__NOTOC__ The Tumulus culture (German: ''Hügelgräberkultur'') dominated

Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the a ...

during the Middle Bronze Age ( 1600 to 1300 BC). It was the descendant of the

Unetice culture The Únětice culture or Aunjetitz culture ( cs, Únětická kultura, german: Aunjetitzer Kultur, pl, Kultura unietycka) is an archaeological culture at the start of the Central European Bronze Age, dated roughly to about 2300–1600BC. The epon ...

. 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 Urnfield culture ( 1300 BC – 750 BC) was a late Bronze Age culture of Central Europe, often divided into several local cultures within a broader Urnfield tradition. The name comes from the custom of cremating the dead and p ...

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

tumuli A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones built ...

kurgan A kurgan is a type of tumulus constructed over a grave, often characterized by containing a single human body along with grave vessels, weapons and horses. Originally in use on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, kurgans spread into much of Central As ...

s). 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 Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

; the term "Tumulus culture" specifically refers to the South German variant of the Bronze Age. In the table, Ha designates

Hallstatt Hallstatt ( , , ) is a small town in the district of Gmunden, in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Situated between the southwestern shore of Hallstätter See and the steep slopes of the Dachstein massif, the town lies in the Salzkammergut ...

. 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 The Pannonian Basin, or Carpathian Basin, is a large Sedimentary basin, basin situated in south-east Central Europe. The Geomorphology, geomorphological term Pannonian Plain is more widely used for roughly the same region though with a somewh ...

(up to the river

Tisza The Tisza, Tysa or Tisa, is one of the major rivers of Central and Eastern Europe. Once, it was called "the most Hungarian river" because it flowed entirely within the Kingdom of Hungary. Today, it crosses several national borders. The Tisza be ...

), and northward into Polish and

an Únětice territories. The culture's dispersed settlements consisted of villages or homesteads centred on fortified structures such as hillforts. Significant fortified settlements include the

Heuneburg The Heuneburg is a prehistoric hillfort by the river Danube in Hundersingen near Herbertingen, between Ulm and Sigmaringen, Baden-Württemberg, in the south of Germany, close to the modern borders with Switzerland and Austria. It is considered ...

, Bullenheimer Berg, Ehrenbürg, and Bernstorf. 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 ''Murus gallicus'' or Gallic wall is a method of construction of defensive walls used to protect Iron Age hillforts and ''oppida'' of the La Tene period in Western Europe. Basic features The distinctive features are: * earth or rubble f ...

fortifications known from the Iron Age. Tumulus culture societies traded with those in Scandinavia, Atlantic Europe, the Mediterranean region and the Aegean. Traded items included amber and metal artefacts. Some scholars see Tumulus groups from

southern Germany Southern Germany () is a region of Germany which has no exact boundary, but is generally taken to include the areas in which Upper German dialects are spoken, historically the stem duchies of Bavaria and Swabia or, in a modern context, Bavaria ...

as corresponding to a community that shared an extinct Indo-European linguistic entity, such as the hypothetical

Italo-Celtic In historical linguistics, Italo-Celtic is a hypothetical grouping of the Italic and Celtic branches of the Indo-European language family on the basis of features shared by these two branches and no others. There is controversy about the causes o ...

group that was ancestral to Italic and Celtic. This particular hypothesis, however, conflicts with suggestions by other Indo-Europeanists. For instance, David W. Anthony suggests that

Proto-Italic The Proto-Italic language is the ancestor of the Italic languages, most notably Latin and its descendants, the Romance languages. It is not directly attested in writing, but has been reconstructed to some degree through the comparative method. P ...

(and perhaps also

Proto-Celtic Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, is the ancestral proto-language of all known Celtic languages, and a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partly reconstructed through the comparative method. Proto-Celti ...

) speakers could have entered Northern Italy at an earlier stage, from the east (e.g., the Balkan/ Adriatic region).

Gallery

File:Zuse Museum Huenfeld Maedchen von Molzbach Lebensbild 2017.jpg, Reconstruction of the woman from Molzbach File:Zuse Museum Huenfeld Maedchen von Molzbach Sarg 2017.jpg, The Molzbach burial, c. 1300 BC. File:Wetteraumuseum Grab BZ Woelfersheim.jpg, Grave goods from Wölfersheim, Germany File:Gentleman, Bronze Age, 15th century BC, replica - Naturhistorisches Museum Nürnberg - Nuremberg, Germany -DSC04215.jpg, alt=, Bronze Age dress, 15th century BC, Germany File:Tumulus sword 1.jpg, alt=, Bronze sword, 1400 BC File:Middlebronze2.jpg, alt=, Bronze sword, 1600-1500 BC File:Middlebronze3.jpg, alt=, Burial goods, 1400 BC File:Middlebronze4.jpg, alt=, Bronze dagger, c. 1700-1500 BC File:Middlebronze6.jpg, alt=, Bronze anklets, 1600-1400 BC File:Clevelandart 1988.5.jpg, Bronze spiral armband, c. 1500 BC File:Central Europe, Bronze Age, c. 2500-800 BC - Spiral Armilla - 1988.4 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif, Bronze spiral armband, c. 1500 BC File:ALB - Goldarmband Nassenheide.jpg, Gold bracelet from Nassenheide, Germany File:Gobelets - Man - Saint-Germain-en-Laye - 27 mars 2017.jpg, Gold artefacts, France, c. 1400 BC File:Cône d'Avanton, musée des Antiquités Nationales, 2010-03-26.jpg, Gold hat, bracelet and bowl, France, c.1400 BC File:Speyer-2009-historisches-museum-026.jpg, Gold hat, bronze axes, Germany, c. 1300 BC. File:Golden decorated disc, 1800-1300 BC, Museum of Western Bohemia, 187791.jpg, Gold disc, Czech Rep., 1650-1250 BC. File:Necklace, amber, glass, Middle Bronze Age, Museum of Western Bohemia, 187798.jpg, Amber and glass necklace, Czech Republic File:Bernsteincollier.jpg, Amber necklace, Germany, 1500 BC. File:La céramique à l'âge du bronze (musée historique, Haguenau) (36058831702).jpg, Tumulus ceramics, Hagenau, France File:Landesmuseum Württemberg -Würtingen-Grabbeigaben560.jpg, Bronze ornaments, Germany, c. 1500 BC File:Landesmuseum Württemberg-Engstingen-Frauengrab554.jpg, alt=, Bronze and amber ornaments, c. 1500 BC File:Goldhort Gessel Ausstellung im Landesmuseum Hannover.jpg, Gold hoard from Gessel, Germany, c.1400 BC File:Eschenz gold cup 1.jpg, Gold cup from

Eschenz Eschenz is a municipality in Frauenfeld District in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland. History The prehistoric shore village on ''Werd Island'' and in the ''Seeäckern'' area (northeast of Eschenz) are rich archeological sites that have contr ...

, Switzerland, c. 1600 BC File:Huegelgrab3-unteralting-grafrath16.JPG, Tumulus, Germany, 1600-1300 BC

External Links

Bronze age fortresses in Europe

Defended sites and fortifications in Southern Germany during the Bronze Age

References

*Nora Kershaw Chadwick, J. X. W. P. Corcoran, ''The Celts'' (1970), p. 2

*Barbara Ann Kipfer, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology (2000) ;Specific {{Bronze Age footer Tumulus culture, 17th-century BC establishments 13th-century BC disestablishments

Culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...

Archaeological cultures of Central Europe Archaeological cultures of Western Europe Bronze Age cultures of Europe Archaeological cultures in Austria Archaeological cultures in Belgium Archaeological cultures in the Czech Republic Archaeological cultures in France Archaeological cultures in Germany Archaeological cultures in Hungary Archaeological cultures in the Netherlands Archaeological cultures in Poland Archaeological cultures in Slovakia Indo-European archaeological cultures Italo-Celtic

Gallery

See also

External Links

References