(R)evolutions: from the Stone to the Iron Age
From the Neolithic to the end of the early Iron Age
(R)evolutions: from the Stone to the Iron Age
The excavation of a burial mound dating back to more than 2,600 years at Frög near Rosegg revealed a lead model of a magnificent wagon, of a type that would have been the preserve of the elite.
Bronze Age roads
During the Second World War two dugouts were found in a bog at Sattnitz near Klagenfurt. Dating back to the second century BCE, they had been made using bronze axes. As they have a shallow draught, these boots were also ideal for navigating streams and shallow lakeshores. Found all over the world, they represent the beginnings of wooden boat construction. In Central Europe dugouts were mainly used for fishing and hunting on the shores and banks of lakes and rivers, but they also served to transport people and goods along the waterways – the ‘roads’ of the Bronze Age.
The final journey
At the burial ground of Frög near Rosegg a grave dating from around 600 BCE yielded a miniature wagon made of lead resembling the four-wheeled elite wagon familiar from the Hallstatt Culture. Since there was as yet no developed road network, these wagons can only have served as part of ceremonial processions for the elite. At the same time, all over Central Europe high-ranking men and women were customarily buried with a ceremonial wagon to take them on the journey into the beyond. The miniature wagon could also have been part of a representation of a sacred procession, although no figures to support this interpretation were found in the burial mound at Frög.
Life on the water
In the middle of Lake Keutschach the precious remains of an ancient pile dwelling were discovered. Decorated tableware found there belongs to a culture that had established itself around 4350 BCE between the Danube and the Sava, also extending into the south-eastern Alpine region.
Precious ingots
Four thousand years ago, copper and bronze circulated or were hoarded in the form of ingots. In the southern Alpine region these ingots had the form of axe blades until the middle of the Bronze Age, while in the northern Alpine region they took the form of neck rings or fibulas. The valuable metals were buried as single objects or in larger quantities and covered with a stone slab, probably as a gift to the gods to ensure their goodwill. Blacksmith’s tools including a hammer, chisel, file and rasp together with a series of smaller iron ingots in various shapes come from the important Celtic hilltop settlement on the Gracarca mountain on the southern shore of Lake Klopein.
Clothes make the man
Pins and fibulas used to fasten clothing or worn on the shoulder as decoration were usually made of bronze or iron. The shapes and decoration of these accessories reveal when and where they were made, and which supraregional trend was in vogue at a particular time.
Tableware and diet
In a number of richly-furnished graves in the eastern Alpine regions hundreds of precious bronze vessels and utensils were found, occasionally alongside highly expensive imported objects from the Mediterranean. Large cups or ladles were used to transfer drinks such as wine, mead or beer from huge mixing vessels into pails for serving. The process involved the use of sieves, as all alcoholic drinks at the time were mixed with spices and also contained additives with preservative properties such as resin. Meat from domestic animals and game was cooked in cauldrons or roasted with the aid of firedogs and long spits.
Supraregional trade in goods
Regular and intensive contacts saw the introduction of foreign goods into the eastern Alpine region, including items of dress, weapons, precious tableware and beverages. Local artisans imitated these coveted pieces, and it is possible that itinerant craftsmen travelled around offering their services. Workshops in the Venetic region made high-quality cooking utensils and tableware. It was also via northern Italy that trends in fashion and knowledge of images and writing penetrated the Alpine regions. In addition, there was contact with the Bavarian and Upper Austrian region and to a lesser extent with present-day Lower Austria and Burgenland. These regions lay on an important route connecting northern and southern Europe via which amber from the Baltic reached the Mediterranean.
From image to writing
This image from a richly-furnished grave in Waisenberg near Völkermarkt of an outsize duck in the middle of a herd of stags that is being attacked by a lion and a sphinx probably depicts an ancient myth involving a tutelary ‘duck man’.
Figures from Frög
Finds from the graves at Frög included numerous lead figures and plaques that reflect the society of those times and its beliefs. Male riders astride stallions with phalluses are an expression of how a wealthy elite that bred horses saw themselves.
Heaven’s tent
The Bronze Age inhabitants of Central Europe observed the stars to identify the right time for their agricultural activities and simultaneously to ask the gods for their favour. Around 700 BCE the Greek poet Hesiod described the importance of the heavenly bodies in the cycle of the farming year: