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A Doctor's Grave of the Middle La Tène Period from Bavaria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

J. M. de Navarro
J. M. de Navarro
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge
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Extract

In the summer and autumn of 1910 Postinspektor Schild found a small cemetery of the Middle La Tène Period (Reinecke, Phase C) on his property at Munich—Obermenzing, Upper Bavaria. Eight graves were discovered by him; one, if not two of them were cremation burials. A number of the graves yielded no goods or were at best but meagrely furnished and had either previously been disturbed or had belonged to poor people. Later, in 1913 and in 1914, G. von Merhart (on what must have been one of his earliest excavations) continued work there with the aid of Schild. Nine more graves were discovered, two being cremation, the others inhumation burials. It is of interest that the three richest burials all housed cremations. Apart from two graves found by Merhart, this cemetery is as yet unpublished, though references to it have appeared in various periodicals.

The material from the site is in the possession of the Vor- und Frühgeschichtliche Staatssammlung, Munich, and I am more than indebted to its director, Doktor O. Kunkel, for his kindness in allowing me to publish the grave from this cemetery which forms the theme of this paper. My thanks are also due to two other friends, Doktor W. Krämer and Doktor H. Müller-Karpe for help on a number of points and for placing the respective records of the Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege and of the Vor- und Frühgeschichtliche Staatssammlung at my disposal.

Type
Iron Age
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 21 , July 1956 , pp. 231 - 248
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1956

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References

page 231 note 1 Münchener Jahrbuch d. bildenden Kunst, 1913–1914, 311 fGoogle Scholar.

page 231 note 2 H. A. Ried, ibid., 1912, 253 and in Archiv.für Anthropologie, N. F., XII, 1913, 225–7Google Scholar; Reinecke, P., Mainzer Zeitschr. 8/9, 1913–1914, 111 f.Google Scholar; Schaehle, F., Die Hofmark Menzing, 1927Google Scholar; Krämer, W., Germania, 30, 1952, 331Google Scholar.

page 231 note 3 Reinecke, l.c., 111.

page 231 note 4 Archiv. für Anthropologie, N.F., XII, 1913, 225 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 231 note 5 See also Münchener Jahrbuch d. bildenden Kunst, 1912, 253Google Scholar, where Ried first identified them as such.

page 231 note 6 Yet the doctor's grave is sufficiently well-known in Bavaria for it to have inspired a short shory, Das Geheimniss um den keltischen Arzt, by Franz Joseph Weiss. I have to thank Doktor Müller-Karpe for sending me a copy.

page 232 note 1 l.c., 111, an opinion recently reaffirmed by him, in a conversation with the writer.

page 232 note 2 cf. Déchelette, , Man. d'Arch. Celtique, II, 3, fig. 553Google Scholar, especially numbers 5 and 7; and P. Vouga, La Tène, pl. XXII, especially figs. 4, 5, 9 and 13 with their ring handles—the two former, each rusted on to a pair of shears, form part of what Vouga believes to be a barber's outfit.

page 233 note 1 Acta Archaeologica, 20, 1949, 9, 46Google Scholar.

page 233 note 2 I. Hunyady, l.c., I, pl. XVII B, 2 and 4, and Márton, L., Dolgozatok, IX–X, 1933–1934, pl. XLVI, 6, for examples from HungaryGoogle Scholar. But this bay-leaf variant is rare in the more easterly La Tène area.

page 233 note 3 From the Middle La Tène cemetery on the Steinbichl site, Beitr. zur Anthropol. und Urgesch. Bayerns, XVI, 1907, 34Google Scholar, fig. 6, 2, 36, fig. 8, 1 and, for a longer, narrower example of the same family, ibid., 35, fig. 7, 1. This last is figured in Déchelette, l.c., fig. 478, 1.

page 233 note 4 P. Vouga, l.c. pl. x, where figs. 9, 12, are the closest parallels in size and proportions.

page 233 note 5 For Schrobenhausen, see Katal, d. Sammlg d. Hist. Ver. von Schwaben, 1886, 11Google Scholar; Weber, , Oberbayern, 93Google Scholar; Beitr. zur Anthropol. und Urgesch. Bayerns, 11, 1895, 303Google Scholar; ibid., 18, 1899, 178. For these references I am indebted to Doktor W. Krämer. At least two Middle La Tène graves were found at this site when building a railway some eighty years ago.

page 234 note 1 P. Jacobsthal, Early Celtic Art (= E.C.A.), pl. 62, no. 100; Lindenschmidt, , Altertümer uns. heidn. Vorzeit, II, 8, pl. 3, nos. 1 and 2Google Scholar.

page 234 note 2 E.C.A., 115, where both Early and Middle La Tène forms from Hungary and elsewhere are cited.

page 234 note 3 The Early La Tene form of open chape with two stylized birds' heads may, perhaps, persist into the period when the sword style was current: cf. the Hungarian sword—E.C.A., no. 118—from Hatvan-Boldog (Heves m.), Dolgozatok, ix–x, 1933–1934Google Scholar, pl. LIV and LV, and Jacobsthal's remarks on it in E.C.A., 207.

page 234 note 4 P. Vouga, l.c., pl. II, 2 (for the front side) and E.C.A., pl. 233, d for the ornament only. I am indebted to Doctor H. Reymond for photos of both sides of this splendid piece. For further details on bird-bridges, see Addenda, p. 247.

page 235 note 1 Hunyady, l.c., I, pl. XVII B, figs, ia and Ib The triskele with its tendril offshoots on this weapon is very closely related to the ornament on two sheaths from La Tène figured by P. Vouga, l.c., figs. 7d and 7e As Jacobsthal points out (E.C.A., 97), Swiss swords ‘were exported (and imitated ?) because of their high quality’, see also note 3 to the same page. The spearheads (Hunyady, l.c., pl. XVII B, figs. 2 and 4) from the Hódság site have also a westerly appearance. The Hódság group is also given in Déchelette, l.c. fig. 387.

page 235 note 2 e.g., P. Vouga, l.c., pl. IV, 3–5, also on the aforesaid sheath from Hódság.

page 236 note 1 P. Vouga, l.c. 44; cf. also Pfahlbauten, Ber., 2, 152.

page 236 note 2 From La Tène: 14 examples from Pfahlbauten, Ber., 2, pl. III, ibid., Ber., 6, pls. VII, x, XI; others in P. Vouga; l.c., pls. II, 3, v, 2–3, 9, VI, 5, VII, 1–2, and fig. 7, o and q; 2 at Zürich, Landesmuseum, Inv. nos. 10368, 19775; 1 at Geneva, Musée d'Art et d'Hist., M 549. cf. also Addenda, p. 248.

page 236 note 3 Mainzer Zeitschr., 28, 1933, 97, fig. 14Google Scholar.

page 236 note 4 Hunyady, l.c., 1, pl. XVIII, fig. 18, 2 a-b from Perkáta (Fejér m.), where this feature occurs not in the usual all-over pattern but in horizontal bands, in a guise unknown to me elsewhere; and perhaps on a sheath from Bonyhádvarasd (Tolna vm.), to judge from the illustration in ibid., II, pl. XLV, 2. On a recent trip to Hungary, my friend, the recipient of this tribute, kindly made enquiries on my behalf about the incidence of chagrinage on La Tène sheaths found in that country. The information which he obtained bears out what I had believed: chagrinage is quite exceptional in Hungary.

page 237 note 1 e.g. P. Vouga, l.c., pl. I, 3; II, i (with a double wavy line), 2, 3; v, 1, 4 (=E.C.A., pl. 65, no. 106), 5, 8, 10; and fig. 7 m (=E.C.A., pl. 66, no. 111). It is also found in Early La Tène, e.g., on the famous sheath with figural scenes from Hallstatt (E.C.A., pl. 60, no. 96 and Ebert, , Reallexikon, III, pl. 122Google Scholar), where this feature is used to frame a zone of intersecting step-patterns; but it is not to be connected with the tremolo lines framed with straight ones on the Early La Tene Sword from Vert-la-Gravelle (E.C.A., pl. 56, no. 90 and Prähist. Zeitschr., 25, 1934, 99Google Scholar) which form the actual design: swastikas enclosed by an angular guilloche.

page 237 note 2 Hunyady, l.c., II, pl. XLV, 6.

page 237 note 3 E.C.A., pl. 70, no. 119.

page 237 note 4 E.C.A., 52 ff.

page 237 note 5 e.g. P. Vouga, l.c., pl. v, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8; VI, 3 (clearer in ibid., fig. 7 k), 5; P. Vouga, Les Helvètes à La Tène, pl. 1, 23 (reproduced in Déchelette, l.c., fig. 463, 6). Also on a sheath from La Tène in the Musée National, St. Germain (Inv. no. 3153), not to mention devolved and disintegrated examples. The motif also occurs on a scabbard from Port-Nidau, O. Tschumi, ‘Urgesch. des Kant. Bern’, fig. 201 and 29 Jahresb. d. schweiz. Gesell. f. Urgesch., 1937, 74Google Scholar, on the Swiss sheath found at Weinheim already referred to above, note 3, p. 236 and on a sword from Onnens (Vaud) in the Solothurn Museum.

page 237 note 6 Hunyady, l.c., 1, pl. XVIIB, 1a (on the sword from Hódság mentioned above) and ibid., 1, pl. XVIII, 18, 1, (another sword from Perkáta).

page 237 note 7 Musée de Troyes, Catalogue des Bronzes, pl. XXII, 233, combined with non-zoomorphosed wave-tendrils (cf. E.C.A., 207).

page 237 note 8 Some Swiss examples, to which others could be added, are cited in E.C.A., 45, where reference is made to the Scythian source of the motif. For instances from Hungary, see ibid., pl. 70, nos. 121–5. Only one example is known to me from Czechoslovakia; it was found at Sobčic (Pič, , Staročzitnosti země Ceské, 1, 2, fig. 6, 4c)Google Scholar.

page 238 note 1 Jacobsthal (E.C.A., 45), draws attention to a closely allied but not identical motif on a drinking cup found at La Cheppe (Marne) in an Early La Tène chariot grave, E.C.A., pl. 210, no. 411. See also for this find, Nicaise, A., ‘Les cimitières Gaulois dans La Marne’, Bulletins de la Soc. d'Anthropologie, séance 17 Avril, 1884, 5 and pl. 3, 3Google Scholar.

page 238 note 2 See note 8, p. 237.

page 238 note 3 E.C.A., 59 and pl. 239c and von Merhart, , Treasures of Carniola, 32 and pl. 7, no. 20Google Scholar. A Scythian model from Bulgaria is given in E.C.A., p. 230 f., which both Rostovtzeff (Skythien und der Bosphorus, 539) and Schefold, (Eurasia Septentr. Antiqua, 12, 1938, 63Google Scholar) date to the later half of the 4th century. Rostovtzeff, l.c. 451, note 1 and Roes, IPEK, 11/12, 1936–7, 95, speak of an Iranian origin for the zoomorphosed triskele, the former when dealing with Scythian examples, the latter with Lycian coins.

page 238 note 4 For a number of instances of the latter the reader may be referred to von Merhart, G., Festschr. d. röm.- germ. Zentral-Museums in Mainz, 1952, 11, pl. 20, 23–5Google Scholar.

page 238 note 5 P. Vouga, l.c., pl. 11, 2 and E.C.A., pl. 233 d.

page 239 note 1 i.e., the open discs with zoomorphosed triskeles, commented on by Márton, (Arch. Hung., XI, 1933, 103)Google Scholar, in the late Hallstatt B hoard from Ugra, Bihar m. (S. Gallus and T. Horvath, Un peuple cavalier préscythique en Hongrie, pl. xv, 1 and 2). The hoard antedates our two Bavarian swords by about half a millennium. See Kossack, G., Jahrb. d. röm.-germ. Museum Mainz, I, 1954, 137f.Google Scholar, for the dating of this hoard.

page 239 note 2 Ebert, , Reallexikon, VIII, pl. 53aGoogle Scholar.

page 239 note 3 For the Mátraszele and the Komáron pieces, see respectively Prähist. Zeitschr., 19, 1928Google Scholar, pl. 36, 1 and Arch. Ertesitö, 43, 1929, pl. xv, 1 and 2Google Scholar; for the relevant Craiova plaques, Prähist. Zeitschr., 18, 1927, pl. 4, 1–3Google Scholar, and ibid., 19, 1928, 153.

page 239 note 4 See above, page 238, note 3.

page 240 note 1 The closest parallel to the ornament as a whole on this scabbards—though not to the chape of the birds' heads—occurs on a Swiss sword, or possibly a copy of a Swiss sword, said to have been found in Württemberg (K. Bittel, Die Kelten in Württemberg, pl. 4, 2 and 2a).

page 240 note 2 The triskele on it has the same tendrils that appear on swords from La Tène (P. Vouga, l.c., fig. 7, d and e).

page 240 note 3 See E.C.A., 151f and 207.

page 240 note 4 Ibid., 96, 207, and pl. 67, no. 113; Déchelette, l.c., fig. 463, 2–2a.

page 240 note 5 E.C.A., 208 and pl. 214, no. 419 and P. 186; Dolgozatok, IX–X, 1933–1934, pl. XXXIV, 11 a–cGoogle Scholar.

page 241 note 1 Dolgozatok, l.c., pl. XXXIV, 2 and 3.

page 241 note 2 See above, page 234.

page 242 note 1 Südhoff, (Prähist. Zeitschr., V, 1913, 597)Google Scholar gives other, to my mind, not very convincing reasons for their lack of handles. Yet against Ried's view, it should be noted that other objects from the doctor's grave, as well as the instruments, show fire-patina.

page 242 note 2 Heilkunde der Europäischen Vorzeit, 266.

page 242 note 3 Doctor d'Abreu is in accord with H. Kerschensteiner, Bayerland, No. 20, Oct., 1933, in his interpretation of this instrument.

page 243 note 1 Milne, J. S., Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman Times, 53 fGoogle Scholar. For examples, see ibid., pl. XI, 3 and 5; also T. Meyer-Steinegg, Chirurgische Instrumente des Altertums, pl. 1, 4, found with a double probe (ibid., pl. 111, 4), and other surgical instruments in an ill-dug grave at Ephesus.

page 243 note 2 Meyer-Steinegg, l.c., pl. 111, 4 and 7; provenance of the former not given, the latter from the Ephesus find. See too Milne, l.c., pl. XVII (though the eye is scarcely visible in the illustration); it comes from the Roman military hospital at Baden.

page 243 note 3 For illustrations of different forms of Hey's saws, see C. J. S. Thompson, The History and Evolution of Surgical Instruments, fig. 43, 11–14 and fig. 50; cf. also ibid., figs. 44–6.

page 243 note 4 Three trepanations of Middle La Tène date may be cited: one from Deisswil, Kt. Bern, where the square excision was chiselled out, perhaps posthumously (Schlaginhaufen, O., Festschr. für Otto Tschumi, 97 ff.)Google Scholar; two from Vienna-Guntramsdorf, Graves 1 and 2 (F. Wimmer, apud Pittioni, R., La Tene in Niederösterreich, 128 ffGoogle Scholar. and Pittioni, Urgesch. des österreich. Raumes, 718 and fig. 502)Google Scholar. Both the latter are double trepanations, each skull has a round and a lobed excision whose regularity leads Wimmer to believe that they were done with a true trephine, i.e. by a rotary cup-saw with a centre-pin. In support of this he cites a bone rondel with an incomplete central perforation from grave 2, though in its present state it does not fit the excision. For cranial amulets, see Déchelette, l.c., 801, 803 and fig. 560, 6–7; de Mortillet, , Rev. d'Anthr., 1876, 11Google Scholar; Pič—Déchelette, Le Hradisckt de Stradonitz, pl. 43, 17 decorated with stamped circles; Krämer, W., Germania, 30, 1952, 262Google Scholar. Earlier in our period I know of four trepanations: one from the Dürrenberg, Hallein, (La Tèe A) which was done for a tumour on the brain (Wiener Prähist. Zeitschr., XIX, 1932, 51 f., fig. 5Google Scholar); one (La Tène B) from Möglingen, Württemberg (K. Bittel, l.c., 69); two from the Münsingen cemetery, Kt. Bern, graves 16 (La Tène A) and 152 (La Tène B), see Stern, Wiedmer, Archiv. d. hist Ver. Kt. Bern, XVIII, 1908, 302, 340 and pl. 35Google Scholar. The skull from grave 16 shows a narrow fissure running out backwards from the excision. This suggests that the operation was done for a skull fracture and that the circular excision was made to remove the depressed bone. Two Late La Tène instances come from the Gasfabrik settlement at Basel (31 Jahresber. d. schweiz. Gesell. f. Urgesch., 1939, 145 f.Google Scholar, pl. 19): on one skull the bone was scraped out; on the other it was chiselled and broken out, the rough edges of the bone being afterwards carefully trimmed off. This note makes no claim to be exhaustive but, taken in conjunction with the evidence of the Obermenzing saw, shows that different methods were employed for this operation in the La Tène period. Since the above went to press, Doktor O. H. Frey has kindly called my attention to the November number of the ciba Festschrift, IV, 1936, which is devoted to trepanation. Unfortunately it is inaccessible to me. I have also to thank him for one or two of the references in this note.

page 244 note 1 Prähist. Zeitschr., V, 1913, 595 fGoogle Scholar. Cf. also G. Wilke, l.c., 216, 266 f. Dr d'Abreu would identify the instruments from this find (fig. 3) as follows: a, if not a double spatula, possibly a straight periosteal elevator; b and c hook retractors; d, a bone-saw—it could also be used for trephining; e, a retractor for deep wounds; f, an aneurysm needle; g, uncertain, possibly a cautery for small growths such as warts; h, possibly a curved periosteal elevator.

page 244 note 2 Meyer-Steinegg, and Südhoff, , Gesch. d. Medezin im Überblick, 94Google Scholar. Wilke, l.c., 212.

page 244 note 3 Cf. Kimmig, W., Germania, 24, 1940, 110Google Scholar, where historical evidence for Celtic contacts with Egypt is given. Kimmig is dealing with a Celtic mercenary's shield found in the Fayum.

page 244 note 4 For Gallo-Roman and Roman parallels to surgical instruments found on the Late La Tène Hradischt, Stradonitz (Bohemia), the reader is referred to Déchelette's translation of Pič's Le Hradischt de Stradonitz, 74 and pl. XXIV, 9–12, 23–5. These are later in date than those 1 am concerned with, as also are those from the oppidum at Velem-szent-Vid there cited. A good deal of information, especially on Roman finds of surgical instruments, is contained in Milne's book already referred to. Such instruments have recently come to light on the Romano-British Wallbrook site in London, Ill. Lond. News, Oct. 8, 1955, 615, fig. 4.

page 246 note 1 Cf. Walters, H. B., Catalogue of Bronzes in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, nos. 2357, 2359, 3370. 2358 (the last, from Athens, but probably late)Google Scholar. Also British Museum, Inv. Nos. M.L. 1904, 2–4, 217; M.L. 1904, 2–4, 1057; and 57, 5–8, 123.

page 246 note 2 Greek and Roman Life, British Museum Guide, fig. 200. Walters, l.c., fig. 56 (also given in Milne, l.c., pl. XXIII, 3), a double instrument described by Walters, l.c., 313, under 2319, as ‘a retractor and probe’.

page 246 note 3 Cf. fig. 3, a, with Milne, l.c., pl. XX, 1.

page 246 note 4 Milne, l.c., 131 ff., where the relevant passage from Hippocrates is quoted. An illustration of this type of trephine (evidently based on the description by Celsus) is given in C. J. S. Thompson, l.c., fig. 24, 2. In this operation the Greeks sometimes used a drill to make a circle of holes, the interstices between each being subsequently broken up in order to remove the bone, cf. ibid. fig. 22 and page 37. Again, a totally different type of instrument to ours.

page 247 note 1 P. Vouga, l.c., pl. XLVI, 19, it should be noted, is not a snare: the shank is of single, not doubled wired and it has no collar. The bent over portion is not a plate (as in the looped instrument from Obermenzing) but a single wire ending in a small, now broken eye. In certain of Vouga's illustrations the facetted shanks of some of the tools cited above are not easy to see. But I have had the objects in my hands and can vouch for the presence of this feature on them. Fig. 4 of this paper, is poorly illustrated in P. Vouga, l.c., pls. XLIV, 4 and XLVI, 12.