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[German version] Frankish king ( c. 436-482), son of the hḗrōs epónymos Meroveus and father of  Clovis I. (Chlodovechus). C. ruled the Frankish province of Tournai from c. 463, and was frequently victorious as an ally of Rome fighting in northern Gallia against the West Goths and the Saxons. He was probably also entrusted with administrating the province of Belgica II (Greg. Tur. Franc. 2,9-27; Fredegar 3,11-12 MGH SRM 2). A legend relates that he interrupted his reign with eight years' exile in Thuringia (Greg. Tur. Franc. 2,12). C.'s tomb was discovered in 1653 at his capital Tou…

[German version] A 5th- to 1st-cent. BC Celtic necropolis at the village of V. near Châtillon-sur-Seine (in Burgundy). The best-known grave is that of the 'Princess of V.' in a tumulus with a voluminous wooden chamber; this early 5th-cent. BC princess's tomb (Prince's tomb) is richly furnished with imported Greek and Etruscan goods ( bronze krater, silver phiale/ patera , Greek pottery) and a gold torque (Torques) and a state carriage. Attached to the necropolis was a fortified settlement as a princely seat on the neighbouring Mont La…

[German version] I. Ancient Near East and Egypt Weapons were among the earliest artefacts fashioned by humans and their ancestors. Stone arrowheads and blades were the first recognizable weapons in the ancient Near East into the Neolithic Period ( c. 10000 BC). From the 4th millennium BC, weapons were depicted on roll seals and stelae in scenes of warfare or hunting. Of maces suitable for close combat, generally only the heads (of stone or metal) survive. One exception is the deposit at the Chalcolithic find site of Naḥal Mišmār in P…

[German version] A. General Celtic archaeology (CA) investigates the material legacy of groups of the population from the Iron Age, mostly in southern and south-western Central Europe, in addition to the  Germanic archaeology, which borders onto it to the north and north-east. This concerns the  Hallstatt culture of the early and the  La Tène culture of the late Iron Age. The equating of this archaeologically knowable cultures with the ethnicity of the  Celts is not constantly and unambiguously poss…

[German version] There is indirect evidence through rotary tracks of the lathe in the early Celtic period (6th/5th cents. BC), in the Hallstatt Culture, in bronze knobs, amber beads, rings made of sapropelite, etc. On the Heuneburg works waste from a turner's workshop is preserved. In the 6th cent. BC, turned wooden vessels are also known (lathe works). The lathe itself can only be inferred from ancient or medieval representations and sources; it probably came over the Alps from the Greek-Etrus…

[German version] A. General points In most periods of ancient and early European history- as also in other ancient cultures (e.g. Mycenae, Anatolia, Etruria) - some burials can be identified as standing out particularly from the mass of 'normal graves', and these are mainly described as 'princely graves' (PG) [5; 14; 22]. Right through to the early Middle Ages, there is no direct information available about the actual status of these dead, so that PG is only a useful label. Accordingly, other descrip…

[German version] I. Ancient Orient and Egypt In both the Ancient Orient and Egypt the WC was a single-axle open chariot with spoked wheels pulled by horses. WCs were predominantly made of wood and in some cases clad in metal. The first evidence of WCs is on 2nd millennium BC seal rolls in Anatolia, and then in Syria (Seals). Their origin is disputed. In particular Hittite texts record the military significance of WCs (battle of Qadesh in 1275 BC between Muwatalli II and Ramses [2] II). There is also ev…

[German version] I. Introduction The Greek word νεκρόπολις/ nekrópolis, ‘city of the dead’, is attested in Antiquity only in Strabo (17,1,10,14) as the name of a suburb of Alexandria [1] (Necropolis). Modern scholarship transfers the term necropolis to cemeteries of various cultures and time periods. General definitions as to shape and size do not exist. In this article, necropolis refers only to sites of a certain size and usually lying outside the settlements themselves. The size of a necropolis, the …

(Hellenistic κοράλ(λ)ιον ( korállion), κουράλ(λ)ιον ( kourállion), Latin curalium, corallium). [German version] A. General comments The fact that coral does not consist of plants but of the calcareous skeletons of minuscule anthozoan coelenterates has only been known since the 19th cent. Theophrastus (De lapidibus 38), Pliny (HN 32,21-24, cf. Isid. Orig. 16,8,1), and Dioscorides (5,121 Wellmann = 5,138 Berendes) praise especially red coral, which was found near Naples, Trapani, on the islands of Huyères, and on the Aeolic islands. Darker coral is mentioned as lace by Plin. HN 3…

[German version] H.-Ditzingen, district of Ludwigsburg: finding-place of a stone statue of a warrior from the late  Hallstatt culture (6th/5th cents. BC). The ‘Stele of H.’, which is approximately life-size (extant H 1.50 m) and totally three-dimensional, represents the naked figure of a man with a conical hat or  helmet, mask (?), neck ring ( Torques),  belt and a typical Hallstatt dagger. It was lying at the edge of the encirclement wall of a burial mound from the late Hallstatt culture that it originally crowned. Its design shows both Graeco-Etruscan and local Celtic elements. …

[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…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Celts Late Celtic burial ground in Kent which gave its name to the A. culture in south-eastern England; cremation burials of the period between 50 BC and AD 50 are typical, and the burial gifts (Celtic lathe-turned ceramics and fibulae) demonstrate the existence of close connections with the Continent, which are possibly an indication of immigration of the  Belgae. The more sumptuous graves (e.g. Lexden) also contained ornamental bronze vessel fittings decorated in the Celtic style, amphorae and silver goblets. …

[German version] Prehistoric finds assemblage of the 5th to 3rd cents. BC in central Lower Saxony, named after burial mounds near Nienburg on the river Weser (Germanic archaeology, map). It is the westernmost group of the Jastorf culture. Typical elements of the NG are cremation burials in mounds, certain types of pottery and adornments (earrings). Occasionally Celtic imports occur; there is also evidence for iron working. Celtic archaeology; Funerary architecture III.G; Iron; Jewellery Pingel, Volker (Bochum) Bibliography H.-J. Hässler, Ur- und Frühgeschichte in Niedersa…

[German version] I. General Pins and needles (βελόνη/ belónē, περόνη/ perónē, ῥαφίς/ rhaphís, Latin acus) were put to a variety of uses in the ancient household: they were used for hair, garments and sewing. They were also a utensil, for example, in the work of doctors (Surgical instruments), sailmakers etc. Tattoos were also done using special needles. The shape of the pin, long and thin with one sharp end, has not changed since prehistoric times. In sewing needles, the head is generally unadorned and flat; …

[German version] Term for bodies or body parts of dead humans found in bogs, which ended up there for various, usually unclear reasons (e.g. sacrifice, punishment, burial, accident, battle). Most of the several hundred cases are from the bogs of northern Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands and date - in as far as can be determined (by carbon dating, pollen analysis) - predominantly to the later Iron Age (from c. 500 BC) and the Roman Imperial period of the centuries around the birth of Christ. Because of the mostly well-preserved state of the organic substances …

I. Near East and Egypt [German version] A. Introduction In the Near Orient (particularly the southern Levant and Syria) and Egypt, a fundamental change in the history of mankind occurred 12,000 years ago: the transition from the hunter-gatherer life of paleolithic times to neolithic agrarian society. In the so-called ‘fertile crescent’ and in Egypt, agriculture almost always included livestock farming. Agriculture also encompassed the planting of fruit trees, viticulture and horticulture. The methods of food production led to increasing freedom from dependency on e…

[German version] Method of constructing fortifications from wood, stones and soil widespread through Central Europe during the Iron Age, in which the dry-stone wall fronts had vertical gaps positioned at regular intervals. Basically two types can be distinguished according to their construction: one in which the rear of the wall was similar, and layers of crossbeams were incorporated in the body of the wall, linking the two surfaces (Altkönig-Preist type), and another in which a raised earth ramp …