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[German version] These mound dwellings (German: Wurte) originated as individual farms in the marshes between Denmark and the Netherlands (where they are called terpen) in the Germanic settlement area along the southern North Sea coast in the 2nd/1st cents. BC during regression phases of the North Sea. In the course of subsequent cents., these locations were deliberately elevated into settlement mounds because of the rise in sea level and increasing numbers of storm floods. Mounds of several meters height that could co…

[German version] Coloured molten glass decoration applied to metal (mostly bronze). The Celtic  La Tène Culture (late 5th-1st cent. BC) was the heyday for enamel in Central Europe, the knowledge for it possibly originating in the Achaemenid East. The Celts used almost only red enamel (‘blood-enamel’), probably because of its similarity to  Coral.  Jewellery (fibulae, necklaces, parts of belts etc.), bronze vessels, and  weapons (helmets, swords) etc. were decorated with enamel. Workshops for enamel were found in   oppida in particular ( Bibracte). Ename…

I. Roman [German version] [I 1] According to Veg. Mil. 3,8 ( Nam a castris diminutivo vocabulo sunt nuncupata castella) the castella are relatively small camps that are probably distinguishable from the permanent auxiliary camps and tended to be established in a rather ad hoc manner to secure supplies or as part of a larger fortification (Veg. Mil. ibid.). Castella are probably comparable in size and number of garrisons with the ‘small citadels’ of the limes or the burgi (Veg. Mil. 4,10: castellum parvulum, quem burgum vocant). Herz, Peter (Regensburg) [German version] [I 2] Rural part o…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Princely graves, Princely seats The G. is an early Celtic (5th cent. BC) princely seat with a princely grave ( Princes, tombs and residences of; s. also the map) that lies a good 30 km north of Frankfurt/Main on the eastern edge of Wetterau in Hesse. The G. rises as a high plateau c. 150 m over the plain; it comprises an area of c. 8 ha. Initial excavations took place already in the 1930s and were continued in the 1980s and 1990s, only then truly shedding light on the importance of the place. The G. was a…