This reconstruction of an Iron Age log cabin is located in the open-air museum Asparn/Zaya and show the workshop of a prehistoric dyer master.

[open-air museum](http://www.mamuz.at/en/exhibitions/schloss-asparn-zaya/mamuz-schloss-asparn-zaya)

Prehistoric house (Asparn)

Dieses Gebäude wurde von archäologischen Erkenntnissen unterschiedlicher prähistorischer Hauspläne inspiriert. Es handelt sich um ein prähistorisches Grubenhaus mit drei Kuppelöfen zum Backen von Brot. Die Werkstätte wurde von einem eisenzeitlichen Rundhaus mit einem zentralen Pfosten überdacht.

This building was inspired by archaeological evidence from various prehistoric house plans. It is a prehistoric pit house with three domed ovens for baking bread. The workshop was covered by an Iron Age round house with a central post.

Mitterkirchen - Backhaus

Earl’s Hill Hillfort is an Iron Age enclosure 7 miles south west of Shrewsbury and immediately south east of the village of Pontesbury, Shropshire. The site consists of an earlier oval enclosure on the summit with a defended north gate and a later elongated annexe to the south extending along the top of the ridge. There is another defended enclosure approx. 400ft down through the woodland to the north known as Pontesford Hill Hillfort which is covered in trees.

Model created from drone photogrammetry using a DJI Phantom 4 Pro

You can read a detailed description of the hillfort here http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MSA763&resourceID=1015

There are links to two pdf archaeological reports on Earl’s Hill and Pontesford Hill here http://pontesfordhillfriends.co.uk/about-the-hill/pontesford-hill-and-earls-hill/archaeology-2/

The hill is also a Nature Reserve maintained by the Shropshire Wildlife Trust https://www.shropshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/reserves/earls-hill

Earl's Hill Hillort, Pontesbury, Shropshire

Dieses Gebäude wurde als eisenzeitliches Vorratsgebäude konzipiert. In ihm werden unterschiedlichste Regale, Kisten und große Töpfe für die Bevorratung eisenzeitlicher Nahrungsmittel ausgestellt.
Am Dachboden konnten grössere Mengen an Stroh in Säcken verstaut werden. 
In den einfachen Holzregalen lagerte man die unterschiedlichsten Lebensmittel (Getreide, Hüslenfrüchte oder Nüsse) in diversen Töpfen, Holzschüsseln und Körben.
Besonders hochwertige Lebensmittel wurden in gut verschlossenen Kisten vor tierischen Schädlingen geschützt.

EN

Late Iron Age storrage building:

This building was designed as an Iron Age storage building. It displays a wide variety of shelves, boxes and large pots for storing Iron Age food.
In the attic, large quantities of straw could be stored in sacks. 
The simple shelves were used to store a wide variety of goods (grain, legumes or nuts) in various pots, wooden bowls and baskets.
Particularly high-quality products were protected from animal pests in well-sealed wooden chests.

Schwarzenbach - eisenzeitliches Vorratsgebäude

This bowl with an X-shaped handle can be dated to c. 50 BC-200 AD, i.e., [Late Pre-Roman Iron Age or Early Roman Iron Age](https://bit.ly/3vucSEX). It was found in [Gårdby parish](https://bit.ly/3hrP1gS) on the island of Öland. It belongs to a type of fine ware with carefully polished surface and a delicately incised décor. The black surface is a result of firing in a reducing atmosphere, in other words, the oxygen supply has been restricted during the firing. It is made in a style typical for Southern Scandinavia, Northern Germany and Poland. The bowl has probably been used as a drinking vessel at feasts, dinners and during rituals.

Online Collections: [580574_HST](https://bit.ly/3stKKjB)

Late Pre-Roman Bowl

Mont Orgueil (French for 'Mount Pride') is a castle in Jersey that overlooks the harbour of Gorey. It is also called Gorey Castle by English-speakers, and lé Vièr Châté (the Old Castle) by Jèrriais-speakers.The castle is first called 'Mont Orgeuil' in an ordinance issued by Pierre de Brézé, Lord of the Isles during the occupation by the French during the War of the Roses, in 1462.

The site had been fortified during the Iron Age, as excavations in the 1970s showed, the existence of an earth rampart at the top of the granite rock, that the castle now rests on. Other materials were also found at the site, such as arrowheads and pottery, which actually date from the Neolithic period (4000–2500 BC). 

+Info : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Orgueil

Mont Orgueil | JERSEY

Spring is coming and the volunteers and archaologists are getting the [wattle and daub](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wattle_and_daub) walls up on roundhouse, or rather getting the daub up on the wattle.

Copmpare with some earlier scans of the roundhouse from February when the roof was not thatched: https://sketchfab.com/nebulousflynn/collections/living-in-the-round-8dd663ef2e364b97b00c9f1c92f0cb58

Captured on a visit to the [Living in the Round](https://www.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/news-hub/news-articles/iron-age-history-to-be-brought-to-life) project. I challenged myself to see what outputs I could get with just my phone as the capture device.

587 images Canon G7X, Metashape, Blender

Iron Age Roundhouse Reconstruction - April 2024

3D Scan of an Antenna dagger with a sheath and a decorated handle from the Hallstatt cemetery (circa 600–400 BC) found in grave Nr.116. This Iron Age cemetery and the salt mine are among the most important archaeological sites in Austria, more than 1500 burials have been found so far.

The dagger can be found in Hall 12 of the NHM Vienna.

This dagger was chosen for scanning via a [Facebook survey](https://www.facebook.com/Naturhistorisches.Museum.Wien).  To learn more about our [3D Museum](https://www.nhm-wien.ac.at/museum_online/3D) watch [this "Science Talk" from the NHMW](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w7QbZDRs0E) by V. Winkler & A. Haider (in German).

**Object**: Antenna Dagger and Sheath

**Inventory number**: NHMW-PRAE-24.048

**Collection**: NHMW, Prehistory Dept., Hallstatt cemetery (contact: Georg Tiefengraber)

Find out more about the NHMW [here](http://www.nhm-wien.ac.at/en).

Scanned & edited by Viola Winkler &  Anna Haider (NHMW)

Scanner: Artec Space Spider. Infrastructure funded by the FFG.

Antenna Dagger and Sheath (NHMW-PRAE-24.048)

Im Freilichtmuseum 'Keltendorf Mitterkirchen' wurde immer schon großer Wert auf eine aussergewöhnliche Innenausstattung der Gebäude gelegt. So finden sich in den Häusern immer wieder reichlich verzierte Möbel.

Eines der herausragendsten Stücke ist dieser Rundtisch mit Beinen in figürlicher Verzierung. Inspiriert durch die häufigen Darstellungen von Stieren in der hallstattzeitlichen Kunst, wurde auch hier das Motiv mittels prehistorischen Handwerksmitteln relativ frei umgesetzt.

EN

In the open-air museum 'Keltendorf Mitterkirchen' it has always been very important to provide exceptional interior decoration for the buildings. Thus, you can always find richly decorated furniture in the houses.
One of the most outstanding pieces of this furniture, made according to Iron Age craftsmanship techniques, is this round table with legs in figural decoration. Inspired by the numerous representations of bulls in Hallstatt art, the motif was applied quiet freely here.

Mitterkirchen - Tisch

Another nice, little cameo on Rock 28.  This time a deer-hunting scene.  Two Iron-Age hunters have cornered a stag.  One plunges a spear into its side - his other hand wielding a sword.  A second hunter, not very well defined on the 3D model, stands in front of the stag holding a sword and a shield.

Valcamonica, Foppe di Nadro - Rock 28 (2)

This Camunian Rose with a dancing figure below very famous image in Valcamonica rock art.  I have two excellent Valcamonica rock art guide books and both of their covers display photos of this pairing.  There are many other engravings round about them, but these two stand out due to their quality, clarity and execution.

The Camunian Rose is a very good example of the quatrefoil type.  The dancing figure below holds a sword in his right hand and a small shield in his left.  He wears a decorated helmet or headdress.  He's impeccably carved, and is of the Naturalistic style of Iron Age figure - 500-300 BC.

Valcamonica, Foppe di Nadro - Rock 24 (3)

This figure of a dancing warrior is remarkably similar to its counterpart on Rock 24, and also two figures on another rock at Zurla, on the steep slope running down from the southern end of the Naquane rock Art Park towards Capo Di Ponte.

As is the case for all of these figures, this one holds a sword in his right hand and a small shield in his left.  He wears a decorated helmet or headdress, and exhibits an amimated, dance-like posture.  He dates from the Iron Age 'Naturalistic' period (500-300 BC), designated IV 3 in the Valcamonica chronology.

Valcamonica, Foppe di Nadro - Rock 28 (1)

Between 1881 and 1893 a substantial boat burial site from the late Germanic Iron Age was discovered in the cemetery at Vendel Church in Uppland, Sweden. The finds were so extraordinary that the location was used to name the period between 550 and 750 CE – Now known as the [Vendel Period](https://tinyurl.com/2422475d). 

While many of the burials at Vendel had already been plundered in antiquity, the graves of Vendel I, XII and XIV had remained undisturbed.
The helmets found in these graves were manufactured in Scandinavia and represent an exceptional evidence of the late Germanic Iron Age in Northern Europe, both in terms of their uniqueness, completeness and quality.

[More about the Vendel I Helmet in our Online Collections](https://tinyurl.com/n43vmcuy)

[The Vendel I Helmet at Dynamic Collections](https://tinyurl.com/3ffknh49)

Full dataset coming soon at Zenodo

The Vendel I Helmet

Rock 6 at Foppe di Nadro has a glacier-smoothed surface and, with around one thousand figures, is one of the most densely engraved rocks in this area.  The figures mostly date from the middle to late Iron Age.

It is possible to see all the classical themes of the Camunian rock cycle: footprints (single, coupled and some with internal decoration), human figures (warriors predominating), buildings, weapons, animals and a number of geometric symbols (such as the five-pointed star).

The small section of this rock surface represented in the 3D model presnts one of the most well-known scenes of Valcamonica rock art: two pairs of fighters.  These are of the Naturalistic Period (around 500-300 BC). The fighters are realistically represented in a dynamic posture. One couple fighting with short swords, shields and crested helms, the other engaged in a boxing match.

The group of figures below are in a simpler, more geometric form.  They look cruder but are later, around 1st century BC.

Valcamonica - Foppe di Nadro, Rock 6

Rock 5 is covered with many carvings, but these are clustered within a number of discrete areas which are separated by the natural folds and undulations of the surface.  Here, there is a nice group of duelling, square-bodied warrior dated to the Late Iron-Age.

Valcamonica, Bedolina - Rock 5 (2)

Another small scence from Rock 28.  This one is of an armed figure mounted upon a stag, dating from the Middle/Late Iron-Age.  The figure holds a sword and possibly a shield.  This is the only known mounted stag figure in Foppe di Nadro, in contrast to the nearby National Park of Naquane, which displays a number of mounted deer engravings.

Valcamonica, Foppe di Nadro - Rock 28 (3)

Several different periods of armed figure here.  The central, larger, square-bodied warrior wielding a sword & shield would appear to be the most recent (Late Iron Age).  He clearly overlies the orant-like armed figure above, and at right angle, to him, which is much earlier - Late Bronze Age period III D. aound 1200-800 BC.

There are two separate deer hunting scenes to either side of this model, again oriented at right angles to each other.  The figures are different from those mentioned above, and I would place them as being of an intermediate date between those two - the Schematic period of the Early Iron Age, period IV 1 (900-600BC).

(Note that the above dating is my own interpretation, and whilst it might not be spot on, I am confident of the relative chronology of the three types of figures represented here.)

Valcamonica, Bedolina - Rock 5 (3)

The group of about thirty buildings on this rock is called ' The Village.' It is attributable to the Iron Age, 1st millennium BC.  Many sites in Valcamonica exhibit houses like these, usually in groups.

Valcamonica, Foppe di Nadro - Rock 24 (1)

Between 1881 and 1893 a substantial boat burial site from the late Germanic Iron Age was discovered in the cemetery at Vendel Church in Uppland, Sweden. The finds were so extraordinary that the location was used to name the period between 550 and 750 CE – Now known as the [Vendel Period](https://tinyurl.com/2422475d). 

While many of the burials at Vendel had already been plundered in antiquity, the graves of Vendel I, XII and XIV had remained undisturbed.
The helmets found in these graves were manufactured in Scandinavia and represent an exceptional evidence of the late Germanic Iron Age in Northern Europe, both in terms of their uniqueness, completeness and quality.

[More about the Vendel XII Helmet in our Online Collections](https://tinyurl.com/mryd39xh)

[The Vendel XII Helmet at Dynamic Collections](https://tinyurl.com/4j2c5rp2)

[Full dataset at Zenodo](https://zenodo.org/records/19069186)

The Vendel XII Helmet

More figures on this very interesting rock surface.  The prominent square-bodied figure appears to have a diagonal cros pecked across his body, which would place him in the Decadent period IV 5 - the last phase of Iron Age rock carving in Valcamonica (100 BC - 100 AD).

Valcamonica, Bedolina - Rock 5 (4)

Between 1881 and 1893 a substantial boat burial site from the late Germanic Iron Age was discovered in the cemetery at Vendel Church in Uppland, Sweden. The finds were so extraordinary that the location was used to name the period between 550 and 750 CE – Now known as the [Vendel Period](https://tinyurl.com/2422475d). 

While many of the burials at Vendel had already been plundered in antiquity, the graves of Vendel I, XII and XIV had remained undisturbed.
The helmets found in these graves were manufactured in Scandinavia and represent an exceptional evidence of the late Germanic Iron Age in Northern Europe, both in terms of their uniqueness, completeness and quality.

[More about the Vendel XIV Helmet in our Online Collections](https://tinyurl.com/4mcp2ce3)

[The Vendel XIV Helmet at Dynamic Collections](https://tinyurl.com/3hj77wbn)

Full dataset coming soon at Zenodo

The Vendel XIV Helmet

Unfortunately, this model has not turned out well as the photos must have had to have been shot at distance,  from the walkway.

It shows the image of 'a great horse, horseman and squire.'  It is one of many middle to late Iron-Age engravings on the rock - fighting warriors, dogs, deer, footprints, five pointed stars and other symbols.  

The horse was an important status symbol during the Iron Age.  This small grouping may also underline the clear distinction of social roles between the horseman (perhaps a local 'prince') armed with a shield & spear, and the squire, who holds the rider's second spear and leads the horse on foot.

This is quite a well known little cameo from the rock art of Valcamonica.  I've got to admit that I find it a little comical as the animal seems to closely resemble a pantomome horse.  Hopefully, on my next visit to Valcamonica I will manage to obtain a better sequence of photographs on of it.

Valcamonica, Foppe di Nadro - Rock 27

Rock 5 comprises an attractive honey-coloured sandstone.  It is carved with many armed figures, a hunting scene on its central part, an inscription on Latin letters and especially a refined horse image (visible on this 3D model).  

The mounted horse image is considered the best evidence of a strong influence of the classic Etruscan art on the ancient local carvers during a specific period of the Middle Iron Age (600-400 BC).

Refer to the annotations for more information.

Valcamonica, Bedolina - Rock 5 (1)

A number of figures with the arms and legs each arranged in a 'U' shape can be seen here.  These are interpreted as praying figures, which have been termed 'oranti.'  Such figures can be seen at many locations in Vlacamonica.  They also occurs at other Alpine rock art site and also in Sardinia.

In Valcamonica, detailed studies of their superimpositions have placed them firmly within the Bronze Age, with maybe the odd stray into the early Iron Age.  Early thoughts were that some might date as far back as the Neolithic - they have been dated to that period elsewhere.  However, large, modern studies have only found superimpositions of these figures on top of copper Age & Neolithic engravings, none the other ways round.  So in Valcamonica the Oranti are firmly associated with the Bronze Age.

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