Rare Discovery of Intact Tomb: German Archeologists Uncover Celtic Treasure

Spiegel ^ | Wednesday, December 29, 2010 | cro -- with wire reports

[SunkenCiv]

Archeologists in Germany have discovered a 2,600-year-old Celtic tomb containing ornate jewellery of gold and amber. They say the grave is unusually well preserved and should provide important insights into early Celtic culture...

The subterranean chamber measuring four by five meters was uncovered near the prehistoric Heuneburg hill fort near the town of Herbertingen in south-western Germany. Its contents including the oak floor of the room are unusually well preserved. The find is a "milestone for the reconstruction of the social history of the Celts," archeologist Dirk Krausse, the director of the dig, said on Tuesday.

The intact oak should allow archeologists to ascertain the precise age of the tomb through tree-ring dating. This is rarely possible with Celtic finds because the Celts left behind no writings and their buildings, usually made from wood and clay, have long since crumbled away.

A Vital Trading Center

Krausse said the artefacts found suggest that a woman from the Heuneburg aristocracy was buried there, but added that laboratory tests will need to be conducted to be certain. Only a small part of the chamber has so far been examined.

The entire room weighing some 80 tons was lifted by two cranes onto a flatbed truck and taken to a research facility in Ludwigsburg on Tuesday. The results of the analysis will be presented in June 2011, researchers said.

Heuneburg is regarded as one of the most important Celtic settlements and was a vital trading center during the period between 620 and 480 BC. Intensive excavation has taken place at the site since 1950. Other tombs found at Heuneburg over the decades had already been plundered.

[SunkenCiv]

Richly decorated jewellery made of gold and amber suggest that a woman was buried in the tomb, archeologists say. The subterranean chamber was uncovered at the prehistoric Heuneburg hill fort near the town of Herbertingen in south-western Germany. [Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Baden-Württemberg]

[SunkenCiv]

additional:

http://www.thelocal.de/sci-tech/20101228-32083.html

http://www.thelocal.de/articleImages/32083.jpg

[SunkenCiv]

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[JRandomFreeper]

20 square meters, decked out in Celtic gold and amber? Hasn't been cleaned in 2600 years? Sheesh. That's nicer than my place. Prolly much nicer.

Love the detail work on the orb.

/johnny

[Just mythoughts]

WOW — BTTT

[yarddog]

I used to keep up with a Scottish genealogy forum. I remember one time a German posted that he was not Scottish but noticed they had just found a Celtic tomb only a few hundred yards from his house.

This must have been 6 or 7 years ago.

[Fred Nerks]

"...Among the potsherds form the Heuneburg is a small scattering of Greek pottery, all of it either drinking or banqueting vessels (Wehgartner et al. 1995, 70.116 ff.). Part of the rim and body of an Attic kylix of the Kleinmeisterschalen type, dating to ca. 540 BCE, is one of the best-preserved among them. The scene was a generic black-figure palaistra scene; preserved are a judge and part of a wrestler..."

source

Greek? I'm surprised.

[SnuffaBolshevik]

"I remember one time a German posted that he was not Scottish...."

So it is possible to be a Teutonic cheapskate, after all? ;)

[decimon]

There musta been a lotta trading or raiding going on.

[wildbill]

If you go to the original article, the photo slide show is mostly pictues of the moving of the entire 80 ton tomb.

Sort of gives the term ‘grave robbing’ a whole new meaining.

[blam]

[Fred Nerks]

Mitterkirchen, Austria. Tumulus X/1, in Mitterkirchen (Upper Austria). Reconstruction of tomb chamber.

source

[SunkenCiv]

The Celts lost, get over it. ;’)

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks! The Celts had craft of their own (they were the first to make a single-piece wagon wheel rim, for example), and trade results from having any two people (or towns, or tribes) wanting something without having to fight for it.

[SunkenCiv]

The Viking-area burials were similar, suggesting either common origins, or a borrowing from the earlier Celtic culture.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!

[Fred Nerks]

http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/Barbarians/first.html

there is a brilliant graphic of a wagon on this website somewhere...but I can’t find it again, I find the site difficult to navigate.

Something about it reminded me of the peasant (Bauer) wagons of Bavaria.

[bert]

-——They say the grave is unusually well preserved——

a rather hypocritical statement in the light of the site being haule4d away on a truck. The grave was in fact destroyed

[bert]

“She” seems to have liked Greek antiques

[Western Phil]

The entire room weighing some 80 tons was lifted by two cranes onto a flatbed truck and taken to a research facility in Ludwigsburg on Tuesday. The results of the analysis will be presented in June 2011, researchers said.

21st century tomb plundering.