Greek and Italic Imports at Early Iron Age Dürrnberg: A study in transalpine communication

Abstract

The identification of a handle fragment of 5^th century BC Attic black-glazed pottery from the foot of the Dürrnberg ‘salt metropolis’ near Hallein (Austria) offers an opportunity to reassess Early Iron Age transalpine communication. Imports from Greece and Italy are present in the Eastern Alpine region and beyond in supposedly smaller numbers than in the Western Hallstatt region. However, a survey of those outstanding pieces, and especially of many more ‘ordinary’ examples of foreign material culture, proves the intensity of Mediterranean-Central European relations already since the Early Iron Age. The spectrum of finds also shows once again the diachronic significance of the ‘Tauern-Salzach-Passage’, which connected the Caput Adriae with the regions of the Northern Alpine foothills. Dürrnberg and nearby Hellbrunner Berg had an important relay function in the 6th and 5th century BC, which guaranteed a reciprocal exchange of goods up to the western Hallstatt region. In a gradual distribution of objects in the context of economic-social gift exchange and cultural appropriation, the ‘southern import’ had a fundamental effect in social transformation.