Tumulus culture

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Tumulus culture
Geographical rangeCentral Europe
PeriodMiddle Bronze Age
Datesc. 1600 BC – c. 1200 BC
Preceded byUnetice culture
Followed byUrnfield culture, Lusatian culture
Women from Schwarza, Germany, c. 1500 BC, reconstruction
Bronze Age
Europe (c. 3200 – 600 BC)
Aegean (Cycladic, Minoan, Mycenaean), Bronze Age Balkans

Vučedol culture, Nagyrév culture, Ottomány culture, Wietenberg culture, Vatya culture

Bell Beaker culture, Únětice culture, Nordic Bronze Age, Tumulus culture, Urnfield culture

Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age France, Armorican Tumulus culture, Bronze Age Iberia, Argaric culture, Hilversum culture, Atlantic Bronze Age

Nuragic civilization, Polada culture, Terramare culture, Proto-Villanovan culture, Apennine culture, Canegrate culture, Golasecca culture

Bronze Age Caucasus, Catacomb culture, Poltavka culture, Abashevo culture, Sintashta culture, Andronovo culture, Multi-cordoned ware culture, Srubnaya culture


The Tumulus culture (German:Hügelgräberkultur) dominated Central Europe during the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1600 to 1300 BC).

It was the descendant of the Unetice culture. Its heartland was the area previously occupied by the Unetice culture, and its territory included parts of Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, the Carpathian Basin, Poland and France. It was succeeded by the Late Bronze Age Urnfield culture.

The Tumulus culture is distinguished by the practice of burying the dead beneath burial mounds (tumuli or kurgans).

In 1902, Paul Reinecke distinguished a number of cultural horizons based on research of Bronze Age hoards and tumuli in periods covered by these cultural horizons are shown in the table below (right). The Tumulus culture was prevalent during the Bronze Age periods B, C1, and C2. Tumuli have been used elsewhere in Europe from the Stone Age to the Iron Age; the term "Tumulus culture" specifically refers to the South German variant of the Bronze Age. In the table, Ha designates Hallstatt. Archaeological horizons Hallstatt A–B are part of the Bronze Age Urnfield culture, while horizons Hallstatt C–D are the type site for the Iron Age Hallstatt culture.

The Tumulus culture was eminently a warrior society, which expanded with new chiefdoms eastward into the Carpathian Basin (up to the river Tisza), and northward into Polish and Central European Únětice territories. The culture's dispersed settlements consisted of villages or homesteads centred on fortified structures such as hillforts.[1] Significant fortified settlements include the Heuneburg, Bullenheimer Berg, Ehrenbürg, and Bernstorf.[2][3] Fortification walls were built from wood, stone and clay. The massive 3.6m-wide wall surrounding the plateau of the Ehrenbürg resembled later murus gallicus fortifications known from the Iron Age.[4]

Tumulus culture societies traded with those in Scandinavia, Atlantic Europe, the Mediterranean region and the Aegean. Traded items included amber and metal artefacts.[5]

Some scholars see Tumulus groups from southern Germany as corresponding to a community that shared an extinct Indo-European linguistic entity, such as the hypothetical Italo-Celtic group that was ancestral to Italic and Celtic.[6][7] This particular hypothesis, however, conflicts with suggestions by other Indo-Europeanists. For instance, David W. Anthony suggests that Proto-Italic (and perhaps also Proto-Celtic) speakers could have entered Northern Italy at an earlier stage, from the east (e.g., the Balkan/Adriatic region).[8]

Gallery

  • Reconstruction of the woman from Molzbach
    Reconstruction of the woman from Molzbach
  • The Molzbach burial, c. 1300 BC.
    The Molzbach burial, c. 1300 BC.
  • Grave goods from Wölfersheim, Germany
    Grave goods from Wölfersheim, Germany
  • Bronze Age dress, 15th century BC, Germany
  • Bronze sword, 1400 BC
  • Bronze sword, 1600-1500 BC
  • Burial goods, 1400 BC
  • Bronze dagger, c. 1700-1500 BC
  • Bronze anklets, 1600-1400 BC
  • Bronze spiral armband, c. 1500 BC
    Bronze spiral armband, c. 1500 BC
  • Bronze spiral armband, c. 1500 BC
    Bronze spiral armband, c. 1500 BC
  • Gold bracelet from Nassenheide, Germany
    Gold bracelet from Nassenheide, Germany
  • Gold artefacts, France, c. 1400 BC
    Gold artefacts, France, c. 1400 BC
  • Gold hat, bracelet and bowl, France, c.1400 BC
    Gold hat, bracelet and bowl, France, c.1400 BC
  • Gold hat, bronze axes, Germany, c. 1300 BC.[9]
    Gold hat, bronze axes, Germany, c. 1300 BC.[9]
  • Gold disc, Czech Rep., 1650-1250 BC.[10]
    Gold disc, Czech Rep., 1650-1250 BC.[10]
  • Amber and glass necklace, Czech Republic
    Amber and glass necklace, Czech Republic
  • Amber necklace, Germany, 1500 BC.[11]
    Amber necklace, Germany, 1500 BC.[11]
  • Tumulus ceramics, Hagenau, France
    Tumulus ceramics, Hagenau, France
  • Bronze ornaments, Germany, c. 1500 BC
    Bronze ornaments, Germany, c. 1500 BC
  • Bronze and amber ornaments, c. 1500 BC
  • Gold hoard from Gessel, Germany, c.1400 BC
    Gold hoard from Gessel, Germany, c.1400 BC
  • Gold cup from Eschenz, Switzerland, c. 1600 BC
    Gold cup from Eschenz, Switzerland, c. 1600 BC
  • Tumulus, Germany, 1600-1300 BC
    Tumulus, Germany, 1600-1300 BC

See also

Central European Bronze Age
Late Bronze Age
Ha B2/3 800–950 BC
Ha B1 950–1050 BC
Ha A2 1050–1100 BC
Ha A1 1100–1200 BC
Bz D 1200–1300 BC
Middle Bronze Age
Bz C2 1300–1400 BC
Bz C1 1400–1500 BC
Bz B 1500–1600 BC
Early Bronze Age
Bz A2 1600–2000 BC
Bz A1 2000–2300 BC

External Links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tumulus culture.

References

  • Nora Kershaw Chadwick, J. X. W. P. Corcoran, The Celts (1970), p. 27.[1]
  • Barbara Ann Kipfer, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology (2000)
Specific
  1. ^ Fokkens, Harry; Harding, Anthony (eds.). "40. Germany in the Bronze Age". The Oxford Handbook of the European Bronze Age. Oxford University Press. p. 730. ISBN 9780199572861.
  2. ^ Schussmann, Markus (2017). "Defended sites and fortifications in Southern Germany during the Bronze Age and Urnfield Period – a short introduction". In Heeb, Bernhard; Szentmiklosi, Alexandru; Krause, Rüdiger; Wemhof, Matthias (eds.). Fortifications: The Rise And Fall Of Defended Sites In Late Bronze And Early Iron Age Of South-East Europe. Die Deutsche Bibliothek – CIP-Einheitsaufnahme. pp. 59–78.
  3. ^ Kristiansen, Kristian; Suchowska-Ducke, Paulina (December 2015). "Connected Histories: the Dynamics of Bronze Age Interaction and Trade 1500–1100 bc". Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 81. Cambridge University Press: 361–392. doi:10.1017/ppr.2015.17. Bernstorff is the largest fortified settlement in southern Germany/western Central Europe with a size of 14 ha. Its huge fortifications were constructed in the Middle Bronze Age (middle of the 14th century bc), when the power balance between eastern and western Central Europe was changing, and shortly after it was devastated and burned down along 1.6 km of its length. We will probably never know who the enemies were, but we might suspect them to be outsiders, because at the same time we find evidence of major upheavals in eastern Central Europe.
  4. ^ Schussmann, Markus (2017). "Defended sites and fortifications in Southern Germany during the Bronze Age and Urnfield Period – a short introduction". In Heeb, Bernhard; Szentmiklosi, Alexandru; Krause, Rüdiger; Wemhof, Matthias (eds.). Fortifications: The Rise And Fall Of Defended Sites In Late Bronze And Early Iron Age Of South-East Europe. Die Deutsche Bibliothek – CIP-Einheitsaufnahme. pp. 59–78.
  5. ^ Kristiansen, Kristian; Suchowska-Ducke, Paulina (December 2015). "Connected Histories: the Dynamics of Bronze Age Interaction and Trade 1500–1100 BC". Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 81: 361–392. doi:10.1017/ppr.2015.17. In the 15th and into the 13th century bc ... the western Mediterranean became the focus of new direct trade with the expanding Tumulus Culture of western Central Europe, which secured direct connections to Jutland and its sources of amber. The archaeological evidence shows that the Tumulus societies were in contact with the Aegean city-states through the exchange of amber and metal items, and also perhaps of perishable goods. It created new wealth in the Nordic Bronze Age and led to the formation of a specific Nordic style based on Mycenaean templates.
  6. ^ Kortlandt, Frederik. 2007a. Italo-Celtic origins and prehistoric development of the Irish language (Amsterdam: Rodopi).[page needed]
  7. ^ Eska, J. F. 2010. The emergence of the Celtic languages. In The Celtic Languages, second edition edited by M. J. Ball and N. Müller. London: Routledge.[page needed]
  8. ^ David W. Anthony, 2010, The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World , Princeton University Press, p. 367.
  9. ^ Schmidt, Mark (2017). "Religiöse Vorstellungen in der mittleren Bronzezeit". Archäologie in Deutschland (3): 38–39.
  10. ^ "Prehistoric Collections". Museum of West Bohemia in Pilsen.
  11. ^ Feger, Rosemarie (2017). "Ein Europa ohne Grenzen?". Archäologie in Deutschland (3): 26–29.
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