- Chapter Twenty-Six -
Secondary burials are frequently inserted into the barrows. Grave goods generally
include bronze fibulae, bracelets for women and iron short swords and spears for
men. Higher status burials, like the Reinheim barrow, are clearly set apart by gold
jewellery, objects of shale, jet, amber, lignite and glass, two-wheeled carts/chariots,
and imported Etruscan bronze vessels for wine-drinking. Unlike the dense Hallstatt
barrow fields, the La Tene rich burials occur only once or twice per cemetery,
while most burials were simple flat inhumations. Cemeteries with rich burials are not
associated with any of the known hill-forts, but are well scattered (cf. Wells 1980:
104-II; Cunliffe 1988: 30-7; Collis 1984: 103-26).
More typical of cemeteries is Thely, with more than 37 burials in 18 barrows. One
burial was unaccompanied, and 6 had only one pottery vessel each. Eight had
weapons (swords and spears). Bronze bracelets/arm-rings occurring in pairs were the
most common grave goods. There was no gold, jet, lignite, coral or glass, and no
chariot or timber chamber.
The Champagne-Marne area in north-eastern France witnessed a contemporary
development of burial traditions along very similar lines, probably closely related to
the Hunsriick-Eifel focus and receiving imported goods via the Moselle. In
Champagne two-wheeled carts/chariots are apparently more common, occurring in
barrows in small cemeteries (Figure 26.8). Swords and spears appear with men (the
typical complement is one pike and two javelins), occasionally with bronze helmets,
and elaborate bronze chariot and horse harness fittings. Women are buried with
bronze torques, bracelets and fibulae.
The Champagne cemeteries, of 30-40 burials on average, occur regularly across the
landscape (with an unexpected congruence with modern parishes). The cemeteries
are usually interpreted as serving farming hamlets or small villages.
The early La Tene Champagne culture, like its Hallstatt predecessor, seems to
have come to a sudden end. Its collapse is contemporary with changes in the
Mediterranean world (e.g. the rise of the Roman state), but it also probably had
internal causes, including very rapid population growth and unrealistic expectations
Figure 26.8 Hallstatt Furstengraber wagon. (From Biel 1985: fig. 42/3.)