Garam Éva szerk.: Between East and West - History of the peoples living in hungarian lands (Guide to the Archaeological Exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum; Budapest, 2005)

HALL 5 - The Celts (450 B.C.-turn of the millennium) (Miklós Szabó)

THE AGE OF OPPIDA Julius Caesar's term for the fortified hilltop settlements in Gaul is used to denote the extensive, Late Iron Age urban agglomerations covering an area larger than 25-30 hectares in archaeological research. The late phase of the La Tène culture is sometimes described as the period of the "oppidum culture". In contrast to earlier interpretations, according to which the emergence of fortified Celtic settlements was an indication of a growing need for self-defence, the rise of oppida is now regarded as a reflection of the socio-economic changes from the 3rd century B.C., which began in the ItaloCeltic world. The adoption of currency led to the fundamental transformation of Celtic society: warriors lost their social prominence and were eclipsed by a new "moneyed aristocracy". The formative urban centres controlled craft production and trade through an emerging administrative system. These centres also provided protection for their occupants in times of trouble. The oppida drew the agricultural villages (vici) and farmsteads (aedificia) of a smaller region, to again use Caesar's terms, into a new economic system. The presence of separate quarters (craft and merchant quarters, residential quarters, public areas, sacred precincts) can first be demonstrated from the late 2nd century B.C. on systematically investigated settlements. However, the oppida in the vast area between the Atlantic and the Carpatho-Ukraine were not organised along entirely similar principles. Several variants of the fortifications themselves have been distinguished. The murus Gallicus described by Caesar, constructed of a timber framework of logs packed with earth and an outer facing of stones using the drywall technique, has not been documented anywhere east of Manching (Bavaria). In Central Europe, the timber framed stone wall was reinforced with upright posts set in front of the wall or into its outer face, as shown by the investigation of the ramparts protecting the Eraviscan oppidum on Mount Gellért in Budapest. The internal layout of the oppida too varied considerably. A tendency to introduce a gridded street system can be noted in the western Celtic world, for example at Bibracte. In contrast, a terraced layout conforming to the local terrain was observed at Velem-Szentvid, a settlement site with a citadel and an outer settlement. 18. IRON INDUSTRY, POTTERY Following the advances in metalwork during the 3rd century B.C., the oppidum culture laid the foundations of a European iron industry. The excellent iron tools contributed both to a thriving agriculture and to the flourishing of craft industries. The tools and implements from Velem-Szentvid provide an overview of the different types which survived almost unchanged until the 19th century. One characteristic product of the oppidum culture was painted pottery with its many regional variants. In contrast to stylised floral designs and animal depictions popular among the western Celts, the Celtic potters east of Bavaria preferred to decorate their wares with geometric patterns, as shown by the finds from Esztergom and Mount Gellért. Most vessels were decorated with black painted, abstract geometric motifs on a base of alternating white and red bands (Esztergom, Mount Gellért; Fig. 63). The occasional figurai motifs were also composed from geometric elements. One of the potters of the Mount Gellért-Tabán pottery workshop signed his vessels with a Roman gemma. The boot shaped vessel and the kantharos from Esztergom reveal that the grey wares continued the La Tène tradition of the Carpathian Basin. The kantharos reflects cultural contact with the Balkans. The closest analogies to the geometric decoration on the bronze belt plaque from Nyergesújfalu are known from the area between Belgrade and Bosnia. The beginnings of stone sculpture in the