Joannes Richter

Hochdorf Revisited
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 Joannes Richter

Hochdorf
Revisited
A reconstructed Celtic Site

Published by Lulu

-2009-

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© 2009 by Joannes Richter
Published by Lulu
www.lulu.com
All Rights Reserved
ISBN: xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x

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Contents
1 Introduction............................................................................6
2 Location.................................................................................8
Trading................................................................................8
3 The burial site.........................................................................9
4 Metallic pieces of art............................................................11
5 Weaving technology.............................................................14
Towels wrapping the corpse..............................................16
6 Overview..............................................................................18

List of Figures and Photographs

Fig. 1: View at the distant High Asperg Celtic site....................9
Fig. 2: Burial place at Hochdorf, 60 meters diameter..............10
Fig. 3: Bronze cast figurines carrying the cline.......................11
Fig. 4: Cline with the corpse at the burial site Hochdorf.........12
Fig. 5: Symbolic battle-dance..................................................13
Fig. 6: Reconstructed Celtic loom with red & blue weaving...14
Fig. 7: Reconstructed red and blue weaving...........................15
Fig. 8: Dead body found wrapped in red and blue towels.......16

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1 Introduction

T he 1th of October 2009 I revisited the Hochdorf

Celtic site after reopening the museum as a bilingual
site in English and German language. The museum is
located in an area populated in the 6th century before Christ,
but is famous for the findings in an untouched imperial grave,
which had been discovered in 1978.

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2 Location

T he Celtic village is situated near Stuttgart, Germany

at a high plain with fertile loess-soils, but does not
provide a nearby river as a water source.

Trading

A great number of pieces from Greek furniture reveals

close trading contacts to Mediterranean locations. A
few pieces of amber are signalling the contacts to
Nordic or Baltic trading areas. The Hochdorf location is
strategically situated at a crossroad and land-bridge between
the river Rhine and the Danube. At a distance of 200 km to the
south the Heuneburg is located at the Danube, from which the
river may be used as a trading route towards the Black Sea.

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3 The burial site

T he Hochdorf grave has been reconstructed as a 6

meters high and 60 meters broad hill at the original
site which is located at a distance of 400 meter
overlooking the plain and reveals a eyesight-contact to the
much larger rock called High Asperg.

Fig. 1: View at the distant High Asperg Celtic site

C eltic graves always seem to have been chosen at

locations at which buried persons might have had
eye-sight contact to their main sites, which has been
High Asperg for the Hochdorf settlement.

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T he shadow at the photograph has been caused by a
large sculpture, which is to be seen at the top of the
burial hill on the next photograph.

Fig. 2: Burial place at Hochdorf, 60 meters diameter

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4 Metallic pieces of art

T he grave revealed a great number of very fine crafts

made of iron, bronze, gold and fine textiles reveal
high Celtic arts in tooling and handcraft. Casting en
welding metals must be considered to have been a state of the
art. The following bronze pieces are reconstructions of casted
bronze sculptures.

Fig. 3: Bronze cast figurines carrying

the cline

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B y no means the figurines are raising their arms in
devotion. As a matter of fact the wheeled figurines
have been applied as the legs for a moveable large
cline, which had been used by the dead sovereign.

Fig. 4: Cline with the corpse at the burial site Hochdorf

T he sovereign was found wearing a ceremonial knife,

but did not carry heavy weapons. The site had not
been using any heavy defense arrangements and the
Celts must have been living in a relatively peaceful
atmosphere.

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T he cline has been decorated with ceremonial fighting
scenes, in which dancers are performing a simulated
battle with demonstrative phalli.

Fig. 5: Symbolic battle-dance

T he burial place also revealed a large chariot, lots of

burial gifts including a large, decorated bronze
vessel, imported from Greece. Some figurines at the
vessel had been repaired by Celtic craftsmen, who
manufactured at least an equivalent or even better bronze
sculptures.

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5 Weaving technology

T he high art of weaving technology for producing very

fine towels has been reconstructed as well. In a
reconstructed Celtic house close to the museum an
impressive loom with a large towel has been located. The
weavers used very thin twined threads for weaving. The pattern
uses red and blue colors to produce a purple image for the
sovereign.

Fig. 6: Reconstructed Celtic loom with

red & blue weaving

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N one of the archaeologists seems to have noticed that
these weaving technologies using twined threads in
red, blue and purple also has been used to produce
the towels of Mose's Covenant tent and the Solomons Temple.
The Bible e.g. quotes Exodus 26:

26: “Moreover you shall make the tent with ten

curtains; of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple,
and scarlet, with cherubim. The work of the skillful
workman you shall make them."

Fig. 7: Reconstructed red and

blue weaving

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I n a strange way the sovereign at Hochdorf has also been
wrapped in several layers of fine twill, coloured blue,
and purple, and scarlet. Of course the work of the skillful
workman had been required to do so as well. A fine example
for twill is found in jeans clothings, which are known to be
very strong.

Towels wrapping the corpse

Fig. 8: Dead body found wrapped in red and blue towels

F rom a distance the colour of the wrapped cover seems to

be purple as a mixture of red an blue.

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A t the museum the imperial couch-clothings are being
described in the following way (from the outside to
the corpse):

1. A single-colored Shroud of Plain Twill

2. A smaller blue-red checked-colored Cloth of Very Fine
Twill
3. A Tablet-Weave Band with Red and Blue Warp
4. A red Burial Cloth of fine Twill
5. Patterned Tablet-woven Band with Double Weave
6. Large Checked Cloth of Fine Twill
7. Patterned Tablet-woven band Band of Hemp Fiber and
Badger Hair;
Double Weaves Using additional Pattern Fibers

T he Books Exodus and Chronicles reveal a great

number of symbolic coloured woven materials (red,
blue and purple twining) in the divine instructions for
the Covenant tent and for Solomon's temple. Equivalent clothes
and towels created in finest twining technology applying the
basic colours red and blue to create the special emperor's
colour purple have been found at the burial tomb in Hochdorf.

T hese colours may have been the fundamental

religious codes for the androgynous principle in the
Indo-European sky-god Dyaeus 1. The Celts have
exported these materials to the Mediterranean area, which may
have been a precious trading articles, but also have been used
as a standard religious symbols.
1:
The Celestial God (by Joannes Richter,
published at Lulu under ISBN 978-1-4092-6632-7)

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6 Overview

T he museum at Hochdorf reveals an excellent

overview of Celtic life in quite comfortable timber-
houses, applying high-quality arts in metal and
weaving technology. The people lived in peace and were
trading with coastlines in the Nordic areas, in Mediterranean
and Black Sea areas. The location of the Celtic sites seems to
concentrate in the crossroad area between the rivers Rhine and
Danube, where a relatively small land-bridge is to be overcome
between the Danube and the Rhine estuaries.

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