The Iron Age
The Iron Age refers to the years between 750 BC and the birth of Christ. It is divided into 2 phases; the older Iron Age, also known as the Hallstatt period (750 to 450 BC) and the later Iron Age, also known as the Latène period (450 to the birth of Christ).
In the 8th century BC, a new material became established in our region: iron. It was available almost everywhere and thus reduced the dependence on the few copper and tin deposits.
Bronze nevertheless remained predominant as an ornamental metal, although glass, known since the Bronze Age, also became increasingly fashionable, especially in the Latène period.
For the first time, peoples and tribes can be identified by name: the Celts and the Germanic tribes. The Celts in the Wetterau and Rhine-Main regions were driven out by the East or Elbe Germanic tribes around 60 BC or merged into these peoples; the details are shrouded in the darkness of history.
Social differentiation, which can be seen in richly decorated graves - such as the chariot grave at Offenbach-Rumpenheim - increased more and more.
Direct links with the cultures of the Mediterranean region are evidenced by imported objects and the adoption of many innovations such as the coinage of money and the introduction of the rapidly rotating potter's wheel.
In the early Iron Age, cremation and inhumation burials existed side by side. Burial mounds were again created for the dead. In the course of the later Iron Age, cremation burials and the construction of shallow burial mounds were again uniformly used in southern Hesse. The burial sites of the Late Bronze Age were often reused.