Boii - Taurisci

This volume is the result of the conference Boii Taurisci, which was held from June 14th15th, 2012 at the Event Centre Schüttkasten in Klement-Oberleis, Austria (FWF Project P22615-G21). The conference was attended by around 40 researchers from eight countries: Austria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary and Germany. The thematic focus of the contributions was the nature of contacts and relations between the settlement areas of the La Tène Culture, which are associated with the Celtic tribes of the Boii and Taurisci on the basis of numismatic and written sources. The largest thematic block this conference volume comprises discussions that deal with the nature of the settlements of the Taurisci in the basin of the Drava and Sava, i.e. in Slovenia and Croatia, and the Scordisci towards their southeast. In these papers, the local peculiarity of settlement patterns and archaeological finds are addressed, as are the intensive contacts with adjacent areas, especially towards the north (Boris Kavur, Marko Dizdar, Ivan Drnic and Dragan Božic) The next section of the volume deals with the territory of the Boii. Most authors emphasise the crucial importance of the north-south axis (Amber Route) during the La Tène period in central Europe, which ran through the Moravian Gate to the Middle Danube and further south to the Adriatic coast (Jir Militk, Maciej Karwowski, Monika Debiec and Radoslav Cambal with co-authors). In the section General Themes of the Eastern Celtic Area of the book, local specifics of the La Tène culture in the east, such as pit houses, are discussed as characteristic elements of the local material culture. Furthermore, the role of the Amber Road will be evaluated, questioning whether it was the sole north-south axis, or if other road systems such as the Bastanarian Road existed in the east. There might have been a direct connection between the Bastarni and the Dacii in addition to the connection between the Boii and the Taurisci (Péter Prohaszk, Piotr Luczkiewicz and Lorinc Timr). The part Contacts between the Middle Danube Region and the Romans raises the question of the oppidum of Bratislava about mid-1st century. In addition, the influence of the Regnum Noricum and the Romans are discussed. The later developments in the context of Germanic colonisation (Maroboduus), a controversial topic, are also presented here (Margareta Milošov, Igor Bazovsk and Michael Erdrich). Of the 20 papers presented at the conference, 14 written contributions were obtained for this volume. The contribution to archaeological knowledge consists on the one hand of the presentation of contexts of finds in many categories (coins, fibulae, Knotenringe, architecture and settlement features). On the other hand, new insights have been gained into the relationship between the area of Boii coinage and settlement areas of the Norici, Taurisci and Scordisci. It was important to provide a forum for new and ground-breaking contacts between researchers in this field and their (often yeasty and fervent) discussions during the conference, as well as to provide space for publications. Therefore space is given here for controversial representations of new archaeological findings and considerations that are sure to lead to new dialogue. Overall, the objective of this meeting, the challenging of conventional ways of thinking about chronology in the Late La Tène period and presentation of new approaches to the interpretation of archaeological evidence, was met. The statements in the individual articles represent the opinion of the authors and were only translated into a diplomatic Austrian (German or English) in extreme cases, so as not to endanger further discourse.