Encyclopedia of society and culture in the ancient world ( PDFDrive ) 249

220 cities: Europe imports into temperate Europe became scarce Mont Lassois and the Heuneburg had already been abandoned soon after 500 b.c.e Bourges and Asperg may have survived until as late as 400 b.c.e., but the trading systems had collapsed, one factor being an economic downturn in southern France, perhaps owing in part to the political conflicts at that time in the Mediterranean among the Etruscans, Carthaginians, and Greeks as well as the unrest in northern Italy caused by the Gallic colonization In the third century b.c.e the economic situation in temperate Europe revived Although renewed contact with Italy (Etruria and Rome) was one element in the revival, it played only a partial role, as imported wares such as fine pottery remained rare until the second century b.c.e., when there was an enormous upsurge in imported goods, especially amphorae manufactured at sites on the west coast of Italy such as Pompeii, Cosa, and Albinia These turn up by the thousand in central France; their main contents were wine, but they were also used for other goods such as olive oil and garum (fermented fish paste) From the third century coinage was also adopted, mainly based on Greek prototypes Initially only gold was used, but by the second century lower-value coins of silver and bronze appeared, allowing lower levels of transactions and perhaps also the appearance of market exchange alongside the traditional gift exchange and barter This surge in economic activity led to the establishment of settlements that in some cases were the direct predecessors of the oppida, in that they were abandoned when the population moved to nearby hilltop sites, as in the cases of Levroux, Basel, and Breisach These early sites were much bigger than normal farming settlements or hamlets, usually at least 25 acres in size, and they stand out not merely for their exotic imported goods but also for the presence of a range of industries working materials such as iron, bronze, glass, shale, and bone to produce weapons, tools, and ornaments A few of these sites, like those of the fi ft h century, lie on major trade routes (Basel and Breisach on the Middle Rhine, Manching on the Danube), but most seem rather to have been administrative or market centers (Levroux and the newly discovered site of Bobigny in the northern suburbs of Paris) In central Europe the sites seem more industrial in nature, as at Mšecke Žehrovice in Bohemia, which specialized in making shale bracelets that were widely traded, as well as iron from local ore Clearly some inhabitants of these sites were artisans and possibly traders, and at Manching small wooden houses showing evidence of various industries cluster along the main east-west road paralleling the Danube But Levroux and Manching also had fenced enclosures like those found on the later oppida, and they seem to have been farms that also engaged in industrial production; they are usually interpreted as the residences of a rich farming elite who were becoming increasingly important in these societies None of these sites have rich burials like those of the sixth century The cemetery at Bobigny, while wealthy for its period (male burials with weapons, a couple of imported Italian pots), does not have the rich gold objects or high-status imports found in earlier burials, and the cemetery as Basel seems positively poor One site stands out as exceptional: Aulnat, just east of Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne of central France Like the other sites, it is not on a major route; instead it sits on very rich agricultural land It is a concentration of areas of dense occupation covering an area measuring at least one and a quarter miles by a third of a mile by the late second century b.c.e Despite its large size, it reflects the general pattern of the other settlements, with a range of industries (minting of gold and silver coins, working of bronze and iron, manufacture of glass and bone objects, and probably production of textiles) In its early phases, in the late third century b.c.e., imported items were rare—some coral as inlay for brooches and a few fine vessels and cooking utensils This was followed by the upsurge in the second century b.c.e of importation of wine amphorae and fine pottery There is also a structure identified as a shrine, with associated offerings (notably the burial of a horse with its gear) There are many burials and small cemeteries scattered around the settlement, though again the very richest contain only items such as swords, and none are very rich by Iron Age standards But for this area we have documentary evidence from Greek authors such as the ethnographer Poseidonius He relates how the Arverni (after whom the Auvergne is named) were the most powerful state in Gaul in the second century b.c.e., controlling an area “from the Rhine to the Atlantic” and extending into southern France Their king Luernios was described as the “richest man in all Gaul” and his son Bituitos, after the defeat by the Romans of his army in southern France in 123 b.c.e., was paraded in Rome in his chariot “of gold and silver.” Aulnat seems to have been the center of this powerful state THE FOUNDATION OF THE OPPIDA Several of the open sites were direct predecessors of the oppida, as they were abandoned at precisely the time when new defended sites were established on nearby hills: Basel, Breisach, Levroux, and Aulnat Only at Manching did the open site itself go on to become a defended site There the open settlement had continued expanding until, by the time a murus gallicus rampart was placed around the site around 120 b.c.e., it was nearly a mile in length, enclosing some 1,000 acres Almost the whole area, which included a port site on the Danube, was densely occupied For most of the oppida, however, we not know where the population came from There will probably be more open settlements discovered, especially underlying modern towns But in some oppida we are probably seeing the nucleation of people from many smaller settlements of a nonurban nature—in short, the deliberate foundation of a city where none had existed before This, of course, implies a central organization capable of making the decision to found a new site, with the vision and knowledge of what was needed and the