- The First Towns -
sporadically occupied; others like the Steinsberg bei Romhild have produced
plentiful finds. In the latter case the extensive, but limited, range of the ironwork
(for instance large numbers of ploughshares) may be connected with some ritual
deposition, and hoards are also known from the Diinsberg in Hesse and from
Tiefenau, in the later oppidum on the Engehalbinsel in Berne.
The date of abandonment of these sites too presents no coherent picture.
Excepting Switzerland, which properly forms part of Gaul, no sites in the areas later
conquered by Rome survived as Roman towns. Most, like Manching, had been
abandoned a generation or more before the conquest. But further north, in the
Mittelgebirge, some sites such as the Alteburg bei Arnstadt were still extensively
occupied, perhaps as late as Augustan times, like the oppida in Bohemia.
Thus, though they did not form a cohesive defensive, economic and trading system,
individual sites could survive in apparent isolation.
GAUL
The Mediterranean littoral has a very different history from the areas to the north.
It came under early influence from the developing cultures of the classical world, of
the Greeks, the Phoenicians and Etruscans, as early as the seventh century Be, and
this process of contact was accelerated with the foundation of the Greek colonies, of
which Massalia, founded around 600 Be by the Phocaeans, quickly gained
supremacy. Inland a wide variety of small defended sites appeared, some such as the
Cayla de Mailhac as early as the eighth to seventh century.
The majority of sites, however, start after the period of the Greek colonies, and
their earliest levels produce Attic black-or red-figure ware, and from the fifth
century onwards the settlement pattern was highly nucleated with, it appears, most,
if not all, the population living in nucleated defended sites. In character these might
vary from small defended villages such as Les Pennes near Marseilles, to sophisticated
urban settlements such as St Blaise or Entremont, the former hardly distinguishable
from its Greek contemporaries. In comparison to the central and western European
oppida, they are small, rarely exceeding 15-20 ha, and often much smaller. Many
of the characteristics of classical towns are present on these sites - elaborate stone
ramparts, rectilinear road layout, and monumental architecture, especially for
temples with their stone sculpture, sometimes aping Greek prototypes with, for
instance, friezes of horses' heads, but more often with local themes such as the tetes
coupees or monstrous beasts. With such a centralized settlement system, naturally
trade and industry were also centred on these sites, though these are aspects which
have been little studied in comparison to the art and architecture. Many sites
continued in occupation up to and beyond the Roman conquest in 125-123 Be, and
its urban system rapidly adapted to the Roman system.
Ostensibly the area north of Provence between the Rhine and the Atlantic
presents a consistent pattern. The small open settlements (,industrial villages') such
as Levroux and Aulnat have long been known, like those in southern Germany. But
they are now beginning to emerge along the valley of the Garenne, the Rhone-Saone
corridor, and in the valley of the Aisne. Most are small isolated settlements of about