Delicate urbanism in context: Settlement Nucleation in pre-Roman Germany

Abstract

This volume brings together the latest understanding of pre-Roman German urbanism from seven German scholars, accompanied by a contextualizing commentary from five further scholars, based in the UK and America. The result is a dissection of the different dimensions of a delicate urbanism that compares and contrasts with other examples of sometimes more robust urbanism in other parts of first millennium bc Europe. The papers concentrate on examples in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, but range as far as Rome and Athens in making comparisons. The analysis takes both a quantitative and qualitative approach, investigating both the first Hallstatt (sixth/fifth centuries bc) and second La Tène (last few centuries bc) cycles of nucleation, assessing rural settlement and burial, as well as the underlying forces of ritual and production.