A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean

90 Kristian Kristiansen

groups. One of the best documented instances is the case of the Vettones in central
Spain. Here, more than 400 bull statues in combination with a specific form of pottery
demarcated the kingdom of the ethnic group (Alvarez-Sanchís 1999, 2002). It corre-
sponded to the rise of fortified oppida and a ranked warrior society. From the early Iron
Age onward, such ethnic polities were identified with a founding hero/king through-
out Celtic Europe (Almagro-Gorbea and Lorrio 2011). Similar processes of territorial
demarcation accompanied other early state formations in the Mediterranean (examples
in Cifani and Stoddart 2012). This use of material culture and rituals by select groups in
the formation of early states has much in common with what we can observe from the
Middle Bronze Age onward in Europe, with the exception of urbanization.

FULDA-WERRA-GRUPPIERUNG

RHEIN-MAIN-GRUPPIERUNG

HAGENAUER

GRUPPIERUNG

ALB-GRUPPIERUNG

BÖHMISCHE-GRUPPIERUNG

OBERPFÄLZISCHE GRUPPIERUNG

SÜDBAYERISCHE GRUPPIERUNG

0 100km

Figure 6.2 Map showing the core areas of local cultural groups, in south-central Europe and the
way they were connected through intermarriage, defined by the appearance of female burials with
a foreign set of ornaments from a neighboring group (from Wels-Weyrauch 2011). Reproduced
by permission of Ulrike Wels.