Celts at the Traisen valley (Ossarn and Oberndorf)

In this research project, the social differences and social mobility in Celtic societies and the actual question concerning Celtic identities should be analysed. Hereby the combination of archaeological and anthropological analysis of latène aged cemeteries from the Traisen Valley is of enormous importance, because this region is one of the most important archaeological regions in Austria. On the one hand the latène aged cemeteries of Ossarn and Oberndorf, which shows strong connections to the Champagne (F) will be fully analysed in transdiscipliary research context. The main premise is to conduct a detailed restoration, graphical documentation, inventory, and analysis of the archaeological material. Further, analyses of ceramics and bronze material will support to complete the data sets. The anthropological studies focuses primarily on the age at death estimation and sex determination, but also deal with the identification and documentation of pathologic, traumatic and degenerative skeletal features to shed light on living conditions of the Celts, populating this area. At the final conclusion analyse of this project, the graphical depiction and ranking of ring costumes (combined with age and gender datas) are the first step of a internal analysis with other cemeteries of the Traisen valley (e.g. Pottenbrunn, Inzersdorf, Herzogenburg- Kalkofen,...). The results of this important analysis will be the basic for wider ranking research with other central european regions like Moravia, Slovakia but also Bohemia and Northern Italy.

This research project analyses the social differences and social mobility in Celtic societies and the actual question of Celtic identities. Within this project the combination of archaeological and anthropological analysis of the La Tène period cemeteries in the Traisen valley is of enormous importance, since this area is one of the most important archaeological regions in Austria.In this context, the La Tène burial grounds of Oberndorf in der Ebene and Ossarn (both Traisen valley, Lower Austria) were processed and analysed comprehensively.The strong presence of the transition horizon from Hallstatt to Latène and especially the earliest stages (initial phase) of the Early La Tène culture could be detected for the first time, enabling a significant advance in the overall presentation of the La Tène culture in Lower Austria.Hence, the approach of a separation of the La Tène A period into two sub-periods comparing with findings from adjacent regions such as South Moravia, Southwest Slovakia and West Transdanubia has been attempted.Within the cemeteries - especially in the larger tomb groups of Oberndorf - special burial groups have been identified. Grave 37 from Oberndorf 2004, where the funeral of a female person with weapons and special tools made of antlers could be determined, seems noteworthy.Anthropological analysis (F. Novotny) systematically studied the human skeletal remains of 73 individuals. Besides demographic and morphometric parameters, the kind and frequency of pathological, traumatic and degenerative changes as well as epigenetic signs were recorded.The spectrum of pathological changes included diseases of the teeth and the peridontal apparatus (among other things like caries, dismantling of the alveolar bone, tartar), inflammatory changes (e.g. sinusitis frontalis and maxillaris, stomatitis, meningitis) and unspecific stress indicators as a result of lack of food (e.g., cribra cranii and orbitalia). Whereas there are hardly any differences regarding the lack of food symptomatology within the two analysed populations and also to the neighbouring La Tène population of Pottenbrunn, clear differences are given in the kind and frequency of inflammatory changes (meningitis).In order to explain the origin and distribution of raw materials, ceramic (petrographic studies - R. Sauer) and the composition of the bronze material artefacts (P. Northover) were analysed. Also remnants of textiles, particularly in terms of their contextual situation, (K. Grömer) and ancient DNA (for the study of family relationships) and Strontium isotope analyses in collaboration with the University of Mainz (for mobility and migration) were carried out.