Celtic Fortifications

In the geographical space of the Celtic of the Protohistoire/Antiquity, there exist various types of fortifications or strengthened habitats.

Broch

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Castro

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Crannog

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Dun

detailed Article: Dun/Dunon/Dunum

Dun is a toponym Celtique, whose Gallic version dunon was Latinized dunum , which means “fortress” and secondarily “hill”.

One frequently meets it in the relative texts with the Celtic Mythologie, in particular to indicate the residence of gods or hero. In topography, one finds it for example in Ireland (Dun Aengus), but also in France, in the name of many cities (Châteaudun, Issoudun, Loudun, Lugdunum in Antiquity which gave Lyon, Meudon, Verdun). In Scotland, it is used to indicate small bastions, enclaves or rotundas of stone like sub-group of the oppida . At certain places they seem to be built on favourable crags or hillocks, in particular in the south of Firth off Clyde and Firth off Forth.

Hillfort

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Oppidum

The oppida are characterized above all by the monumentality of their defensive apparatus, which is not free from a function symbolic system. The ramparts in general associate a facing external of stone, an internal wood reinforcement and a ground and stone fill. It is what César, when it evokes the head office of Auaricum, calls the murus gallicus. One identifies them thanks to the large iron nails which fixed the beams at their crossing (20-30 cm length). The reinforcement thus forms a series of boxes filled with ground, which make useless the use of the ram. The rampart thus had a core a thickness of a few meters (more than 4 in Manching), which was covered with a cut stone coating (on 4 to 6 m height), leaving visible the ends of the beams. A covered way ran at the top of the wall and one reached it by a beaten ground slope. This technique marks the apogee of the construction of enclosures in the Celtic world and one finds it in many sites, of Brittany in Bavaria. The Eastern example is Manching in Bavaria, while in Eastern Europe another type of construction develops, which derives from types of the Bronze Age, with a facing reinforced by vertical beams in frontage, with 1 2 away m from/to each other. Behind this face of wood and stone, the fortification was made of a broad earth fill and stones. In certain areas, one can also find simple ground ramparts, as between the Seine and the Sum. Dimensions are about constant (4 m in height and 4 m thickness); they are crowned by a parapet and wood works. The rampart is in general preceded by a ditch, broad of ten m and deep of approximately 2 m. On the level of the entries, the two ends of the rampart are folded back towards the interior to form a corridor which ends in a door surmounted by a tower. In certain cases, the length of the layout, on several kilometers, prevents any effective military defense, but as a whole, these enclosures proved reliable and César often evokes the difficulties which it encounters vis-a-vis the Gallic fortifications (cf the head office of Alésia). However, the facing, with sometimes of the flagstones posed of song, cut blocks etc as to the Ditch of Pandours expresses also an ostentatious will and S. Fichtl recently tried to compare the rampart of the oppida with pomerium of the Italic cities.

Bibliography:

F. Maier, Celtic oppida, in the Celts, Milan, 1991, p. 423-439.
S. Fichtl, origins of the urban phenomenon in the Celtic world, S. Agusta-Boularot, X. Lafon (to dir.), Of Ibères to Vénètes, Rome, 2004, CEFR 328, p. 19-29.

Ringfort

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Sources and bibliography

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