Urbanization in Iron Age Europe: Trajectories, Patterns, and Social Dynamics

Abstract

The development of the first urban centers is one of the most fundamental phenomena in the history of temperate Europe. New research demonstrates that the earliest cities developed north of the Alps between the sixth and fifth centuries BC as a consequence of processes of demographic growth, hierarchization, and centralization that have their roots in the immediately preceding period. However, this was an ephemeral urban phenomenon, which was followed by a period of crisis characterized by the abandonment of major centers and the return to more decentralized settlement patterns. A new trend toward urbanization occurred in the third and second centuries BC with the appearance of supra-local sanctuaries, open agglomerations, and finally the fortified oppida. Late Iron Age settlement patterns and urban trajectories were much more complex than traditionally thought and included manifold interrelations between open and fortified sites. Political and religious aspects played a key role in the development of central places, and in many cases the oppida were established on locations that already had a sacred character as places for rituals and assemblies. The Roman conquest largely brought to an end Iron Age urbanization processes, but with heterogeneous results of both abandonment and disruption and also continuity and integration.

An Alternative to ‘Celtic from the East’ and ‘Celtic from the West’

“…And in areas where Celtic names are otherwise rare, briga/castellum may indicate relatively recent Celtic intrusions (Luján 2011). Given the chronology of hillforts in the peninsula (Arenas-Esteban 2012, 36; Fernández-Götz 2018, 146-7; Lorrio & Ruiz Zapatero 2005, 222), it is hard to imagine that many of the peninsular - briga names are much older than the first millennium bc .…”

Farming practice, ecological temporality, and urban communities at a late Iron Ageoppidum

“…Regarding the oppida of northern France, Haselgrove (2007) has recognised the presence of a caste system, based on evidence of internal settlement division and craft specialisation. Attention to the presence of internal settlement division has been raised recently by a number of authors, with examples given of Villeneuve-St-Germain and Condé-sur-Suippe (Collis, 2000: 234; Fernández-Götz, 2018: 141; Moore, 2017a). The presence of oppidum -wide communities has also been highlighted, maintained for instance by the construction of enclosures through shared labour and the provision of open areas for ritual and political activities (Fernández-Götz, 2014; Moore, 2017a).…”

Re-evaluating Scythian lifeways: Isotopic analysis of diet and mobility in Iron Age Ukraine

“…Moreover, archaeological evidence lends support for diverse subsistence and productive (iron, ceramic) economies, which some have linked to environmental variation, with agro-pastoralists occupying the forest-steppe and nomads the steppe proper [ 6 , 12 ]. The Scythian era site of Bel’sk, a large complex of cemeteries and settlements, is larger than most urban centers in Iron Age Europe [ 13 ] and contemporaneous with other urban locales in the Pontic steppe ( Fig 1 ). This attests to the array of mobile pastoralists living alongside sedentary, presumably agricultural or agro-pastoral populations, rather than a region of roaming hordes.…”