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Hallstatt
is a small village in Austria which makes the claim to be forty-five thousand
years old.On the outskirts of this quaint village lies the ancient salt
mines of Salzkammergut (the place of good salt)The salt from this area
was a significant part in the economy of Europe at the time.The Celts mined
for salt here some two and a half thousand years ago.In 1876 a substantial
excavation of these mines took place after the then director, Ramsauer
who discovered many ancient artifacts including the preserved body of a
prehistoric miner.Ramsauers imagination was fired by the locals and their
talk of ancient ancestry.Ramseur discovered a huge prehistoric cemetery
on the outskirts of the village which contained some two and a half thousand
graves.The work which followed at this site lead to the first real technical
definition of the Celts.These iron age people were described by the term
"Halstatt culture."
The prehistoric Hallstatt traded salt effectively as far away as Italy.The
discovery of the Hallstatt Celts lead to a re evaluation by historians.Prior
to this, the history of civilization was primarily based on Greece or Rome.Classical
writings from these cultures were considered to be the final authority.No
importance or value was placed on any other culture, in particular a non
literary,barbarian one.Now Greece and Rome had a rival;the oppulance and
structure of the Celtic civilization.
The artifacts found at Hallstatt were for the most part ,iron
made and indicated a sophisticated,hierarchal society.These superb craftsmen
owned and burried with them,beautifully decorated vessels,ornaments,werapons
and horse trappings all of a standard much more advanced then the rest
of Europe at the time.
The date usually associated with Hallstatt is approximately 770
B.C. An almost cosmopolitan influence flourished on the swords and shields
found at Hallstatt.The Greeks and Romans at the time had described trade
with a destinctive group of people living in Central Europe.They called
these people the "Keltoi." The Hallstatt culture reflects the Celts in
the state of their development between the beginning of the 9th. century
B.C. and the middle of the 7 th.century B.C.There was also discoveries
of a similar nature throughout the rest of Europe which were considered
as belonging to the same culture as that at Hallstatt.In Britian and Ireland
for example,objects have been discovered from this time period which are
very definately "Hallstatt"
On mainland Europe at the same time as the discoveries at Hallstatt
were being made,another find was discovered afew kilometers away in Switzerland.This
discovery showed a much more advanced Celtic culture tracing its spiritual
,intellectual and social development.This area was known as La Tene.
