Iron Age hillforts in Thuringia

Alter Gleisberg (Copyright: Peter Ettel
(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AlterGleisberg.jpg=)

Hillforts are a well-known and well-studied feature of the Bronze and Iron Ages of France, Germany, the Czech Republic, as well as Austria. By definition, they are a feature of the hilly parts of Europe and while they can come in all shapes and sizes, it is the really large ones, such as the Mont Beuvray or the Heuneburg that attract the most attention, not least because of their contacts with the Mediterranean in the late Bronze Age and the Iron Age.

But how far north do they reach? Of necessity, they are unlikely to exist north of Cologne-Münster-Osnabrück and Magdeburg, as the area is just too flat. But it now seems that they not only stretch pretty close to this geographical limit but exist in some considerable size.

In Thuringia at the Alte Gleisberg near Löberschütz between Jena, Weimar and Eisenberg, is an insulated hill about 340m tall with a series of plateaus at the top, surrounded by several tributaries of the Saale River. In close proximity, two other smaller hillforts (c.3ha each) are known at Jenzig and Johannisberg. The Gleisberg has, however, a much larger viewshed, covering an area of c. 56 sqkm. 

Decorated bucchero from Alten
Gleisberg (copyright: http://www.jenaloebnitz.de/
rundumsgeistal/fruehgeschiche/index.html)

While the hill has been known to be occupied thanks to fieldwalking finds dating back as far as the 19th century, organised fieldwork only started around 2004, when a piece of decorated Etruscan Bucchero pottery was found on the hill. Since then geophysical surveys and excavations have established that the occupation on the hill covered nearly 7ha and ranged in date from the late Neolithic through the Bronze Age to the Iron Age.
While the excavations have produced numerous postholes and features, as well as the typical spectrum of finds from these high-status sites, including metal pins, brooches, beads and spindlewhorls.

bangles and fragments of sapropelic coal found in 2014
(copyright Ur-und frühgeschichtliche Archäologie Jena)

The excavations on the Middle Terrace in the last few years have produced evidence for metalworking with moulds and tuyères, as well as bone-working and evidence for a bangle workshop using sapropelic coal. 

The finds suggest that particularly in the 1st millennium BC, during the Urnfield, Hallstatt- and Early LaTène period the hill was the centre of power in the area is is currently the northernmost of these large centres in Thuringia and the only one with Mediterranean import.

2013 excavations (Foto: J.P.Kasper)

The excavations are continuing. 

Bibliography:

• Peter Ettel, Burgenbau und Binnenschiffahrt. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologen Verbandes e.V. 47,2, 2016, 70-82.
• Klaus Simon: Ein Bucchero-Fragment vom Alten Gleisberg bei Bürgel (Thüringen). In: Arbeits- und Forschungsberichte zur sächsischen Bodendenkmalpflege 41, 1999, S. 61–96.
• further informations on the excavations can be found at the Seminar für Ur- und Frühgeschichtliche Archäologie, Universität Jena. (http://www.ufg.uni-jena.de/Projekte/Aktuelle+Projekte/Vorgeschichte/Alter+Gleisberg.html)