Urnenfelderzeitliche Grabhügel und Siedlungender älteren Hallstattkultur in der Steiermark

Zum Beginn der Hallstattkultur im Südostalpenraum

Abstract

Following the idea that the common European horizon HallstattB3 (after P. Reinecke/H. Müller-Karpe) is to be classified asthe  latest  period  of  the  Urnfield  Culture  in  central  Europe,various  hillfort  settlements  and  tumuli  graves  in  the  EasternAlpine region are still classified as relicts of the European UrnfieldCulture. Neglecting the development of Early Iron Age chro-nology  in  the  Southeastern  Alpine  region  (Slovenia),  as  pre-sented by S. Gabrovec and B. Teržan, with its connections tothe Balkan regions as well as to northern Italy, in Styria therestill  exists  the  idea  of  a  very  prosperous  late  and  latest  Urn-field Culture with hillfort settlements and non-tumulus graves.In fact, these settlements are part of a new era, the HallstattCulture, and show a new model of settlement connected withthe  erection  of  tumulus  graves  for  the  upper  class.  Further-more, the use of iron starts in this period, in any case withinthe local horizon Ljubljana IIb. This confirms that the begin-ning of the Iron Age should be placed within the horizon HallstattB3, and in terms of absolute chronology within the 9th centu-ry B.C., probably even quite early in this century. The ”Styr-ian pattern” has also been valid up to now with the prominenthillfort settlement of Kleinklein-Burgstall and the tumuli con-nected to it. The recently excavated cemeteries of Wildon andGniebing  only  begin  within  the  Early  Iron  Age  and  containtumulus graves, such as are all the other graves published recentlyfrom  Styria  as  ”spät-  or  spätesturnenfelderzeitlich”.  Similarly,the tumuli from Wetzelsdorf don’t belong to the early (!) Urnfieldperiod  (Hallstatt  A!)  but  to  the  Early  Iron  Age.