Hello Hivers
Today I'll take you on a visit to the remnants of what once was the largest Celtic settlement in Middle Europe, the Celtic oppidum Heidengraben.
The former settlement is located on a plateau of the Swabian Jura, close to the rural village of Erkenbrechtsweiler. The Heidengraben was built around the 1st century BC and stretches over an area of about 16 square kilometers.
Let's go and have a look!
The circuit starts at the burial grounds with a few dozens of mounds of different sizes.
Inside these grave hills many artefacts could be found, including pottery, weapons and jewellery, telling us a lot about Celtic culture, how they lived and what customs they had.
Anyone like me and feeling reminded of the old Windows XP theme :D
Further finds, such as an Italian Amphora prove the trade of the Celts with distant regions of ancient Europe. It is mind-bending to think about what it meant in these times to travel such distances with carts full of trade goods.
A typical view of the predominantly barren landscape of the Swabian Alb. Rainwater tends to quickly drain away into the countless cavities of the Swabian Jura limestone.
Today there is an extensive water supply network, pumping up to 6500 liter ground and spring water per second into the areas of need. Something the Celts couldn't even dream off.
Such subsidences are typical for the so-called Karst landscape of the Swabian Alb. Carbonated rainwater dissolves the limestone drop by drop until the ever thinner layers of lime finally sink in.
The oppidum was fortified with a two-ring wall of enormous size, giving the defenders the higher ground against potential attackers. The first ring was further secured with an outer ditch.
Three large gates secured the access to the settlement inside.
I hope you enjoyed this little trip back in time. If you like to dive deeper into the age of the Celts or more specifically, read up on the Heidengraben, plenty of resources can be found from the respective Wikipedia articles.
Thanks for following along and see you back next time 👋.
Photos recorded by myself with an iPhone 13 Pro. All rights reserved.
Thanks for showing us around this interesting place full of history, it looks really nice under the low winter sun :)
@tipu curate
Thank you for stopping by and the tipu vote @phortun, much appreciated! Yes, the winter sun gives a special touch to these sceneries.
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I swear if it wasn't for your post I would simply look at it as a simple mound. It looks plain or rather minimalist, your story made it really interesting. Love the shots, especially this one:
Will these images be on the next LMAC?
Thanks for stopping by! Yes, these mounds look rather unsuspicious. Imagine being the person having opened one of these for the first time.
In fact, I made this visit a little while ago already and one of the shots indeed made it into the LMAC.
You can have a look here and see what LMACians made out of it!
What a coincidence, the photo that I liked the most is actually the one used in LMAC months ago; I was pleasantly surprised.
Another awesome thing is that you're able to keep track of the images used on LMAC and able to pull it out quickly on a comment... wow man you're so organized, kudos Sir.
By the way, the LMAC entries are so well done! 1st & 2nd place are my faves too :)
And here in the west of Romania quite close to me I have some mounds a bit bigger than the ones you photographed, I know they are tombs but unfortunately no one can tell me details about how they appeared there and how old they are, moreover in one of them you can even enter but access is forbidden.
I've really been thinking for at least a year now to do a post about them, but not having any information I can't just write a few lines.
Much fun I enjoyed reading and following the photos. This is really a nice place and indeed a lot of artifacts could be around here.
Taking us through this journey in photos is commendable, thank you.
#PhotographyLovers
Very nice pictures, thanks for sharing.
I like this one quite a lot:
!HUESO
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If you don't tell me then this looks mediocre. But I was interested in what you said contained jewelry inside, if this was near me I would dig to find it 😁😁
Well nice information about this place. It seems like the desert where traders stop to take rest in ancient times
Much fun I enjoyed reading and following the photos. This is really a nice place and indeed a lot of artifacts could be around here.
Taking us through this journey in photos is commendable, thank you.
#PhotographyLovers
It's so sad when you aware you are making your way on something that was so important a while ago and only find a few leftovers of it. I wish this kind of locations would be better preserved..
It is an interesting area.
Thanks for taking us down memory lane @shaka and yes i agree with you, it really gave the whole Windows XP theme what a coincidence😃.
Wo verbrachte ich viele Monate, bevor ich die Entscheidung treffen musste, ob dem deutschen Ruf nach Vaterlandsverteidigung zu folgen oder ganz selbstständige Wege zu gehen? Im Bereich zwischen Tübingen, Villingen und Memmingen. Obwohl damals noch vollkommen ahnungslos auf welch historisch aufgearbeiteten Gelände ich mich bewege, hätte ich in jeder freien Minute in dieser wunderbaren Landschaft versinken können.
Ich wage nicht einzuschätzen, ob das Wissen über die keltischen Einflüsse meine emotionale Sichtweise beeinflusst hätte, doch bin ich mir sicher, immer wieder gerne in diese Gegend zurückkehren zu wollen.
Dein Beitrag ist somit eine Rückkehr in lang zurückliegende Zeiten – für die Kelten und für mich!
Great Share @shaka. The Heidengraben is an important archaeological site and it is also an open-air museum. It is open to visitors who can explore the burial mounds and learn about the Celts and their culture.
In der Schwäbischen ALb 😀 das ist aber schön