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Oppidum of Manching

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The oppidum of Manching was a town-like Celtic settlement in the late Iron Age - or La Tène - in Bavaria, Germany.

Location

The settlement lay - different from most other oppida - in a plain, well-situated where the river Paar meets the Danube, not far from what is today called Ingolstadt. Manching was naturally protected by these rivers and the moor land surrounding it; in addition it had vast natural resources of gold and ore in its immediate vicinity.

History of exploration

Manching was known to be the remains of a settlement of some kind long before the first excavations began. The site was tremendously devastated in the course of the Second World War, when a military airport was built there (with the State Office for Historical Monuments of Bavaria watching rather helplessly) and subsequently flattened with bombs. In 1955, when plans were made official to build another airport there, restricted rescue excavations were undertaken. Starting in 1970, planned and thorough excavations were carried out which took about twenty years: all in all, a total of about 49 acres were dug out.

Size and general information

With a total size of 939 acres, or 1.467 square miles, the oppidum of Manching is the second largest Celtic settlement in Germany, featuring the most thoroughly explored fortification system of all. The wall surrounding the settlement once amounted to a total length of about 4.47 miles, with two confirmed gates. The oppidum was organized into different, separated areas: a living, a manufacturing, and a temple district. The name of the people who once inhabited Manching is not known to us today.

History (of construction)

The settlement was founded in about 300 BC, starting with a temple (which thus is the oldest part of Manching) and a first graveyard northeast of it. In the course of the 3rd century BC a second graveyard came into use in the West and the different districts came into being:

1. Celtic temple district in the Southwest, featuring a round temple,
2. a district where iron was processed, also featuring a granary, in the South and West,
3. a marked-off agricultural area in the North with longhouses,
4. a hut district in the Southwest with small houses, pit houses and single workshops.

At the zenith of its powers, probably in the second half of the 2nd century BC, Manching is believed to have had about 4000 inhabitants who had to be sustained through farms in the proximity of Manching, some of which could be discovered during the excavation. The goods produced within the oppidum, and partly exported into the surrounding region (and even farther), were iron products, pottery, and glass products etc. Manching also had its own mint.

The oppidum was occupied for a total of about 300 years; at the end of the 2nd century BC the temple use changed (possibly due to fights with Teutons and Cimbri). By the time the eastern gate burned down, Manching must have been close to its end as there are no signs of reconstruction or even cleanup efforts to be found. By around 50 BC most of the inhabitants had left Manching for unknown reasons.

The Romans then took the oppidum in 15 BC, which lead to the migration of most of the few people who had stayed on.

The fortifications

The fortification system of Manching is outstanding, not only because of the grade of its exploration, but because it incorporates two types of wall that did not coexist anywhere else: the murus gallicus or Gaulish wall commonly found in Western Europe, and the pfostenschlitzmauer or post slot wall mostly used in the East. In the second half of the 2nd century BC the Gaulish wall was built, with a total length of 7.47 miles, using 4,409 – 16,530 pounds of iron nails, and 95,130 barrels of timber. The second wall, the timber-laced rampart, which used and integrated the rampart of the first fortification wall, was, together with the tower buildings of the gates, erected around 104 (+10) BC (exact dating possible due to preserved timber). Remains of the fortification system can still be seen today as 4.37 yard-high earth ramparts.

Possible cults

Findings pointing to a sort of death cult or ancestor worship are grave findings of human long bones featuring removed joints, with corpses apparently dissected in a partially decomposed state. Additionally, skulls (all male) were found in the vicinity of the gates.

Some coin hoards (silver, 483 gold coins, Bohemian gold from the Boii) and a weapons depot near the temple were found during the excavation, as well as a model of a tree with gilded leaves, most likely also part of some sort of cult.

References

  • Susanne Sievers, Manching - Die Keltenstadt. Führer zu archäologischen Denkmälern in Bayern. Oberbayern 3 . Theiss Verlag Stuttgart, 2003 (in German)
  • Die Ausgrabungen in Manching 1-15, series featuring various authors, published by: Römisch-Germanische Kommission des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts zu Frankfurt am Main, 1970 - 1992 (in German)
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