The sword still gives an idea of ​​how powerful the appearance with this weapon must have been.

The metal is corroded, the material darkly weathered.

Still, it is easy to imagine what this sword meant to its wielder.

In battle it gave him superiority.

At the same time, such an elaborately manufactured weapon must have marked a special status within its own community, so that it was not only important in war.

Presumably this sword belonged to a local Celtic leader.

Jan Schiefenhoevel

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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It was found in the Ober-Erlenbach district of Bad Homburg and is on display in a new special exhibition in the Vortaunus Museum in Oberursel, which presents "Traces from Celtic times in the Hochtaunus region".

The exhibits come from the museum's storeroom or are on loan from the Saalburg Museum and the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments.

The Iron Age began in Europe around 800 BC, and this is the time when the tribes that came to be known as the Celts originated.

They shaped the millennium before the birth of Christ until they were crushed between Romans and Germans.

The Rhine-Main area was an important settlement area for the Celts, as numerous finds from the Taunus and Wetterau prove.

One of the largest Celtic settlements in Europe was the "Heidetränk Oppidum", which extended to the slopes of the Urselbach near present-day Oberursel.

This city-like settlement was the home of several thousand people, but archaeologists don't know much about their lives.

The course of the fortifications around the oppidum can still be seen on an earth wall.

Understand the culture through the cult of the dead

The ability to work iron gave the Celts sturdy weapons and tools.

Many examples of this can be seen in the special exhibition.

These include rather robust items such as ploughshares, hatchet blades or shield bosses.

Knives, tongs, hammer heads and chisels prove that the Celtic smiths were able to work with precision.

These tools look amazingly similar to today's hand tools.

But the Celts also had a strong aesthetic sense.

Simple everyday objects were finely decorated with them, for example the brooches with which they held their robes together or the hooks with which their belts were fastened.

Such filigree articles were not made of iron but of bronze, which is why they have been well preserved in the ground over the centuries.

Some of the everyday objects are more subtly decorated and carry balls, others are more conspicuous like a silver fibula with an animal head.

Bronze finger rings in a simple design with fine lines could have come from a goldsmith today.

Jewelry rings made of bronze and amber were worn threaded on a cord.

When researching the Celts, archaeologists also have to look at graves and grave goods in order to draw conclusions about their culture from the cult of the dead.

Pottery fragments from vessels and remains of bones provide evidence of the burial of cremated corpses.

A cup-shaped clay vessel in which the ashes of a dead person were buried shows that the end of life was accompanied by rituals among the Celts.

The special exhibition "Traces from Celtic times in the Hochtaunuskreis" in the Vortaunusmuseum, Marktplatz 1, can be seen until March 6, 2023, on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.