The wagon-graves of the Hart a. d. Alz group and the beginning of the Urnfield period in Central Europe

• Applicant: Dr. Claudia Pankau
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: from 2016 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 310498048

With the early Urnfield period, the beginning of a new wagon building tradition can be stated in Central and South-Eastern Europe, which continues until the Hallstatt period. While previously, only the ox-drawn wagons of the Neolithic period and, in Eurasia and the Mediterranean, the horse-drawn, two-wheeled chariots were known, now four-wheeled wagons with metal fittings, also drawn by two horses, were built. They are only scarcely represented in the archaeological record of the Urnfield period, as their appearance is obviously dependant on certain funeral and depositional traditions in a regional context.Only in the Hallstatt period, the wagon grave becomes a nearly universal phenomenon in Central and Western Europe.The sites of the Hart a. d. Alz group of the early and elder Urnfield period are characterised by typical bronze objects, which are interpreted as decorative fittings and constructive elements of such a four-wheeled ceremonial wagon. The definition of the group dates back to Christopher Pare, who summed up 13 sites to the Hart a. d. Alz group in 1987. Since then, this number has considerably increased partly by new discoveries, and partly by older findings, which can be assigned to the group only by individual or non-specific wagon bronzes. Many of the find complexes are published only incompletely or not at all, a detailed study of the group has not taken place since the work of Christopher Pare in the 1980s and 90s.One goal of my habilitation is therefore the typochronological classification of wagon and harness bronzes of the Urnfield period in their temporal and spatial context. The relationship of the several regionally and temporally varying groups of wagon fittings and the survival of many types into the Hallstatt period are to be analysed precisely. Also, taking the detour of the much better surviving wagon fittings of the Hallstatt and La Tène period, the functional interpretation of the wagon fittings of the Urnfield period will be addressed.There are several indicators that the wagons of the Hart a. d. Alz group mark the beginning of BzD. Unquestionably, they are part of the Urnfield package. What was their place within the new Urnfield ideology, what kind of role they played in the religious and profane life of their time, will be examined by the detailed study of find contexts and of local and regional references of these exceptional sites.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants