Андрей Тихомиров - The development of the culture of the ancient Indo-Europeans

The Hallstatt culture is the culture of the Indo—European tribes of the southern part of Central Europe during the Early Iron Age (approximately 1000-500 BC). Got its name from the Hallstatt burial ground, located near the city of Hallstatt (south-western Austria) near large deposits of salt, developed already at the beginning of the Iron Age. Probably, the entire existence of the population that left this culture was based on the extraction of salt and its exchange. The burial ground was opened in 1846 and has been systematically excavated since then. Until the end of the 19th century . about 2000 burials were opened, in which 2 chronologically simultaneous burial rites are combined almost equally: corpse-burning and elongated corpse-laying. Usually, corpse immolations contain richer inventory, belonging mostly to men. Next to the burnt ashes in the graves are clay and bronze vessels, swords and things that survived the fire. Graves were often enclosed in a circle of stones and covered with stones from above. Corpse–burning spread in Vedism – Brahmanism – Hinduism. The inventory of Hallstatt graves is extremely rich and versatile. A lot of bronze and iron weapons, bronze dishes and ornaments typical of the entire archaeological culture, called Hallstatt, have been found.

The main territory of distribution of this culture (Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Czech Republic and Slovakia) coincides with the area of settlement of tribes that belong to the ancient Illyrians. The Hallstatt culture was also widespread in southern Germany, in the Rhine departments of France, where it is associated with Celtic tribes, and in the eastern part of the Po River valley in Italy. In the basins of the Oder and Vistula, the culture of the Late Lusatian tribes belongs to this era, which was one of the components in the ethnogenesis of the Slavs. The transition from bronze to iron took place gradually, and the initial stage of the Hallstatt culture is characterized by the coexistence of bronze and iron tools with an increasing predominance of iron. In the economy of the population, agriculture became increasingly important, in the technique of which the transition from the hoe to the plough and plow was made. The social system of tribes is characterized by the disintegration of patriarchal-tribal relations and the transition to the relations of class society.

The dwellings of this culture are open in a number of those places. These were wooden pillar houses with an inner courtyard surrounded by buildings arranged in the form of the letter "P", having similarities with the Vars in the Southern Urals. There are also semi-dugouts. The forms of settlements are diverse and correspond to the economic foundations of various stages. There are pile settlements. The most common type is a village with a proper street layout, weakly fortified, but still surrounded by a palisade and a moat. Salt mines, copper mines, iron-smelting workshops and forges have been well explored. Due to the preservative properties of salt, tools are found in salt mines: axes, chisels, as well as remnants of clothing made of animal skin or woolen fabrics painted in different colors. In the copper mines, the sinking of the rock was carried out with the help of fire. A large amount of charred wood, copper and bronze picks, wooden buckets and gutters, pillars that served as props, etc. are found in the tunnels. The ore extracted from the mines was crushed on special stone slabs with the help of large stone hammers. Further processing was carried out in roasting and melting furnaces. The remains of a large Hallstatt forge were found in Moravia (Czech Republic), in the cave of the Bull Rock. Krits, hammers, tongs, anvils, stone foundries were found there (later the cave in which the forge was located was turned into the tomb of a noble leader). The specialization of crafts was limited to metallurgy.