- Celts of Eastern Europe -
Figure 30.1 Bronze wine-flagon from Grave 112 at Durrnberg bei Hallein, Austria (second
half of the fifth century BC or early fourth century BC ). Museum Carolino Augusteum,
Salzburg. (After Moosleitner 1985 .)
CELTIC BURIAL PRACTICE AND GRAVE GOODS
At this time in the west, early La Tene burials occur mostly as secondary deposits
in burial mounds of the preceding Hallstatt period. For this reason this period
is referred to as the 'Hugelgraber-LT' (burial-mound LT) (Kramer 1985). By contrast
in the eastern province - in Bavaria, Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, south-west Slovakia
and western Hungary - flat cemeteries appear in considerable numbers at the end
of the sixth century Be, and some are much earlier than this Gerem 1987).
These cemeteries are characterized by the contemporary co-existence of inhumation
and cremation burials. In the case of the latter, the cremated remains are either
deposited in urns or else placed directly in the soil (Figure 30.2). These differences
may reflect factors such as sex, age, social status or ethnic group (Neugebauer I992;
Jerem I992). A detailed comparative analysis of cemeteries excavated under modern
conditions is still outstanding, but when this is available it will provide the key to
reinterpreting some of the earlier cemetery excavations. It is, nevertheless, possible
to observe certain trends in burial rite. Cremation continued to be common in
the eastern area throughout the Hallstatt period. Inhumations occur in parallel
with cremations but increase in number during the second half of the phase.