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Massilia and Early Celtic Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2015

J. M. de Navarro
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Hallstatt and La Tène are the names given to the first and second phases of the pre-Roman Iron Age. They are derived from the sites where objects characteristic of the respective cultures were first identified, neither Hallstatt nor La Tène having any claim to be considered as the cradles of the cultures named after them. The former lies in Upper Austria. La Tène (‘the shallows’) is situated in Switzerland at the eastern end of the lake of Neuchatel.

The upper limit for the chronology of the Hallstatt Period is a vexed point. If by Hallstatt we mean a period when iron was in general use, it can hardly have said to have begun before the ninth century B.C. ; if we regard it as denoting the time when Villanovan and other contemporary influences first made themselves felt in Central Europe, it can hardly have begun later than c. 1000 B.C. Reinecke would even put it back as far as c. 1200 B.C. The lower limit is somewhat easier to define. Generally speaking it came to an end c. 550-500 B.C. ; but in some districts it persisted until c. 400, while in north-east Germany and other remote areas, the La Tène culture cannot be said to have succeeded it until c. 150 B.C., or even later.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 2 , Issue 8 , December 1928 , pp. 423 - 442
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1928

References

1 For account of Villanova period see Randall-Maclver, D. in ANTIQUITY 1928) 2, pp. 134–140.Google Scholar

2 For Reinecke, see his articles on the four Hallstatt phases in Lindenschmidt’s Altertümer unserer heidnischen Vorzeit (=AuhV) v, pp. 144, 231, 235, 315 and 399 ; For Déchelette see his Manuel, 2, 2, p. 622f.Google Scholar

3 See his important study Zur Kenntniss der La Tene-Denktnäler, der Zone nordwärts der Alpen, in the 1902 Festschrift des Römisch-Germanisches Central-Museum zu Mainz (=Mainzer Festschr. 1902).

4 Bayerischer Vorgeschichtsfreund (1925 5, p. 49 f.Google Scholar Schumacher’s dates for this phase are:—from the end of the sixth century to c. 400 B.C.; see Ebert’s, , Reallexikon, 8s.v. Mittel-;und Süddeutschland, p. 266 f.Google Scholar Déchelette assigns the fifth and fourth centuries to his La Tene 1, see his Manuel, 2, 3, p. 930 f.Google Scholar

5 For convenience sake I shall allude to the above Western and Central areas as the Celtic Zone, for there is good reason to believe that during the latter part of Hallstatt D they formed part of the area occupied by the Celtic peoples (seemy ‘Coming of the Celts’ in the Cambridge Ancient History, 7, p. 54=CAH, vir.) Whether the above Eastern area was already settled by Celtic peoples or not is still a matter of dispute.Google Scholar

6 Mainzer Festschr, 1902, p. 56 f.Google Scholar

7 These and the griffon’s head from Sens were undoubtedly of Greek manufacture (cf. Déchelette, l.c., 11, 2 figs. 221 and 223). If these heads are of Ionian workmanship, they doubtless reached the Celtic area by way of Massilia : Massilia was a Phocaean colony and Phocaea was one of the principal cities of Ionia. See Reinecke, , AuhV, 5, p. 329.Google Scholar Compare also Herodotus, , 4, 152.Google Scholar

8 Revue Archéologique (=RA) 1909, 1, pp. pp. 193 ff.Google Scholar

9 L’ Anthropologie (1918–19) 29, p. 222 ;Google Scholar Déchelette, l.c., 2, 3, p. 1047 f.Google Scholar

10 The French material for the map in this article is partly based on the above, and partly on Joulin (RA, 1910, II, p. 1 ff.) and Clerc’s Massalia, I).

11 Greek coins first appear in the Celtic area during this phase, and payment by coin may have somewhat affected the more primitive method of trade by barter.

12 See Geograph. Journal (1925) 66, pp. 484 ff.Google Scholar

13 Although coin-finds show that an overland-trade existed between Massilia and Upper Italy in the fourth century, there is little evidence for close relations between those regions over the West Alpine passes during the Hallstatt D and La Tène A phases.

14 Römische Mitteilungen (1920) 35, p. 403 f.Google Scholar (cf. Randall-Maclver, , Iron Age in Italy, pi. 30 and p. 134).Google Scholar

15 Archaeolog. Anzeiger, 1925, cols. 183–8 and 204.Google Scholar

16 RA. (1909), i, p. 209. One of the fragments from Mont Guérin was of a ware identical with the amphora from Mercey.

17 This type of pottery was unearthed at Fort St. Jean (Marseilles) in association with Greek and Italian sherds dating from the seventh to the fifth century B.C.

18 L’Anthropologie (1918–19) 29, p. 215 ff.Google Scholar

19 In the fifth century the Greek influence appeared to have reached the Rhine by another route: see below, p. 437 f.

20 See Piroutet’s, M. Contribution sur l’étude des Celles, in L’Anthropologie (1918–19) 29 and (1920) xxx, especially what he has to say concerning the Alaise-Württemberg group.Google Scholar

21 Comptes Rendus de l’ Academie des Inscriptions et de Belles-lettres (=CRAI) 1910, p. 422 ff.Google Scholar and Clerc, , l.c., 1, p. 105.Google Scholar Ionian ware of the sixth century has been found on this site, at Baou-Roux, and at Vitrolles, near the Étang du Berre ( Clerc, , l.c., 1, p. 341).Google Scholar

22 Journal of Hellenic Studies (1924) 44, p. 166 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

23 Between 400 and 350 B.C. two new Massiliote types were struck. These have been found in northern and central Gaul. But as they were current for several centuries, they form an unsafe basis of argument (see Cary, , l.c., p. 175.)Google Scholar Cf. CAH VII, p. 49.

24 The references will be found in the last of the 4 vols, of Déchelette’s Manuel. The latest of these vases dates from c. 450 B.C.

* I have to thank Mrs M. C. Burkitt for this drawing.

25 CRAI, 1916, pp. 397 and 469 ; 1918, p. 95; 1919, pp. 223 and 293 ; 1920, p. 31 ; 1927, p. I. Fondation Piot : Monuments et Memoires (1924) 27, p. 45 ;Google Scholar L’Illusa tration, 24 April, 1926 ;Google Scholar Corpus Vasorum antiquorum, fase. 6 (1927).Google Scholar

26 Clerc, , l.c., 1, pp. 342, 346, 348 ;Google Scholar Déchelette, , l.c., 2. 3, p. >1598.1598.>Google Scholar

27 Apart from the Iberian pottery and certain of the metal objects, Iberian inscriptions occur on some of the cinerary urns.

28 CRAI, 1918, p. 96 f.

29 This should be borne in mind when speaking of the place of origin of the above zoomorphic girdle-clasps. Mouret does not seem to realize this : cf. Mon. et Mem. Piot, 27, p. 52.Google Scholar

30 CRAI, 1909, p. 981.

31 Annales de la Faculté des Sciences de Marseille, 13, fase. 3, p. 84 ff.Google Scholar

32 Clerc, , l.c., 1, pp. 340–5, and Joulin, RA (1910), 11, p. 7 f.Google Scholar

33 Even supposing that some of these amphorae were used for the transportation of oil and not wine, we know that olive oil was one of Massilia’s staple exports (see Clerc, , l.c., 1, p. 279 f.)Google Scholar

34 The stamnos from Klein Aspergle (plate III) also contained a resinous deposit.

35 Déchelette, , Collection Millón, p. 123.Google Scholar

36 Neugebauer, , Archaeol. Anzeiger, 1925, col. 201 f.Google Scholar

37 Billiard, La Vigne dans l’Antiquité, p. 81. I owe this reference to M. P. Charles-worth.

38 Billiard, l.c., p. 71.

39 See Reinach’s, S. interesting study, Le Cor ail dans l’industrie Celtique. Rev. Celtique (1899) 20, pp. 12 ff. and 117 ff.Google Scholar

40 Clerc, , l.c., 1, 287 f.Google Scholar

41 The use of coral did not die out completely. It is found, for instance, on the Witham Shield.

42 Hundreds of broken amphorae were found at this point. They date, however, from the first century B.C.

43 Schumacher, , Siedlungs und Kulturgesch. der Rheinlande, 1, pl. 8.Google Scholar Judging from the imports in the Berne area, the Rhône&-Aar-Rhine route was less important in La Tène A than Hallstatt D.

44 See Déchelette, , Manuel, 2, 2, p. 283 f.Google Scholar A similar object (though in bronze) has come to light at Peterinsel ( Tschumi, , l.c., p. 132).Google Scholar Tschumi thinks these pendants are barbaric imitations of Etruscan work, but Forsdyke, in a letter to me, regards them as actually Etruscan. At Ins and Jegenstorf they were found in Hallstatt D contexts.

45 See my map facing p. 484 in the Geographical Journal, 1925.

46 Déchelette, , l.c., 2, 2, p. 771 ff.Google Scholar

47 In graves 61, 62 and 68 at Molinazzo. A fourth example was also found there. Re the chronology of these cemeteries, see Festschr, Mainzer, 1902, p. 102.Google Scholar

48 Ebert, , Reallexikon, 8, pp. 264–6.Google Scholar

49 For these conditions, see Brooks’, C.E.P. Climate through the Ages, 1926, p. 339 f.Google Scholar

50 Clerc, , l.c., 1, p. 329.Google Scholar

51 This suggestion is advanced by Miss Adams in her Study in the Commerce of Latium ( Smith College Classical Studies, 2, p. 2).Google Scholar

52 Randall-Maclver, , Iron Age in Italy, p. 167.Google Scholar

53 Ibid. l.c., p. 168.

54 CRAI, 1910, p. 430. Vasseur is inclined to assign it to the seventh and sixth centuries.

55 Déchelette, , l.c., 2, 3, p. 1001.Google Scholar

56 The so-called Campanian vessels found on more than one site in southern France date from the fourth and third centuries. They are of Graeco-Italian origin and were made in Campania, Lucania and Apulia.

57 In Reinecke’s opinion the finely incised zoomorphic style, as seen on the girdle-plate from Cerinasca (grave 93) and the Rodenbach field-flask, may have come from north-west Italy, presumably by the Bernardino-Rhine route. This type of art played but a slight role in the development of the La Tene style.

58 Postglaziale Klimaänderungen (Geograph. Gesell. Munich, 14 2, 1923), p. 220 f.Google Scholar