Pre-Roman Iron Age
The
Pre-Roman Iron Age (
5th/
4th century BC -
1st century BC) designates the earliest part of the
Iron Age in
Scandinavia, the Netherlands above the rhine, and Northern
Germany, i.e. the first of three periods in Oscar
Montelius's chronology system. In this cultural area the earliest iron objects have been recovered from sites [places and dates]. Associated objects at the sites suggest that the Pre-Roman Iron Age evolved out of the
Nordic Bronze Age, simply characterized by the acquisition of
iron tools (the name is also applied to contemporary Britain, but at the moment this article follows the Montelian sense). The somewhat strange name of the period is due to that it was recognized for the first time by E. Vedel at certain
Iron Age cemeteries on the Baltic island of
Bornholm, where he could demonstrate that some graves belonged to a time prior to the period of considerable Roman influence in
Northern Europe, which is consequently called the
Roman Iron Age.
The culture covered by this term was most likely
Proto-Germanic, and south of it was the Celtic
La Tène culture, whose advanced iron-working technology exerted a considerable influence, when, around 600 BC northern people began to extract
bog iron from the
ore in peat
bogs, a technology which they had acquired from their Central European neighbours. In the beginning, iron was valuable and was used for decoration. The oldest objects were needles, but edged tools, swords and sickles, are found as well. Bronze continued to be used during the whole period, but was mostly used for decoration.
The traditions were a continuation from the Nordic Bronze Age, but there were strong influences from the
Hallstatt culture in Central Europe. Funerary practices continued the Bronze Age tradition of burning the corpses and placing the remains in
urns, a characteristic of the
Urnfield culture. During the previous centuries, influences from the Central European
La Tène culture spread to Scandinavia from North-Western Germany and there are finds from this period from all the provinces of southern Scandinavia.
Archaeologists have found swords, shieldbosses, spearheads, scissors, sickles, pincers, knives, needles, buckles, kettles, etc. from this time. Bronze continued to be used for
torques and kettles, the style of which were a continuity from the bronze age. Some of the most prominent finds are the
Gundestrup silver cauldron and the Dejbjerg wagons from
Jutland, two four-wheeled wagons of wood with bronze parts.
The period began with a deteriorating climate[
1][
2][
3][
4][
5][
6], which caused a dramatic change in the flora and fauna[
7]. In Scandinavia, this period is often called the
Findless Age due to the lack of finds from this period. While the finds from Scandinavia are consistent with a loss of population, the southern part of the culture, the
Jastorf culture, was in expansion southwards. It consequently appears that the climate change played an important role in the southward expansion of the
Proto-Germanic tribes into continental Europe[
8].
This warlike
demic diffusion southwards is sometimes questioned by proponents of the peaceful
cultural diffusion theory according to which all languages and
archaeological cultures moved peacefully by the transmission of objects and ideas between geographically static populations (compare
historian's fallacy and
presentism, which are
logical fallacies caused by projecting the modern scholar's mindset onto people living in different times and cultures). However, the
Germanic tribes would not be known to history for being very peaceful, nor for being geographically static. This time was also the age of the
Teutons and the
Cimbri, whose migrations were little like
cultural diffusion, and who were an example of what would follow in the later
Roman Iron Age and
Age of Migrations.
The
Jastorf culture is an
Iron Age material culture in northern Europe, dated from about
600 BC to
1. It is named after a site near the village of
Jastorf,
Lower Saxony (). Its area was first delimited by the
Weser in the West, the
Aller in the South, and the
Danish Islands in the North, but later it expanded southwards towards the
Rhine and the
Harz.
It evolved out of the
Nordic Bronze Age, through influence from the
Halstatt culture further south. It was part of the Pre-Roman Iron Age and the south Scandinavian cultures in the north were very similar to this culture.
The cultures of the Pre-Roman Iron Age and their predecessor the
Nordic Bronze Age are sometimes hypothesized to be the origin of the
Germanic languages. The geographical distribution of the Jastorf culture seems at least to have corresponded to the
West Germanic languages. Its technology for gaining iron ore from local sources may have served as a driver for language spread.
It appears from historic sources that the Jastorf culture was not yet thoroughly Proto-Germanic. Several tribes from this culture, such as the
Ambrones and even the more northerly
Cimbri were partly or largely still
Celtic.
*
Stone circles*
Germanic tribes*
Urnfield culture*
Hjortspring boat*
Tollund Man
