Tumulus Culture

The Tumulus culture (German: ''Hügelgräberkultur'') was the dominant material culture in Central Europe during the Middle Bronze Age ( 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 and part of the origin of the Italic and Celtic cultures.

Artefacts and characteristics

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.

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. 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).

Culture

Settlements

The culture's dispersed settlements consisted of villages or homesteads centered on fortified structures such as hillforts. Significant fortified settlements include the Heuneburg, 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'' fortifications known from the Iron Age. 'Cyclopean' stone fortifications topped with wooden battlements were constructed at the large hillfort of Stätteberg in Bavaria.

Trade

Tumulus culture societies traded with those in Scandinavia, Atlantic Europe, the Mediterranean region and the Aegean. Traded items included amber and metal artefacts. From the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age there is evidence for the use of weighed metal as form of payment or money. Weighing equipment has been found in central Europe dating from c. 1400 BC onwards.

Metalwork

The Bronze Hand of Prêles from Switzerland, dating from the 16th-15th century BC, is a unique find from the Tumulus culture period. Described as "the earliest metal representation of a human body part ever found in Europe", it may have been a ritual object, or mounted on a standard like similar metal hands known from the Iron Age, or possibly a prosthesis. It was found in a grave along with a bronze hair-ring, pin and dagger. The hand had a golden bracelet or cuff decorated with solar motifs.

Calendar

Golden hats from Schifferstadt in Germany and Avanton in France, dating from the late Tumulus period (c. 1400 BC), may have been worn by elite religious figures, described as 'oracles' or 'king-priests' by researchers. The patterns of ornaments or symbols on the hats are thought to represent calendars, as on the later and more elaborate Berlin Gold Hat, which may encode knowledge of the luni-solar Metonic cycle. Some researchers have suggested that a Venus calendar is encoded on the Schifferstadt hat and later Ezeldorf and Berlin gold hats. Gold discs from the Czech Republic, dating from c. 1650-1250 BC, feature similar ornaments and are thought to represent simpler calendars. Identical ' ritual objects' from Haschendorf in Austria and Balkåkra in Sweden may also date from the Middle Bronze Age and have been interpreted as solar calendars. Simple numerals on the objects in the form of lines and dots represent assembly instructions for the objects. Similar 'counting marks' were also used by craftsmen in the production of swords.

Gallery

File:Gentleman, Bronze Age, 15th century BC, replica - Naturhistorisches Museum Nürnberg - Nuremberg, Germany -DSC04215.jpg, alt=, Bronze Age dress, 15th century BC, Germany
File:Molzbach 1.jpg, The Girl from Molzbach, Germany, c. 1300 BC
File:Wetteraumuseum Grab BZ Woelfersheim.jpg, Grave goods from Wölfersheim, Germany
File:Middle Bronze Age swords, 1600-1400 BC.png, Bronze swords, 1600-1400 BC
File:Middlebronze3.jpg, alt=, Burial goods, 1400 BC
File:Hortfund Bronzezeit.JPG, Bronze & gold items, Germany,
File:Bronze spiral ornaments, Tumulus culture.png, Bronze spiral arm ornaments, 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,
File:Golden decorated disc, 1800-1300 BC, Museum of Western Bohemia, 187791.jpg, alt=Gold disc, Czech Rep., 1650-1250 BC., Gold disc, Czechia, c.1650 BC.
File:Eschenz gold cup 1.jpg, Gold cup from Eschenz, Switzerland,
File:Speyer-2009-historisches-museum-026.jpg, Schifferstadt gold hat, Germany, .
File:Cône d'Avanton, musée des Antiquités Nationales, 2010-03-26.jpg, Avanton gold hat, France,
File:Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte Berlin 019.jpg, Gold artefacts, Germany, 14th c. BC
File:Necklace, amber, glass, Middle Bronze Age, Museum of Western Bohemia, 187798.jpg, Amber, 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:Tumulus culture Ornaments 2.jpg, Bronze and amber ornaments, Germany, 1500-1400 BC
File:Goldhort Gessel Ausstellung im Landesmuseum Hannover.jpg, Gold hoard from Gessel, Germany,
File:Bronze Age jewelleryDSCF6607.jpg, Gold Jewellery, Hungary
File:Bronze armband british museum.JPG, Bronze armbands, Hungary, 1400-1200 BC
File:Middlebronze6.jpg, alt=, Bronze anklets, Germany, 1600-1400 BC
File:Bronze Age Europe Decorative Needles & Pendants (28140506213).jpg, Bronze clothing pins
File:0367 Schmuck von der Bronzezeit zirka 11. Jh. v. Chr..jpg, Gold ring, Carpathian basin
File:Balkåkra ritual object (4663417814).jpg, Ritual objects from Haschendorf in Austria and Balkåkra in Sweden
File:AMK - Bronzezeit Frauenberg Trensenknebel.jpg, Horse bits made from antler, Germany
File:Bronze Sword, 13th century BC.png, Bronze sword, Central Europe, 13th century BC
File:Bronze swords-MGR Lyon-IMG 9733.jpg, Bronze sword, France, 1550-1450 BC
File:Huegelgrab3-unteralting-grafrath16.JPG, Tumulus, Germany
File:Opferplattform aus der mittleren Bronzezeit in Aicholding bei Riedenburg.jpg, Cremation platform, Germany
File:Copenhagen - Nationalmuseet - The Bronze Age House.JPG, Middle Bronze Age house

See also

*Apennine culture
*Argaric culture
* Atlantic Bronze Age
* Bell Beaker culture
* Bernstorf fortified settlement
*Bronze Age Britain
* Bronze hand of Prêles
*Frankleben hoard
*Mycenaean Greece
*Nordic Bronze Age
* Ottomany culture
* Srubnaya culture
* Terramare culture
*Urnfield culture
* Vatya culture
*Wietenberg culture

References

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

*Barbara Ann Kipfer, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology (2000)

;Specific

External links

Bronze age fortresses in EuropeDefended sites and fortifications in Southern Germany during the Bronze AgeThe Birth of a New World: Barrows, warriors, and metallurgists (1600-1200/1100 BC) (Makarowicz 2017)The Golden Hat of Schifferstadt: An Astronomically Significant Deposit Location? (Amendola 2021)Reconstruction of a female outfit from Winklarn, Austria (2011)

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