Keltenmuseum

Description

The Keltenmuseum Hochdorf/Enz, located in the Hochdorf district of Eberdingen, offers insight into the Celtic settlement of the Neckar region; it lies about 18 km west of Ludwigsburg in the district of Ludwigsburg and displays primarily replicas of the grave goods discovered during the 1978 excavation, as well as an introduction to the Celts’ way of life and crafts.

On the edge of the village a Hallstatt-period large burial mound has been reconstructed; it was originally erected around 550 BC. The re-formed mound reaches a height of about six metres and a diameter of roughly 60 metres. At its centre lay an oak-wood burial chamber measuring 4.7 × 4.7 m, surrounded by another chamber and protected by a stone packing weighing around 50 tonnes. The burial of a high-ranking man took place with rich grave goods; the mound’s position affords a view towards Hohenasperg (Grafenbühl). Palaeogenetic and isotopic analyses from 2024 demonstrate a close kinship of the interred individual with the central find from Hohenasperg—probably an uncle–nephew relationship along the maternal line—and show that the deceased grew up in the region. The mound remained undiscovered for a long time because it had been largely flattened; stones revealed during ploughing led to the excavation.

The museum building, opened in 1991, incorporates elements of the mound: a metal arch on the façade symbolizes the burial mound, and the reconstructed burial chamber lies beneath the arch at the original location. Replicas were made using Iron Age techniques; the original finds, including the skeleton of the deceased, are housed in the Landesmuseum Württemberg in Stuttgart. The museum also shows documentary films; following an energy upgrade, since early 2024 it has featured a newly designed cinema. In the adjacent open-air area there are reconstructions of Celtic buildings, demonstrations of crafts such as iron production in bloomery furnaces, and information on the dense Iron Age settlement of the region with over 150 sites. In summer there are Iron Age programmes; lectures and changing special exhibitions are presented regularly.

The undisturbed grave finds comprise splendid personal equipment: golden fibulae, a golden neck ring with rider friezes, a gold arm ring, a belt plate, an ornamental dagger, golden shoe fittings and a conical birch-bark hat. Further accompaniments include bronze buckles, a comb, a razor, a nail awl, fish hooks, a knife in a pouch, amber beads and a bronze-fitted quiver with 14 arrows. The deceased lay on an elaborately decorated bronze seat (2.75 m), whose punched ornamentation shows stylistic links to the Situla art of northern Italy; the bench was padded with bast and furs and showed signs of wear, suggesting an older origin. The grave assemblage includes an almost complete four-wheeled ceremonial wagon with elaborate fittings and two-horse harnessing. In the wagon box were dining and drinking vessels for nine people: three bronze basins, nine plates, eight drinking horns hung on the sidewalls and a large iron horn for the deceased (approx. 5.5 l). A composite Greek bronze cauldron (approx. 500 l) with lion figures stood at the feet of the deceased and was about three quarters filled with fresh mead; inside lay a golden ladle and drinking bowl and traces of mead. Particularly remarkable is the ensemble-preserved textile fabric of wool, hemp and linen with complex weaves and muted colours (blue, yellow, occasionally crimson), which was used as wall hanging, seat cover and ceremonial cloth and is unique for the Central European Iron Age.

The burial mound also contains two subsidiary graves created during the mound’s construction and a later interment; palaeogenetic findings show kinship relations to individuals from other Hallstatt sites such as Magdalenenberg and place Hochdorf within a supra-regional elite and kinship network in the Neckar–Black Forest area.