Das latenezeitliche Gräberfeld von Mannersdorf im Leithagebirge, Flur Reintal Süd, Niederösterreich

This publication is the first monographic result of the APART project "Migration Phenomena in the Early La Tène Period") and the FWF project P-15977-GO2 "The Celtic cemetery at Mannersdorf (Lower Austria) in the context of east-west cultural contact". From 1976 to 1984 Heribert Schutzbier and Friedrich Opferkuh from the Mannersdorf Museum, with the Federal Department of Sites and Monuments, excavated in the field Reinthal Süd a total of 96 inhumation and cremation burials of the Early and Middle La Tène periods. The cemetery itself lies on a gravel ridge, extending Northwest-Southeast and measuring 200 metres long and around 45 metres wide. It was in use from La Tène A2/B1 to C1 or in absolute dates from around 400 to 200 BC. The quality of the artefacts is shown primarily besides the materials silver, gold, glass and corals in the technical workmanship of the artefacts. A prominent piece of the cemetery is a bronzesitula which represents an import from northern Italy. Certain areas like the Middle Rhine, the Champagne or the Balkan must have had strong connections to the lower Austrian Area. The division of the sexes in the Mannersdorf cemetery is as follows: At 48 there were twice the number of women as men (24). From this analysis a group of "Lt B1 elite or leading graves" were identified, defined as the most equipped group, with double foot and hand bands and the presence of precious metals. The size of the necropolis at the Reinthal ground in Mannersdorf am Leithagebirge lies, with 96 graves, in the midfield in the central Danube region. In my considered but cautious opinion it is possible that a part of those buried in Mannersdorf were a group of people who originated in the area of today`s Switzerland. An equally possible hypothesis is, and this does not contradict the first view, that represented here are members of an "upper class", with extensive economic and family contacts (and through that high mobility) along the "Central European Corridor" and associated areas, such as northern Italy and who expressed these things through their dress and their additional property. Supplementary analyses of bronze material, ceramic, animal bones, iron smithy technology, gold smithy technology, textile and production technology and stone artefacts represent an indispensable part of the presentation this latèneaged cemetery.