Dörth - Chariot grave

On a ridge, approximately 1,5 km east of the town centre of Emmelshausen is an unusually large tumulus.
Inspired by the legend of the golden chariot in the tumulus a farmer opened the barrow in 1851.
The barrow – originally 5m high – held the famous Celtic chariot grave of Dörth. It was not the chariot that was made of gold but the jewellery of the deceased.  The dead had been placed in a wooden burial chamber along with a two-wheeled chariot and various drinking vessels. The skeleton had completely dissolved in the acid soil but the gifts indicated a male burial of about 450 B.C. The entire burial accoutrement was bought for 30 Marks by the Royal Museum in Berlin.
The quality of the preserved objects, particularly the chariot, demonstrates the high technical standard of the Celtic craftspeople.
Very complicated metalwork had to be carried out in order to clad the hoops of the wooden spoked wheels with iron and to make and decorate the bronze axle covers.
The chariot was the status symbol of the early Celtic ruling class. It was possibly used in times of conflict as well as for simple travel purposes. With the chariot gift the dead was glorified beyond death and shown to belong to the Celtic ruling class.
The jewellery of the dead substantiates this too: his gold armbands and rings are characteristic gifts for early Celtic sovereigns and chiefs.
Members of the early Celtic elite emphasized their standing using a wealth of tableware for their feasts and symposia. From Etruria in upper Italy came bronze vessels with spouts from which wine was supplied. Precious wines from Etruscan or Greek regions were, already in the 6th century, coming to the Hunsrück-Middle Rhine region via Marseille or the Rhone.
Gold ornamental mountings from a drinking horn, which lay next to a handleless bronze bowl, also from Etruria, were tableware that befitted one of rank and status.
Between the rivers Moselle, Saar and Nahe important elite graves of the early Celtic era were sited. In these graves, virtually as a rule, items are found which had been imported from the Etruscan region in upper Italy. The increase in prosperity of the Celtic elites has often caused   puzzlement.  It was almost certainly not just down to their natural resources such as gold and the   plentiful supplies of iron.
These vessels, with spouts,  were mass and serial produced in the Etruscan city of Vulci, a centre of bronze processing.
How did communication come about, in the 5th century B.C. between the Etruscan merchants of Northern Italy and the Celtic elite on the Hunsrück heights?  In the first instance was the inexhaustible demand of the Etruscan bronze producers for tin.
Tin and copper are constituents of bronze production and tin was mined mainly in Northern France and England.
The trade route went from Etruria, over the Alpine passes, along the Rhine and through the Saar-Moselle-area towards Brittany. As middlemen the Celtic sovereigns on the Middle Rhine and Hunsrück   came by power and wealth.  
It is a puzzle as to why, in the Middle Rhine area and also on the Hunsrück, larger settlements and forts are not in evidence, as opposed to contemporaneous southern German centres such as Heuneburg on the Danube.
The sovereigns and chiefs buried in rich graves between the rivers Mosel and Nahe possessed natural resources and controlled the traffic routes, but they did not have towns and forts at their command. They had villages and hamlets.

[Martin Thoma]