The Heuneburg (Baden-Württemberg) and the Hallstatt-Period Celts

Bibliographic Data

ID24211405
AuthorsPatrick Sims-Williams (0000-0002-3306-7012, Aberystwyth University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences)
Year2026
Pages1-13
Publication date2026-09-28
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Antiquaries Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-5815 • E-ISSN: 1758-5309
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0003581526100626
OpenAlexW7214653291
LanguageEN
References cited13

The Heuneburg is part of an important proto-urban complex of the Late Hallstatt period beside the upper Danube in Baden-Württemberg. Since it is not very far from the river’s source, it is widely believed to be the Celtic polis of Pyrene at the source of the Danube, mentioned by Herodotus in the fifth century bc . This identification is the main justification for associating the Danube valley with the Hallstatt-period Celts. A well-established objection is that Herodotus was under the misapprehension that the Danube rose in the Pyrenees in the far west of Europe and that he mistook the mountain-name Pyrene as the name of a polis . Two recent objections to this objection are that the term polis is especially appropriate for the Heuneburg, the ‘first city north of the Alps’, and that there is a reference to a Pyrene in the area of the Heuneburg in a fifteenth-century manuscript from Crete. Both objections are shown to be invalid, and further arguments are advanced for supposing that Herodotus’s Celts were nearer the Pyrenees than Baden-Württemberg.

Baden-Württemberg · Danube valley · Hallstatt period · Herodotus · Heuneburg · proto-urbanism · Pyrene · Upper Danube · Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies · Archaeological and Historical Studies · Classical Antiquity Studies

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