Oppidum

thumb|260x260px|Distribution of fortified oppida, [[La Tène culture|La Tène period]]

An oppidum (: oppida) is a large fortified European Iron Age settlement or town. Oppida are primarily associated with the Celtic late La Tène culture, emerging during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, spread across Europe, stretching from Britain and Iberia in the west to the edge of the Hungarian Plain in the east. These settlements continued to be used until the Romans conquered Southern and Western Europe. Many subsequently became Roman-era towns and cities, whilst others were abandoned. In regions north of the rivers Danube and Rhine, such as most of Germania, where the populations remained independent from Rome, oppida continued to be used into the 1st century AD.

Definition

thumb|Reconstruction of the eastern gate of the [[oppidum of Manching]]

is a Latin word meaning 'defended (fortified) administrative centre or town', originally used in reference to non-Roman towns as well as provincial towns under Roman control. The word is derived from the earlier Latin , 'enclosed space', possibly from the Proto-Indo-European , 'occupied space' or 'footprint'. In modern archaeological usage oppidum is a conventional term for large fortified settlements associated with the Celtic La Tène culture.

In his Commentarii de Bello Gallico, Julius Caesar described the larger Celtic Iron Age settlements he encountered in Gaul during the Gallic Wars in 58 to 52 BC as oppida. Although he did not explicitly define what features qualified a settlement to be called an oppidum, the main requirements emerge. They were important economic sites, places where goods were produced, stored and traded, and sometimes Roman merchants had settled and the Roman legions could obtain supplies. They were also political centres, the seat of authorities who made decisions that affected large numbers of people, such as the appointment of Vercingetorix as head of the Gallic revolt in 52 BC.

thumb|Part of the Celtic oppidum of [[Oppidum of Manching|Manching, Germany]]

Caesar named 28 oppida. By 2011, only 21 of these had been positively identified by historians and archaeologists: either there was a traceable similarity between the Latin and the modern name of the locality (e.g. Civitas Aurelianorum-Orléans), or excavations had provided the necessary evidence (e.g. Alesia). Most of the places that Caesar called oppida were city-sized fortified settlements. However, Geneva, for example, was referred to as an oppidum, but no fortifications dating to this period have yet been discovered there. Caesar also refers to 20 oppida of the Bituriges and 12 of the Helvetii, twice the number of fortified settlements of these groups known today. That implies that Caesar likely counted some unfortified settlements as oppida. A similar ambiguity is in evidence in writing by the Roman historian Livy, who also used the word for both fortified and unfortified settlements. In particular, Dehn suggested defining an oppidum by four criteria:

Size: The settlement has to have a minimum size, defined by Dehn as .
Topography: Most oppida are situated on heights, but some are located on flat areas of land.
Fortification: The settlement is surrounded by a (ideally uninterrupted) wall, usually consisting of three elements: a facade of stone, a wooden construction and an earthen rampart at the back. Gates are usually pincer gates.
Chronology: The settlement dates from the late Iron Age: the last two centuries BC. The 2nd and 1st centuries BC places them in the period known as La Tène. A notional minimum size of has often been suggested, but that is flexible and fortified sites as small as have been described as oppida. However, the term is not always rigorously used, and it has been used to refer to any hill fort or circular rampart dating from the La Tène period. One of the effects of the inconsistency in definitions is that it is uncertain how many oppida were built.

In European archaeology, the term oppida is also used more widely to characterize any fortified prehistoric settlement. For example, significantly older hill-top structures like the one at Glauberg (6th or 5th century BC) have been called oppida.

Such wider use of the term is, for example, common in the Iberian archaeology; in the descriptions of the Castro culture it is commonly used to refer to the settlements going back to the 9th century BC. The Spanish word , also used in English, means 'a walled settlement' or 'hill fort', and this word is often used interchangeably with oppidum by archaeologists.

Location and type

thumb|Reconstructed walls of the Celtic oppidum of [[Bibracte, in Burgundy, France]]

According to pre-historian John Collis, oppida extend as far east as the Hungarian plain where other settlement types take over. Around 200 oppida are known today. Central Spain has sites similar to oppida, but while they share features such as size and defensive ramparts the interior was arranged differently. Oppida feature a wide variety of internal structures, from continuous rows of dwellings (Bibracte) to more widely spaced individual estates (Manching). Some oppida had internal layouts resembling the insulae of Roman cities (Variscourt). Little is known, however, about the purpose of any public buildings. Some of the oppida fortifications were built on an immense scale. Construction of the 7 km-long ' at Manching required an estimated 6,900 m3 of stones for the façade alone, up to 7.5 tons of iron nails, 90,000 m3 of earth and stones for the fill between the posts and 100,000 m3 of earth for the ramp. In terms of labour, some 2,000 people would have been needed for 250 days.

thumb|[[Corent oppidum, France]]

However, size and construction of oppida varied considerably. Typically oppida in Bohemia and Bavaria were much larger than those found in the north and west of France. A recent discovery reported in July 2025, reveales evidence of a large Celtic settlement near Hradec Králové in the Czech Republic, dating back to the La Tène period. It covers a large area in comparison to other typical settlements in the region and likely served as a major economic and administrative center for the Celtic Boii tribe, whose name gave rise to “Bohemia.”

thumb|The plateau of [[Gergovia, France, site of the Gergovia oppidum]]

thumb|Defensive wall remains on the Gergovia plateau

Typically oppida in Britain are small, but there is a group of large oppida in the south east; though oppida are uncommon in northern Britain, Stanwick stands out as an unusual example as it covers . Dry stone walls supported by a bank of earth, called Kelheim ramparts, were characteristic of oppida in central Europe. To the east, timbers were often used to support the earth and stone ramparts, called Pfostenschlitzmauer (post slot wall) or "Preist-type wall". They have been found in particular in the north-west and central regions of France and were combined with wide moats ("Type Fécamp").

In Britain the oppidum of Camulodunon (modern Colchester, built between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD), tribal capital of the Trinovantes and at times the Catuvellauni, made use of natural defences enhanced with earthworks to protect itself. The site was protected by two rivers on three of its sides, with the River Colne bounding the site to the north and east, and the Roman River forming the southern boundary; the extensive bank and ditch earthworks topped with palisades were constructed to close off the open western gap between these two river valleys. These earthworks are considered the most extensive of their kind in Britain, and together with the two rivers enclosed the high status farmsteads, burial grounds, religious sites, industrial areas, river port and coin mint of the Trinovantes.

History

thumb|Model of the Roman siege of [[Avaricum, France, during the Gallic Wars (52 BC)]]

Prehistoric Europe saw a growing population. According to Jane McIntosh, in about 5,000 BC during the Neolithic between 2 million and 5 million people lived in Europe; in the late (pre-Roman) Iron Age (2nd and 1st centuries BC) it had an estimated population of around 15 to 30 million.

While some oppida grew from hill forts, by no means all of them had significant defensive functions. The development of oppida was a milestone in the urbanisation of the continent as they were among the first large settlements north of the Alps that could genuinely be described as towns or cities (earlier sites include the 'Princely Seats' of the Hallstatt period).

Oppida continued in use until the Romans began conquering Iron Age Europe. Even in the lands north of the River Danube that remained unconquered by the Romans, oppida were abandoned by the late 1st century AD.

Marduel oppidum
Moulay oppidum
Nages oppidum
Pech Maho
Uxellodunum
Verduron
Vesontio, forerunner of modern Besançon

Germany

thumb|Reconstruction of an entrance gate at the [[Donnersberg oppidum, Germany]]

thumb|Site of the [[Menosgada|Staffelberg/Menosgada oppidum, Germany]]

Alcimoennis {Kelheim), 600 ha
Donnersberg, 240 ha
Dünsberg
Finsterlohr
Heidengraben, 1,700 ha
Hohenasperg

thumb|[[Glauberg oppidum wall and entrance gate]]

thumb|Remain of ramparts at the [[Heidengraben oppidum]]

Glauberg
Manching oppidum, 380 ha
Martberg
Milseburg
Menosgada
Steinsburg oppidum

Switzerland

thumb|[[Basel-Münsterhügel|Basel oppidum reconstruction, Switzerland, c. 80 BC]]

Basel oppidum
Bern (Brenoduron)
Mont Vully
Lindenhof oppidum, Zurich (Turicon)
Uetliberg oppidum

Britain

Calleva Atrebatum, forerunner of modern Silchester
Camulodunon, forerunner of modern Colchester
Durovernum Cantiacorum, forerunner of modern Canterbury
Maiden Castle, Dorset, England
Noviomagus Reginorum, forerunner of modern Chichester
Ratae Corieltauvorum, forerunner of modern Leicester
Stanwick, England
Traprain Law, Scotland
Venta Belgarum, forerunner of modern Winchester
Verlamion, England

Iberian peninsula

thumb|right|Monumental gate, walls, and paved streets, in the oppidum of [[Castro of San Cibrao de Las|San Cibrao de Lás]]

Monte Bernorio, Spain
Numantia, Spain
Segeda, Spain
Segobriga, Spain

Elsewhere

thumb|Site of the [[:cs:Oppidum Stradonice|Stradonice oppidum, Czechia]]

Atuatuca, Belgium
Titelberg, Luxembourg
Stradonice oppidum, Czechia
Závist oppidum, Czechia
Bratislava oppidum, Slovakia
Gellért Hill, Budapest, Hungary

References

Notes

Bibliography

Collis, John (2000), "'Celtic' Oppida", in Hansen, Mogens Herman, A Comparative Study of Thirty City-state Cultures, Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, pp. 229–240,
Collis, John (2010), "Why do we still dig Iron Age ramparts?" (PDF), Collection Bibracte 19: 27–36,
Jones, Stephen (2001) Deconstructing the Celts: a skeptic's guide to the archaeology of the Auvergne. British Archaeological Reports. Oxford: Archaeopress.
McIntosh, Jane (2009) Handbook of Life in Prehistoric Europe (paperback ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Woolf, Greg (July 1993), "Rethinking the Oppida", Oxford Journal of Archaeology 12: 223–234

External links

Multi-lingual site on European oppida