At a recent presentation in Munich, the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation (BLfD) outlined three rescue-excavation seasons conducted between 2021 and 2024 along Federal Highway 16 near Manching. On only 6,800 square metres of the late Iron Age settlement, archaeologists recorded more than 40,000 artifacts and charted 1,300 archaeological features. The trove offered “even more detailed knowledge about life, work and death in the Celtic town,” said the BLfD.
The fortified oppidum, covering about 380 hectares southeast of Ingolstadt, is considered the largest Celtic settlement in Central Europe. Excavation leader Sebastian Hornung of Pro Arch Prospektion und Archäologie GmbH described one of the season’s most discussed finds: “We found in a box well remains of at least three human individuals, numerous animal bones, 32 metal objects, and parts of more than 50 ceramic vessels,” according to Münchner Merkur. The wooden shaft, dated to between 120 and 60 BCE, has prompted debate over whether the deposition served a ritual purpose.
Specialised craftsmanship also surfaced. A 75-millimetre bronze warrior, produced by lost-wax casting, stood out among more than 15,000 metal items recovered. “We already know the Celtic settlement as a site of remarkable human representations. But this statuette is a particularly complex and finely detailed work,” said Thomas Stöckl, restorer at the BLfD, according to Süddeutsche Zeitung. Documenting the metal hoard required 2,034 X-ray images, a workload that will occupy the BLfD laboratory for years.
Organic remains broadened knowledge of diet and industry. Fish scales and bones provided the first direct evidence that residents ate fish alongside beef, pork, grain products and dairy. Hammer-mark impressions on iron pieces showed that local smiths forged metal on site, and discrete craft districts revealed recycling of ceramics, wood and metal.
To extract the widest range of information, the BLfD enlisted an anthropologist, an archaeobotanist, an archaeozoologist and a mining archaeologist. Their combined analysis suggested a peak population of up to 10,000 inhabitants during the second century BCE, larger than medieval Nuremberg. The town declined by the mid-first century BCE.
Road-safety work on Highway 16 triggered the dig, but only about 12 to 13 percent of the 400-hectare monument has been examined. All finds remain state property and will enter the Bavarian collection for systematic study; further imaging and material analyses are planned. “The oppidum of Manching is of inestimable value for science,” said Mathias Pfeil, General Conservator of the BLfD, according to Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Produced with the assistance of a news-analysis system.