Pre-Roman Europe

Question 1

Early Europe

Answer 1

• Agriculture
• Settled village life
• Art and sculptures became larger and more permanent
• larger settlements near the Mediterranean

Question 2

Skara Brae

Answer 2

• Neolithic village in the Orkney Islands
• Most complete village from its time period found in England
• 10 houses/stone structures with shared features
• Beds hearths and cupboards all laid out in the same way
• Dug into middens
• Older than Stonehenge & the Great Pyramids
• Chronology can be created due to the domestic waste around the sites
• Diet included lots of marine life along with some barley

Question 3

Midden

Answer 3

Area of accumulated domestic waste

Question 4

Megalith

Answer 4

• Large stone constructions
• 35000 in Europe
• Boundary / event markers, religious sites

Question 5

Portal Tombs / Dolmens

Answer 5

• Most common type of megalith
• Large stones formed doorways, and earth was piled on top of an around them, forming a burial mound or tumulus
• Stones were pulled on log rollers

Question 6

Standing Stone Circles / Henges

Answer 6

• Ring shaped
• Banks and ditches were carved into the surrounding landscape
• Stonehenge is the most famous, found in Salisbury Plain
• Outer ring of Sarsen Stones, inner ring of Blue Stones
• Part of a much larger constructed landscape
• Built over a span of 1500 years

Question 7

Earthworks

Answer 7

• Include geoglyphs (hill figures), mounds, burrows, and tombs
• Example is Salisbury Hill. 9.3m high, convers 5 acres, took 18 million hours to make
• Huffington White Horse is an example of a geoglyph, filled with new rock and chalk

Question 8

Bell Beaker Culture

Answer 8

• Archaeological culture built on shared material culture
• used small bell shaped drinking vessels
• Spread all across Europe

Question 9

Pots Not People

Answer 9

The idea that just because a group of people is archaeologically described as a culture, it does not necessarily mean that they were ethnically, or linguistically connected, or that they lived in close proximity and shared many traits. Rather, it is evidence of material culture spreading across many different groups indicating trade and teaching occurred.

Question 10

Iron Age Europe

Answer 10

• Characterized by the use of Iron for tools, a tradition which likely started in Anatolia and was a carefully kept trade secret for a time
• Iron spread to the rest of Europe in the 11th century BC
• Ancient Celtic cultures
• Bog bodies

Question 11

Ancient Celts

Answer 11

• Made up of various groups on Western and central Europe
• Records mostly in the form of Etic Greek perspectives and archaeological record of grave goods
• No singular sociopolitical entity
• Shared political culture in the form of art, warfare tactics, settlement types, religion, and burial customs
• Shared language family of the Indo-European origin
• Hallstatt and La Tene
• Oppida

Question 12

Etic vs. Emic Perspective

Answer 12

• An Etic perspective on a culture comes from the outside, for example, the Greeks writing about the Celts. This perspective can lack understanding of practices and customs, and may come with misinterpretations or missing key information
• An Emic perspective on a culture comes from within that culture. Emic perspectives can also have gaps in information because some things are considered common knowledge and would not have been written down

Question 13

Hallstatt

Answer 13

• Associated with the early period of the Celts
• Site in upper Austria
• Salt mine and trade based economy
• Subsistence farming only, no trade of surplus food
• Received gold, amber, and jewelry from Maritime trade
• Most of what we know of this site and its associated time period comes from tombs, with only a little from settlements

Question 14

La Tene

Answer 14

• Associated with the later period of the Celts
• Followed after Hallstatt and lasted until the takeover of the Roman Empire
• Contemporary with classical Greece
• Peak of Celtic wealth in trade goods
• Celts spanned from Ireland to Romania
• Material culture gained influence from the Mediterranean through trade
• Tombs were elaborate with rich hoards which demonstrated extensive long range trade

Question 15

Oppida

Answer 15

• Characteristic settlement type of the Celts
• Lots of variability but they all shared the same main features
• Heavy fortifications in the form of walls, earthen ditches, and ramparts
• Located at high and easily defensible positions, indicating lots of conflict between neighbouring groups
  Divided into distinct areas based on craft type and located along trade routes

Question 16

Celtic Social Structure

Answer 16

• Pieced together from Greek and Roman accounts as well as grave goods
• Hierarchy was present with different social classes and specific leaders as evidenced by burial traditions
• Four social classes according to Cesar: Chief/King, warriors and priests, commoners, and slaves. This perspective likely has Roman bias, but the archaeological record shows something similar
• Women could be chiefs, and the society was not strictly patriarchal. Women were often buried with divination tools and men with weapon so there was some degree of separation

Question 17

Burial Traditions

Answer 17

• Highly valuable goods were placed into graves, indicating a belief in an afterlife
• Men and women buried with the same level of grave goods
• Vixtomb - Earthen mound burial of the “Princess of Vix” with many rich goods such as a heavy gold collar and a 1000 liter vessel called Vix’s Crater, which was a massive wine mixing vessel. These were of Greek origin. There were also amber beads from the Baltics, and locally crafted items. She was probably 35-40 years old

Question 18

Religion

Answer 18

• Shared among Celtic cultures
• Few surviving details and iconography
• What we know is mainly from Greek and Roman sources
• Likely polytheistic with a priestly class called druids
• Worshipped nature and its forces
• Gave votive offerings

Question 19

Germanic Groups

Answer 19

• Germanic branch of the Indo-European language origin
• Northern Germany and Scandinavia
• Similar settlements and burial traditions to the Celts
• Democratic warrior society
• Many were farmers who herded cattle

Question 20

Bog Bodies

Answer 20

• Anaerobic, mummified remains
• Peat bogs
• Preserved by tannins from the peat
• Most bodies were likely executed criminals, murder victims, or human sacrifices
• Good example is the Tollund man, found in Denmark in 1950, dated to 405-380 BC
• Skin, hair, leather cap, and belt all well preserved
• Found with a cord around his neck, strangled
  Likely a sacrifice because of how soft his hands and feet were, and he was in the feta position with his eyes closed

Question 21

Comitatus

Answer 21

A group of warriors who voluntarily attached themselves to a lord through oaths of loyalty

Question 22

Grauballe Man

Answer 22

• Found in Denmark
• 2000 years old
• Throat was slashed and he was placed in a pit in the peat moss
• Lifted from the bod in situ inside of a frame
• ## His skin was tanned and he was stuffed with wood chips for display