Jastorf culture

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Jastorf culture
Geographical range
Roman Iron Age
Balt culture
  Eastern Balt forest zone cultures
  Zarubintsy culture
  Celtic

The Jastorf culture was an

Pre-Roman Iron Age. The culture evolved out of the Nordic Bronze Age
.

Periodization (Central European culture counterpart)

Culture

The Jastorf culture is named after a site near the village of

Jastorf, Lower Saxony (53°3′N 10°36′E / 53.050°N 10.600°E / 53.050; 10.600). It was characterized by its use of cremation burials in extensive urnfields and links with the practices of the Northern Bronze Age. Archeology offers evidence concerning the crystallization of a group in terms of a shared material culture, in which the Northern Bronze Age continued to exert cultural influence on the Celtic Hallstatt culture
in the southern parts of the area.

The Jastorf culture extended south to the northern fringes of the Hallstatt culture, while towards the north a general congruence with the late phases of the Northern Bronze Age can be noted. Gravefields in today's Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg, western Pomerania, in Brandenburg and in Lower Saxony show continuity of occupation from the Bronze Age far into the Jastorf period and beyond. The specific contributions from the various quarters witnessing the meeting of Celtic and indigenous cultures during the early periods can not be assessed by the present state of knowledge, although a shift to a northern focus has been noted to accompany the dwindling vitality of continental Celtic cultures later on.[2]

The Jastorf culture's area was first restricted to what is today northern Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein. It then developed a "very expansive" character (Wolfram 1999), expanding towards the

Lüneburger Heide, lower Elbe) can be contrasted with the so-called Nienburg (also Harpstedt-Nienburg) group to the west, situated along the Aller and the middle Weser rivers, bordering the Nordwestblock separating it from the La Tène culture proper farther south. The Nienburg group has characteristics of material culture closer to Celtic cultures, and shows evidence of significant contact with the Hallstadt and La Tène cultures. Isolated finds are scattered as far as Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
.

Finds are mostly from

grave goods
, with the weapon deposits characteristic of migration period graves completely absent.

The southernmost extent of Germanic cultures beyond Jastorf has recently been accounted for at the final stages of the Pre-Roman Iron Age, with the paucity of Late-La Téne bracelet-types in Thuringia and northeastern Hesse proposed to suggest population movements between the central-Elbe/Saale region, Main-Franconia and the edge of the Alps and to have been triggered by the spread of the Przeworsk culture.[4] The demographic vacuum left in the south of Germany around the upper Danube and Rhine rivers, by the migrations of Celtic groups hitherto there into much richer lands in Gaul, Spain, Pannonia and Northern Italy from 400 BC probably also played a role.

Legacy

The cultures of the Pre-Roman Iron Age are hypothesized to be the origin of the

Grimm's Law here.[citation needed
]

Gallery

  • Gold ornaments
    Gold ornaments
  • Various artefacts
    Various artefacts
  • Reconstructed Iron Age house at Funkenburg, Germany, c. 200 BC
    Reconstructed Iron Age house at Funkenburg, Germany, c. 200 BC
  • Holstein beltplate, 250-100 BC
    Holstein beltplate, 250-100 BC
  • Grave goods
    Grave goods
  • Ceramic cup
    Ceramic cup
  • Funerary ceramic vessels and metal brooch
    Funerary ceramic vessels and metal brooch
  • Model of Hodde Iron Age village, Denmark, c. 100 BC[5]
    Model of Hodde Iron Age village, Denmark, c. 100 BC[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ J. P. Mallory, Douglas Q. Adams (1997), Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, p.321
  2. ISBN 0-300-02863-6
  3. ISBN 1-56619-326-5
  4. ^ Mathias Seidel, Keltische Glasarmringe zwischen Thüringen und dem Niederrhein, vol. 83, no. 1, 1–43. Germania, 2005. ISSN 0016-8874
  5. ^ "Hodde Iron Age village". danmarksoldtid.lex.dk. 12 July 2012. Archived from the original on 1 August 2023. Retrieved 7 August 2023.

Sources

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