Celtic Pottery in North-East Austria

La Tène Culture pottery from Lower Austria has not been the subject of a more detailed study or comparative analysis. In spite of the fact that a sizable ceramics series has been excavated from several settlements, only a relatively small percentage of this material has been extensively studied archeologically and published. The main proposal of the Project is to conduct a detailed comparative study of pottery from the middle and late La Tène periods secured in settlements of Celtic La Tène Culture on the Middle Danube. The immediate objects of research are ceramics assemblages from past and more recent excavations made at five La Tène Culture settlements in Lower Austria. Central to the implementation of the Project is a large group of ceramics excavated at the central open settlement at Roseldorf. Also to be taken into account within the Project is pottery from a number of other settlements: the major hilltop settlement on Oberleiserberg, the complex at Thunau am Kamp consisting of one hilltop and one valley settlement, and an outlying open settlement at Prellenkirchen. As a significant supplement to the archaeological studies of the investigated material we plan to use the results of mineralogical-petrographic analyses. They will be used as a point of departure for discussing the provenance of assorted vessel types, mineral resources used in their production, and a number of purely technological issues. The planned series of analyses comprises four methods already established in modern archaeometry: optical microscopy, powder X-ray diffraction analysis, Raman spectroscopy, and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. As a kind of capstone to the Project, an experimental firing of a vessel series shall be attempted using a modern ceramic kiln equipped with a sophisticated electronic system to control the firing conditions. We will use a modern furnace in this experiment because of our underlying assumption that it is very difficult to obtain, and maintain with sufficient stability, the desired firing temperature and atmosphere in an experimentally reconstructed Iron Age pottery kiln.

The focus of research completed within the Project was pottery of the ancient Celts (identified with the archaeological La Tène Culture) of Lower Austria. The main aim of the Project was to make a detailed comparative analysis of pottery dating to the last three centuries BC, or, in relative terms, to the middle and the late La Tène period. A large series of pottery finds was selected for study; it derived from archaeological excavations run over the last few decades on five Celtic settlements: an open central settlement at Roseldorf, a hilltop settlement on Oberleiserberg, a complex of two settlements (a hilltop and a valley one) at Thunau am Kamp, and an open peripheral settlement at Prellenkirchen. Next to conservation work and the comprehensive and detailed inventorying and recording of the finds, their typological and chronological taxonomy was elaborated. The data obtained were used in a comparative analysis of the investigated materials in a European context.The archaeological analysis of the pottery finds was complemented by physico-chemical and mineralogical-petrographic studies also made within the Project. Their results were used as a point of departure to discuss the provenance of different vessel types and materials used in their production, but also some purely technological and functional issues. This data also served as input in implementing a special part of the Project experimental firing of pottery. The firing experiments were made using a modern kiln with an electronic controller but also a large wood-fired kiln constructed specifically for the purpose of the Project. In the first case, the aim was to produce and control specific firing conditions, in the latter, to fire a large storage vessel being able to control the conditions of firing in the same way as Iron Age potters. All the experiments were carried out successfully and enabled keeping trace of the consecutive stages of production of ancient Celtic pottery wares.The results generated by the Project research have been presented in a series of conference papers and published in a preliminary manner in a number of articles. Comprehensive reports are currently prepared for publications in monograph form.