neue numismatische Forschungen. Edited by
J. Metzler and D. Wigg. Studien zu Fundmünzen der
Antike. Mainz: Academy of Science and Literature
(Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literature),
forthcoming.
———. “The Development of Iron Age Coinage in Belgic
Gaul.” Numismatic Chronicle 159 (1999): 111–168.
———. Iron Age Coinage in South-East England: The Ar-
chaeological Context. BAR British Series, no. 174. Ox-
ford: British Archaeological Reports, 1987.
Nash, Daphne. Coinage in the Celtic World. London: Seaby,
1987.
———. Settlement and Coinage in Central Gaul c. 200–50
B.C. BAR Supplementary Series, no. 39. Oxford: British
Archaeological Reports, 1978.
Roymans, N. “Man, Cattle, and the Supernatural in the
Northwest European Plain.” In Settlement and Land-
scape: Proceedings of a Conference in A
˚
rhus, Denmark,
May 4–7,1998. Edited by Charlotte Fabech and Jytte
Ringtved, pp. 291–300. Ho
⁄
jbjerg, Denmark: Jutland
Archaeological Society, 1999.
C
OLIN HASELGROVE
COINAGE OF IRON AGE EUROPE
ANCIENT EUROPE
173
THE EUROPEAN IRON AGE, C. 800 B.C.– A.D. 400
RITUAL SITES: VIERECKSCHANZEN
■
Viereckschanzen is a German word (Viereckschanze
in its singular form) that may be translated as “recti-
linear enclosures.” The term refers to enigmatic
Late Iron Age “ditch-and-berm” constructions and
associated archaeological deposits that are still visi-
ble in central and western European landscapes.
CULTURAL AFFILIATION, DATE,
AND DISTRIBUTION
The Viereckschanzen are associated with pre-Roman
Celtic populations living at the end of the Iron Age
who produced a material culture known as the Late
La Tène culture. Precise dendrochronological (tree-
ring dating) measurements of oak timbers preserved
in wells at four Viereckschanzen in southern Germa-
ny (Riedlingen, Fellbach-Schmiden, Plattling-
Pankofen, and Pocking-Hartkirchen) range across a
130-year period, from 181 to 51
B.C. These dates
correspond to the La Tène C2 and D1 horizons of
the central European Iron Age chronology and in-
dicate that the Viereckschanzen were contempo-
raries of the large, defended settlements known as
oppida.
Southern Germany, including the states of Ba-
varia and Baden-Württemberg, is the main focus of
the distribution of Viereckschanzen, where approxi-
mately five hundred enclosures have been identi-
fied. Significantly smaller numbers of sites are pres-
ent in the Czech Republic and Moravia (to the east)
and in northern Switzerland (to the south). Recti-
linear enclosures, known in the French as enceinte
quadrilaterale or enceinte carrées, also exist in east-
ern and northern France, but these terms are used
to describe a variety of sites dating to the final mil-
lennium
B.C. The classic southern German Viereck-
schanze can be differentiated from Belgic sanctuaries
of northeastern Gaul, such as Gournay-sur-Aronde,
by the Viereckschanze’s larger size and lack of struc-
tured deposits of weaponry and animal remains.
DESCRIPTION
The classic Viereckschanze is identifiable by its stan-
dardized form and construction (fig. 1). A typical
enclosure was created by excavation of a steep-
sided, V-shaped ditch in a square, rectangular, or
slightly trapezoidal form. The excavated soil was
placed on the inside edge of the ditch, forming a
simple earthen berm or rampart. Ditches were
maintained through periodic re-excavation. There is
some evidence that a wooden palisade or other su-
perstructure was placed along the top of the rampart
to increase the height of the walls. Although the
ditch was continuous, a single opening was left in
the rampart. This opening was usually in the eastern
or southern side of the enclosure, but never to the
north. Access to the interior required construction
of a wooden causeway over the ditch, which led to
a small timbered gatehouse erected within the
opening of the rampart. Dimensions of the enclo-
sures range from less than 50 meters to more than
100 meters on a side, but most sites are between 80
and 100 meters across and enclose about 1 hectare.
At some sites, a rectilinear palisade predated the
ditched enclosure. About 5 percent of all enclosures
have one or more internal divisions or external an-
nexes, such as at Plattling-Pankofen in Bavaria and
Msˇecké Z
ˇ
ehrovice in Bohemia (Czech Republic).
174
ANCIENT EUROPE
Fig. 1. An artist’s interpretation of the Viereckschanze at Winden (“Vinida”) in southeastern
Germany based on aerial photographs and the results of excavations at other enclosures in
Germany. The Winden enclosure measures about 80 × 80 meters. The drawing illustrates the
characteristic shape and construction of a Viereckschanze with an uninterrupted rectilinear ditch,
inner walls and gatehouse, and scattered interior buildings aligned with the enclosure’s walls. The
artist has placed the Viereckschanze within a larger settlement following the current
interpretation of excavated sites such as Bopfingen-Flochberg. © RUDOLF MÜNCH. REPRODUCED BY
PERMISSION
.
Viereckschanzen exhibit considerable diversity
in the quantity, character, and arrangement of fea-
tures in their interiors, such as post-built structures,
wells, pits, and hearths. Sites such as Holzhausen,
Arnstorf-Wiedmais, and Fellbach-Schmiden had
few preserved features within their excavated interi-
ors, perhaps an indication of short-term or intermit-
tent occupation. Other sites, such as Bopfingen-
Flochberg and Plattling-Pankofen, contained evi-
dence of more intensive, long-term activities and
greater accumulation of cultural debris. Well shafts
(often wood lined) and distinctive buildings with
wraparound porches or ambulatories are known
from a number of excavated sites, but they are not
found in all enclosures.
PHYSICAL SETTING
Viereckschanzen are found in a variety of landscape
settings, including stream terraces, broad loess
plains, and upland slopes and ridge crests. A signifi-
RITUAL SITES: VIERECKSCHANZEN
ANCIENT EUROPE
175
cant number of sites in upland settings were estab-
lished near natural springs, suggesting that the pro-
visioning of water was an important consideration
in site location. Sites in poorly watered locations
often had wells placed in their interiors. Most enclo-
sures that remain intact are sited in forested uplands
on terrain unsuited to modern agriculture. Since the
early 1980s, intensive aerial reconnaissance and
large-scale excavations of cultivated portions of
southern Germany have led to the discovery of
many Viereckschanzen that had been leveled by
plowing.
The ditch and wall suggest that defense was an
important function of a Viereckschanze; however,
the topographic placement of many enclosures
shows that they were not effective fortifications. In
southwestern Germany, approximately 40 percent
of known enclosures are located on low-lying or
sloped terrain, where their interiors would have
been vulnerable to attack by ranged weapons (such
as javelin, arrow, and slingshot). Viereckschanzen
generally do not take advantage of the most strate-
gically valuable terrain, so it is likely that defense was
not a primary motive for their construction.
The location of Viereckschanzen in the cultural
landscape provides clues to the nature of the enclo-
sures. Earlier investigators used the distribution of
preserved enclosures in the forests of southern Ger-
many to suggest that the sites were placed in remote
locations separate from settlement areas. The distri-
bution of known sites extends into the most fertile
agricultural regions. Walter Irlinger has pointed out
the close geographic relationship between Viereck-
schanzen and undefended rural settlements. These
types of site are either found near to one another or
are mutually visible and connected through lines of
sight. Some enclosures are even located within large
settlement complexes, such as at Bopfingen-
Flochberg and Plattling-Pankofen.
Viereckschanzen were also placed in apparent
reference to older monuments, such as tumulus
cemeteries from the Middle Bronze and Early Iron
Ages. The situation at the Hohmichele (Heilig-
kreutztal-Speckhau) in Baden-Württemberg, one of
the largest Early Iron Age burial mounds in western
Europe, is the most dramatic example of this corre-
spondence between a Viereckschanze and earlier
burial monuments.
MATERIAL CULTURE
The material culture of excavated Viereckschanzen
includes common categories, such as pottery, met-
alwork (bronze and iron), glass, coins, and animal
bone. Excavators often lament the lack of finds from
Viereckschanzen, but excavations of enclosures with-
in larger settlement complexes have yielded more
extensive and diverse artifact assemblages. Few de-
tailed analyses of the material culture or even com-
prehensive excavation catalogs from Viereckschan-
zen have been published, so it is very difficult to
assess in what ways the enclosures may be similar to,
or different from, other kinds of Late Iron Age sites.
Artifacts from Msˇecké Z
ˇ
ehrovice apparently re-
flect a prosperous rural habitation in Bohemia. In
contrast, the composition of published ceramic as-
semblages from some enclosures in southern Ger-
many is different from other settlements of the peri-
od. Metalwork, such as tools, weaponry, and
jewelry, that is common at larger settlements is rare
in Viereckschanzen, although small hoards of iron
implements have been found in a few enclosures.
The faunal assemblages generally reflect normal
proportions of animal species (such as pig and cat-
tle) present at contemporary settlements, but there
is an unusually large proportion of horse in the small
assemblage from the newly excavated enclosure at
Plattling-Pankofen. No Viereckschanzen have yield-
ed deposits of animal parts that compare to patterns
of ritual consumption and sacrifice at Belgic sanctu-
aries like Gournay-sur-Aronde. Human remains
within Viereckschanzen are infrequent, although
they are relatively common at the larger settlements,
such as oppida. Celebrated finds of three-
dimensional artwork, such as the stone head from
outside the Msˇecké Z
ˇ
ehrovice enclosure and wood-
en carvings within the well at Fellbach-Schmiden,
have generated much interest, but these discoveries
are unique and provide little insight into the nature
of other Viereckschanzen.
HISTORY OF INVESTIGATION AND
INTERPRETATION
In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth
century, German scholars developed a lively but
speculative debate about the date and nature of the
Viereckschanzen. They were originally interpreted as
Roman storehouses or forts and eventually as indig-
enous Celtic stockyards, farms, cultic places, or for-
tifications constructed during the Roman conquest.
6: THE EUROPEAN IRON AGE, C. 800 B.C.– A.D. 400
176
ANCIENT EUROPE
From 1957 to 1963, Klaus Schwarz conducted
the first large-scale excavation of a well-preserved
Viereckschanze at Holzhausen. Although there were
few features and artifacts in the excavated portion of
the interior, Schwarz uncovered three shafts (7 to
35 meters deep), a large post-built structure with a
wraparound porch or ambulatory, and several
hearths and burned areas. Schwarz believed that the
Viereckschanze represented a Celtic sanctuary, or te-
menos, copied from Mediterranean examples and
characterized by a cultic triad consisting of a temple
with ambulatory (Umgangstempel), a ritual shaft,
and devotional offerings or sacrifice. Schwarz’s en-
thusiastic arguments for Viereckschanzen as Celtic
religious sanctuaries colored their interpretation for
the next three decades.
From the late 1950s to the 1980s, substantial
portions of several Viereckschanzen were excavated
in southern Germany. Although interpretations of
the sites adhered faithfully to Schwarz’s cult model,
excavations showed that the interiors were charac-
terized by considerable variability. Investigators dis-
covered shafts similar to those at Holzhausen in a
few enclosures (that is, Dornstadt-Tomerdingen,
Fellbach-Schmiden, and Arnstorf-Wiedmais) but
not in others (such as Ehningen). The discovery of
a wooden bucket and well-house timbers in the base
of the Fellbach-Schmiden shaft indicated that it was
originally a well. Some sites had numerous buildings
and associated features, while others were sparsely
built or contained no identifiable structures. Build-
ings with ambulatories were reported at about half
of the sites. All Viereckschanzen yielded relatively
few artifacts compared to other Late Iron Age sites.
In the early 1990s, large-scale excavations in
southern Germany (that is, Bopfingen-Flochberg,
Plattling-Pankofen, and Nordheim) yielded evi-
dence of Viereckschanzen embedded in larger settle-
ment areas, and investigators began to question the
assumed cultic nature of the Viereckschanze. Also,
the cultic triad originally proposed by Schwarz for
Holzhausen could not be consistently identified at
an increasing number of excavated Viereckschanzen.
Reflecting on the excavation of Bopfingen-
Flochberg, Günther Wieland suggested that Vie-
reckschanzen were focal points for groupings of as-
sociated farming communities. These “rural cen-
ters” embodied a multiplicity of functions:
habitation, storage, sanctuary, refuge, communal
ceremonies, and the protection of water sources,
such as wells and springs. The model of Viereck-
schanze as rural center must be tested against fine-
scale chronological studies of feature components at
complex sites like Bopfingen-Flochberg. Since the
traditional “relative” chronology for the Late La
Tène horizon based on artifact typologies ranges
across several generations (100 to 150 years), it is
possible that individual settlement units and the
Viereckschanze were actually occupied at different
times. Evidence that some enclosures were used as
habitations also comes from the eastern limit of the
distribution of Viereckschanzen, where Natalie Ven-
clová and her colleagues interpret the enclosure at
Msˇecké Z
ˇ
ehrovice in Bohemia as an elite rural-
industrial residence.
When pottery assemblages from Viereckschan-
zen are compared to those from other settlements
of the time, certain differences between the assem-
blages may indicate that Viereckschanzen were used
for communal rituals, such as feasting, which could
explain their central role in some Late Iron Age set-
tlement complexes. However, Venclová has criti-
cized the suggestion that pottery from Viereck-
schanzen is distinguishable from domestic assem-
blages.
The Viereckschanzen were prominent elements
of the Late Iron Age landscape in southern Germa-
ny and adjacent regions, and they probably served
multiple functions. They were integrated into con-
temporary settlement systems and were also placed
to take advantage of preexisting funerary monu-
ments. Although there is a range of complexity in
interior layout and material culture, all Viereck-
schanzen shared a similar conception, which was the
act of enclosing space through construction of a
ditch and rampart into which access was restricted.
This act of enclosing was based on a tightly con-
trolled construction template that had no uniform
defensive purpose but instead created a systemati-
cally delineated and enduring place in the land-
scape.
See also Dating and Chronology (vol. 1, part 1); Oppida
(vol. 2, part 6).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bittel, Kurt, Siegwald Schiek, and Dieter Müller. Die kelt-
ischen Viereckschanzen. Stuttgart, Germany: Kommis-
sionsverlag K. Theiss, 1990. (A comprehensive catalog
RITUAL SITES: VIERECKSCHANZEN
ANCIENT EUROPE
177
of all known Viereckschanzen in Baden-Württemberg in
southwestern Germany. Includes many informative es-
says about the construction, layout, setting and topog-
raphy, artifact assemblages, and chronology.)
Irlinger, Walter. “Viereckschanze und Siedlung—
Überlegungen zu einem forschungsgeschichtlichen
Problem anhand ausgewählter südbayerischer Fun-
dorte.” In Festschrift für Otto-Herman Frey zum 65. Ge-
burtstag. Edited by Claus Dobiat and Dirk Vorlauf, pp.
285–304. Marburg, Germany: Hitzeroth, 1994.
Murray, Matthew L. “Viereckschanzen and Feasting: Socio-
Political Ritual in Iron-Age Central Europe.” Journal of
European Archaeology 3, no. 2 (1995): 125–151. (The
only English-language summary of Viereckschanzen re-
search; includes an original analysis of ceramic assem-
blages that suggests Viereckschanzen were feasting
places.)
Rieckhoff-Pauli, Sabine, and Jörg Biel. Die Kelten in
Deutschland. Stuttgart, Germany: Theiss, 2001. (A
summary of the Iron Age archaeological record in Ger-
many. Provides important background context to the
Viereckschanzen.)
Schwarz, Klaus. “Die geschichte eines keltischen temenos im
nördlichen Alpenvorland.” Ausgrabungen in Deutsch-
land. Vol. 1. Mainz, Germany: Römisch-Germanisches
Zentralmuseums, 1975. (A summary of excavations at
the important site of Holzhausen, which was the basis
for the persistent interpretation of Viereckschanzen as
religious sanctuaries until the early 1990s, an idea dis-
puted by Günther Wieland in his 1999 book.)
Venclová, Natalie. Mˇsecké Z
ˇ
ehrovice in Bohemia: Archaeolog-
ical Background to a Celtic Hero, 3rd–2nd Cent.
B.C.
Sceaux, France: Kronos Editions, 1998. (A comprehen-
sive English-language report of excavations conducted
at a multiple enclosure in the Czech Republic; presents
the author’s belief that the site is an elite rural-industrial
household.)
———. “On Enclosures, Pots, and Trees in the Forest.”
Journal of European Archaeology 5, no. 1 (1997): 131–
150. (A critique of Matthew L. Murray’s idea that feast-
ing can be identified in the ceramic assemblages of
Viereckschanzen in southern Germany. Argues that
the assemblages from Viereckschanzen cannot be distin-
guished from settlement remains.)
Wieland, Günther, ed. Keltische Viereckschanzen:Einem Rät-
sel auf der Spur. Stuttgart, Germany: Theiss, 1999.
(Presents the argument that Viereckschanzen were cen-
tral foci within associated rural communities. Provides
useful summaries of many of the most important
Viereckschanzen, including all sites mentioned in this
entry.)
M
ATTHEW L. MURRAY
6: THE EUROPEAN IRON AGE, C. 800 B.C.– A.D. 400
178
ANCIENT EUROPE
THE EUROPEAN IRON AGE, C. 800 B.C.– A.D. 400
IRON AGE FEASTING
■
Communal drinking and feasting, particularly the
regulated distribution of alcoholic beverages, were
central to establishing and maintaining social rela-
tionships in Iron Age Europe and the British Isles.
The symbolic concepts and the material culture as-
sociated with the distribution of alcohol as a social
lubricant characterize intergroup and intragroup
competition from the Neolithic until at least the
ninth century
A.D. on the Continent and into the fif-
teenth century in Britain and Ireland. There are
three primary sources of information on this sub-
ject: First there is archaeological evidence in the
form of drinking and feasting equipment from buri-
als and, to a lesser extent, from settlements and ritu-
al sites and in the form of iconographic representa-
tions of feasts and drinking equipment. Second are
Greek and Roman accounts of the drinking habits
of the “barbarian” peoples with whom they had in-
creasing contact after the sixth century
B.C. And,
last, there are the epics, law texts, and other written
sources produced by the Celtic- and Germanic-
speaking societies in the early Christian period.
Scholars have focused their attention on the identi-
fication of the alcoholic beverages available, the ma-
terial culture associated with the production and
consumption of those beverages, and their distribu-
tion and function in society, including the social
conventions and behavioral norms accompanying
drinking and feasting. The focus of study includes
attitudes toward drinking and alcohol abuse, the
ideological significance of the production of alco-
holic beverages, the equipment used to dispense
and consume it, and the physiological response to
alcohol itself.
ALE, MEAD, AND WINE
The alcoholic beverages available to northern and
central European peoples before contact with the
wine-growing Mediterranean cultures were of two
types: honey mead and beer or, more accurately, ale,
a fermented barley beverage brewed without hops,
an addition to the brewing process that does not ap-
pear until historic times. Mead was primarily an elite
drink because it was produced from honey taken
from the hives of wild bees, the only form of sweet-
ener available to prehistoric European peoples and
therefore a valuable commodity. Ale has a very short
shelf life in the absence of refrigeration, and without
the addition of hops, which acts as a preservative as
well as a flavoring agent, this seasonally available
beverage was consumed relatively soon after being
produced. Wine was a luxury import before the in-
troduction by the Romans of viticulture, the grow-
ing of the wine vine, to France and Germany. The
different beverages available account in part for the
northern European “binge drinking” pattern com-
pared with customs in the Mediterranean, where
wine was consumed with meals on a daily basis and
moderate consumption patterns tended to be the
norm.
CLASSICAL SOURCES
Greek and Roman writers are virtually unanimous
in their condemnation of Celtic and Germanic
drinking practices. They derogatorily claimed that
“barbarians” drank beer by choice; took their wine
neat rather than mixed with water, according to the
Mediterranean custom; imbibed to excess and en-
gaged in boasting and brawling while under the in-
ANCIENT EUROPE
179