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LUXEMBOURG

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« on: April 20, 2008, 06:32:30 pm »

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« Reply #1 on: April 20, 2008, 06:35:20 pm »









                                                           L U X E M B O U R G




Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (Luxembourgish: Groussherzogtum Lëtzebuerg,

French: Grand-Duché de Luxembourg,

German: Großherzogtum Luxemburg),

also spelled Luxemburg, is a small landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. Luxembourg has a population of under half a million people in an area of approximately 2,586 square kilometres (999 sq mi).[1]

Luxembourg is a parliamentary representative democracy with a constitutional monarchy, ruled by a Grand Duke. It is the world's only remaining sovereign Grand Duchy. The country has a highly developed economy, with the highest Gross Domestic Product per capita in the world (U.S. Central Intelligence Agency 2007). Its historic and strategic importance dates back to its founding as a Roman era fortress site and Frankish count's castle site in the Early Middle Ages. It was an important bastion along the Spanish road when Spain was the principal European power influencing the whole western hemisphere and beyond in the 14th–17th centuries.

Luxembourg is a founding member of the European Union, NATO, the United Nations, Benelux, and the Western European Union, reflecting the political consensus in favour of economic, political, and military integration. The city of Luxembourg, the capital and largest city, is the seat of several institutions and agencies of the European Union.

Luxembourg lies on the cultural divide between Romance Europe and Germanic Europe, borrowing customs from each of the distinct traditions. Luxembourg is a trilingual country; French, German, and Luxembourgish are official languages.

Although a secular state, Luxembourg is predominantly Roman Catholic.
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« Reply #2 on: April 20, 2008, 07:22:17 pm »



Titelberg, a Celtic oppidum:
the ramparts
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« Reply #3 on: April 20, 2008, 07:24:52 pm »









Celtic Luxembourg existed during the period from roughly 600 BC until 100 AD, when the Celts inha-
bited what is now the territory of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Their culture was well developed, especially from the 1st century BC as can be seen from the remains of the extensive Titelberg site in the far southwest of the country and from the impressive finds in several tombs and necropolises in
the Moselle valley and its surroundings.

The Celts inhabited large areas of Europe from the Danube to the Rhine and Rhône during the 6th to 1st centuries BC, a period sometimes referred to as La Tène after a site in Switzerland where Celtic remains were discovered in 1857. It was around 100 BC that the Treveri, one of the Celtic tribes, entered a period of prosperity. They constructed a number of fortified settlements or oppida near
the Moselle valley in what is now southern Luxembourg, western Germany and eastern France.
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« Reply #4 on: April 20, 2008, 07:26:19 pm »









Early inhabitants



In the territory now covered by the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, there is evidence of primitive inhabitants right back to the Paleolithic or old stone age over 35,000 years ago. The oldest artifacts from this period are decorated bones found at Oetrange.

However, the first real evidence of civilization is from the Neolithic or 5th millennium BC when houses began to appear. Traces have been found in the south of Luxembourg at Grevenmacher, Diekirch, Aspelt and Weiler-la-Tour. The dwellings were made of a combination of tree trunks for the basic structure, mud-clad wickerwork walls, and roofs of thatched reeds or straw.  Pottery from this period has been found near Remerschen.

While there is not much evidence of communities in Luxembourg at the beginning of the Bronze Age, a number of sites dating back to the period between the 13th and the 8th century BC provide evidence of dwellings and reveal artifacts such as pottery, knives and jewelry. These include Nospelt, Dalheim, Mompach and Remerschen.
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« Reply #5 on: April 20, 2008, 07:27:34 pm »









The Hallstatt culture



The discovery in 1846 of a prehistoric cemetery at Hallstatt in Austria revealed distinctive artifacts from the Neolithic through to the early Iron Age from 600 to 450 BC. These are considered to be the first evidence of Celtic civilization and served as a model for similar finds which were to occur in other parts of Europe in areas inhabited by the Celts. In Luxembourg too, evidence of this early period comes mainly from fairly modest tombs such as those found in Niederanven. However, the tombs found in south-east Luxembourg at Grosbous, Flaxweiler and Altrier which date back to between 450 and 250 BC contained much richer finds.

Judging from the objects discovered at Altrier, the tomb from about 450 BC must have been that of a high-ranking chieftain. It contained a bronze Etruscan stamnos, an iron sword, an ornate bronze and coral fibula (brooch) and a gold bracelet. The Grosbous tomb, part of a small cemetery, is particularly interesting as the corpse had been placed on a two-wheeled chariot providing indications of how the Celts constructed such vehicles.
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« Reply #6 on: April 20, 2008, 07:30:03 pm »









                                                  Principal Celtic sites





The Celtic civilization reached its height in the 1st century BC, prior to the Roman conquest in 54 BC. Most of the evidence from that period has been discovered in tombs, many closely associated with Titelberg, a 50 ha site which reveals much about the dwellings and handicrafts of the period.





Titelberg



Titelberg is the site of a large Celtic settlement or oppidum in the extreme south west of Luxembourg near Rodange and Differdange. Though it had been inhabited from about 300 BC, by the 1st century BC, the community had reached a high level of urbanization and was almost certainly the capital of the Treveri people.

It was by far the largest of the Treveri settlements at the time, no doubt as a result of its proximity to two of the most important Celtic roads, one from the south connecting the Rhône to the Moselle valley and the north, the other leading to Reims and the west. Another attraction was the iron ore which could be mined in the immediate vicinity and was indeed increasingly smelted to produce knives, lances, swords and cooking utensils and equipment.

Covering an area of some 50 ha, the oval-shaped Titelberg plateau rising 100 m above the River Chiers, is approximately 1 km long (NW to SE) and 500 m wide. Evidence of the foundations of numerous dwellings, a public space for religious or political purposes, and the 9-m high ramparts which still stand at the SW entrance today, clearly demonstrate the importance of the oppidum which, until the Roman conquest, appears to have been the seat of the Treveri chieftains.

One of the most important finds on Titelberg has been a huge number of Celtic coins which come not only from the Treveri themselves but from several other Celtic tribes. This indicates that it had become a centre of trade and commerce showing signs of urbanization. Facilities for minting coins have been excavated close to the residential area and appear to have been used over an extended period, both during the purely Celtic period and under the Romans as the Celts began to adopt Roman culture.

A very large number of both Celtic and Gallo-Roman fibulae have also been found on the site. In a multitude of different shapes and sizes, these bronze clasps, sometimes hinged, were used either as ornamental brooches or for pinning garments together.

Initially, the Romans converted the Celtic dwellings to houses with stone foundations. But towards the end of the 1st century BC, the Romans established their centre of interest in Trier which also became the new capital for the Treveri. Indeed, the Romans dismantled the ramparts and reduced the oppidum to a vicus which nevertheless continued to be inhabited for another 400 years.
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« Reply #7 on: April 20, 2008, 07:33:02 pm »









Clemency



A Celtic funeral chamber measuring 4.30 m by 4.20 m, the largest Gallic tomb ever found, was recently discovered at Clemency. From the offerings in the tomb, it was obviously the burial place of a Celtic nobleman. These included ten wine amphorae, an Italic bronze basin, an oil lamp from Campania, an iron grill and some 30 Gallic pots. There was also a chimney from an iron smelter in the chamber testifying to the deceased's association with iron production.




Nospelt



Tombs excavated at Kreckelbierg, just north-west of the village of Nospelt, contain an impressive range of articles including wine flagons, articles of pottery, spurs, knives, lances and a lantern testifying to the nobility of those buried.

It is thought the tombs might belong to chieftens from the Titelberg settlement. It is interesting to note that some of the artefacts including a tall amphora came from as far away as the Mediterranean, showing the extent of trade with other regions at the time.





Kehlen



A necropolis from the 1st century was discovered in the early 1970s on the Juckelsboesch plateau between Mamer and Kehlen. A beautiful dark blue glass bowl was among the offerings found there.





Goeblange



In 1993, the National Museum of History and Art excavated Celtic tombs dating back to 50 BC to
30 BC which had been discovered in 1966 about 1 km NW of the Roman ruins in an area known as Scheierheck. The tombs were no doubt the resting place of aristocrats - four men and one woman - judging from the artifacts which were found there.

These included: 1 amphoric wine flagon, 4 bottles, 7 plates, 5 pots, 7 bowls, 5 cups, 1 flat plate, 1 goblet, 1 drinking horn, 1 iron knife, 2 lance blades, 2 spurs, 3 bronze broches, 1 pair of scissors and the remains of cremation, including those of a wild boar.





Feulen



The 133 tombs uncovered at Feulen in 1996 date from the 2nd century BC until Gallo-Roman times. They have revealed numerous fibulae, arms and tools made of iron, and a large collection of pottery including two amphorae.
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« Reply #8 on: April 20, 2008, 07:34:43 pm »









                                                     Crisis of the 3rd century BC





During the century from 250 to 150 BC, the area between the Rhine and the Meuse underwent a drastic restructuring as some crisis forced most signs of inhabitation into the heights of the Hunsrück. Following this crisis, population returned to the lowlands in the form of the Gaulish tribes known to us from classical texts.





Treveri


 
Modern reconstruction of Treveran dwellings at Altburg.The Treveri or Treviri were a tribe of Gauls which inhabited the lower valley of the Moselle, within the southern fringes of the vast Arduenna Silva (Ardennes Forest) in what are now Luxembourg, southeastern Belgium and western Germany.





Modern reconstruction of Treveran dwellings at Altburg




The spelling variants Treveri and Treviri are found in Latin texts from the time of Caesar's De Bello Gallico to Tacitus's Annales.

Latin texts are in general agreement that the first vowel, however, is -e-.

For their part, Greek texts mostly give Τρηουηροι (transliterated Trēouēroi). Variants such as Treberi and
Τρίβηροι (Tribēroi) appear in Pliny and Ptolemy, respectively.



A few highly deviant variant forms are also attested:

Τριήροι (Triēroi) in Ptolemy and Τρηοῦσγροι (Trēousgroi) in Strabo.

The name has been uncertainly interpreted as referring to a "flowing river" or to "crossing the river". 

The first syllable is shown long and stressed (Trēverī) in Latin dictionaries
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« Reply #9 on: April 20, 2008, 07:42:46 pm »



Valley of the Moselle River in Wolf,
Traben-Trarbach.
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« Reply #10 on: April 20, 2008, 07:48:33 pm »










                                                            Geography
 




Valley of the Moselle River in Wolf, Traben-Trarbach.In the time of Julius Caesar their territory extended as far as the Rhine north of the Triboci (III:11, IV:3, IV:10); across the Rhine from them lived the Ubii. Caesar mentions that the Segni and the Condrusi lived between the Treveri and the Eburones, and that the Condrusii and Eburones were clients of the Treveri (IV:6, VI:32).  Caesar bridged the Rhine in the territory of the Treveri.  They were bordered on the north, west and south by the Belgic tribes friendly to Rome: the Tungri, the Remi and the Mediomatrici, respectively.

Later the Germanic Vangiones and Nemetes would settle to the east of the Treveri along the Rhine, and Treveran territory thereafter was probably similar to that which afterwards became the diocese of Trier. The Rhine valley was removed from Treveran authority with the formation of the province of Germania Superior in the 80s CE.  The valley of the Ahr would have marked their northern boundary.

Colonia Augusta Treverorum (now Trier, Germany) was the capital of their civitas under the Empire. There is strong evidence that the recently excavated oppidum on the Titelberg plateau in the extreme south west of Luxembourg was the Treveran capital during the 1st century BCE.[6] The transfer of their activities to Trier followed the construction of Agrippa's road linking Trier with Reims which bypassed Titelberg. During the Roman period, Trier became a Roman colony (in 16 BCE), and the provincial capital of Belgica itself. It was the frequent residence of a number of emperors.

An important secondary centre was Orolaunum (now Arles, Belgium) which, in Edith Wightman's assessment, "became a kind of regional capital for the western Treveri", attaining "a degree of prosperity only otherwise reached by civitas capitals" (p.135).

Archaeological evidence suggests that the Treveri were divided into five cantons centred respectively on the oppida of the Titelberg, Wallendorf, Kastel, Otzenhausen and the Martberg.  Inscriptions from the Roman imperial period indicate that the civitas was divided into at least four pagi: the pagus Vilcias, the pagus Teucorias, the pagus Carucum extending north of Bitburg, and the pagus Ac[...] or Ag[...] (the inscription is incomplete).

Wightman tentatively suggests that the pagus Vilcias might have been the western region around Arlon and Longuyon, and the pagus Teucorias the southern region around Tholey (pp.124-125).

The fourth-century poet Ausonius lived in Trier under the Gratian's patronage; he is most famous for his poem Mosella, evoking life and scenery along the Treveri's arterial river
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« Reply #11 on: April 20, 2008, 07:50:52 pm »









                                                   Language and ethnicity





According to Aulus Hirtius the Treveri differed little from Germanic peoples in their manner of life and savage behaviour (VIII:25).[9] The Treveri boasted of their German origin, according to Tacitus, in order to distance themselves from "Gallic laziness" (inertia Gallorum). But Tacitus does not include
them with the Vangiones, Triboci or Nemetes as "tribes unquestionably German".

The presence of hall villas of the same type as found in indisputably Germanic territory in northern Germany, alongside Celtic types of hall villas, corroborates the idea that they were Celto-Germans.  The German element among the Treveri probably arrived there in the third or second century BCE.

Strabo says that their Nervian and Tribocan neighbours were Germanic peoples who by that point
had settled on the left bank of the Rhine, while the Treveri are implied to be Gaulish.

Jerome states that as of the fourth century CE their language was similar to that of the Celts of Asia Minor (the Galatians).  Jerome probably had first-hand knowledge of these Celtic languages, as he
had both visited Augusta Treverorum and Galatia.

Very few personal names among the Treveri are of Germanic origin; instead, they are generally Celtic
or Latin. Certain distinctively Treveran names are apparently none of the three and may represent a pre-Celtic stratum, according to Wightman (she gives Ibliomarus, Cletussto and Argaippo as examples: pp.20, 51).

After the Roman conquest, Latin was used extensively by the Treveri for public and official purposes.
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« Reply #12 on: April 20, 2008, 07:52:06 pm »



The Titelberg, 'capital' of the pre-Roman Treveri
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« Reply #13 on: April 20, 2008, 07:56:06 pm »







                                                        Politics and military
 




Tacitus gives the Treveri the name of socii and says that in his time they had their own curia or local senate.

Originally the oppida of the Titelberg, Wallendorf, Kastel, Otzenhausen and the Martberg were roughly equal in significance; however, sometime between 100 and 80 BCE, the Titelberg experienced an upsurge of growth which made it "the central oppidum of the Treveri" (p.38). A large open space in
the central square of the Titelberg which would have been used for public meetings of a religious or political nature during the 1st century CE. By the time of Caesar's invasion, the Treveri seemed to
have adopted an oligarchic system of government.

The Treveri had a strong cavalry and infantry, and during the Gallic Wars would provide Julius Caesar with his best cavalry (II:24, V:3). Under their leader Cingetorix, the Treveri served as Roman auxiliaries. However, their loyalties began to change in 54 BCE under the influence of Cingetorix' rival Indutiomarus (V:2). According to Caesar, Indutiomarus instigated the revolt of the Eburones under Ambiorix that year and led the Treveri in joining the revolt and enticing Germanic tribes to attack
the Romans (V:47, 55). The Romans under Titus Labienus killed Indutiomarus and then put down
the Treveran revolt; afterwards, Indutiomarus' relatives crossed the Rhine to settle among the Germanic tribes (VI:Cool. The Treveri remained neutral during the revolt of Vercingetorix, and were attacked again by Labienus after it (VI:63, VIII:45).

On the whole, the Treveri were more successful than most Gallic tribes in cooperating with the Romans. They probably emerged from the Gallic Wars with the status of a free civitas exempt
from tribute.

In 30 BCE, a revolt of the Treveri was suppressed by Marcus Nonius Gallus, and the Titelberg was occupied by a garrison of the Roman army.

Agrippa and Augustus undertook the organization of Roman administration in Gaul, laying out an extensive series of roads and imposing a census in 27 BCE for purposes of taxation. The Romans
built a new road from Trier to Reims via Mamer, to the north, and Arlon, thus by-passing by 25 km
the Titelberg and the older Celtic route, and the capital was displaced to Augusta Treverorum (Trier) with no signs of conflict.  The vicinity of Trier had been inhabited by isolated farms and hamlets
before the Romans, but there had been no urban settlement here.




Imperial baths at Trier.
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« Reply #14 on: April 20, 2008, 08:00:52 pm »










Following the reorganisation of the Roman provinces in Germany in 16 BCE, Augustus decided that the Treveri should become part of the province of Belgica. At an unknown date, the capital of Belgica was moved from Durocortum Remorum (Reims) to Augusta Treverorum. A significant layer of the Treveran élite seems to have been granted Roman citizenship under Caesar and/or Augustus, by whom they were given the nomen Julius.

According to Pliny the Elder, the Emperor Gaius (Caligula) was born "among the Treveri, at the village of Ambiatinus, above Koblenz", but Suetonius notes that this birthplace was disputed by other sources.

A faction of Treveri, led by Julius Florus and allied with the Aeduan Julius Sacrovir, led a rebellion of Gaulish debtors against the Romans in 21 CE. Florus was defeated by his rival Julius Indus, while Sacrovir led the Aedui in revolt.  The Romans quickly re-established cordial relations with the Treveri under Indus, who promised obedience to Rome; in contrast, they completely annihilated the Aedui who had sided with Sacrovir.

Perhaps under Claudius, the Treveri obtained the status of colonia and probably the Latin Right with-
out actually being colonized by Roman veterans.

In 70, the Treveri under Julius Classicus and Julius Tutor and the Lingones under Julius Sabinus joined the Batavian rebellion and declared Sabinus as Caesar.  The revolt was quashed, and more than a hundred rebel noblemen fled across the Rhine to join their Germanic allies; in the assessment of Jeannot Metzler, this event marks the end of aristocratic Treveran cavalry service in the Roman army, the rise of the local bourgeoisie, and the beginnings of "a second thrust of Romanization" (p.60). By
the 2nd and 3rd centuries, representatives of the old élite bearing the nomen Julius had practically disappeared, and a new élite arose to take their place; these would have originated mainly from the indigenous middle class, according to Wightman (p.51).

The Treveri suffered from their proximity to the Rhine frontier during the Crisis of the Third Century. Frankish and Alamannic invasions during the 250s led to significant destruction, particularly in rural areas; given the failure of the Roman military to defend effectively against Germanic invasion, country dwellers improvised their own fortifications, often using the stones from tombs and mausoleums.

 
Imperial baths at Trier.Meanwhile, Augusta Treverorum was becoming an urban centre of the first importance, overtaking even Lugdunum (Lyon). During the Crisis of the Third Century, the city served as the capital of the Gallic Empire under the emperors Tetricus I and II from 271 to 274. The Treveri suffered further devastation from the Alamanni in 275, following which, according to Jeannot Metzler, "The great majority of agricultural domains lay waste and would never be rebuilt" (p.62).
It is unclear whether Augusta Treverorum itself fell victim to the Alamannic invasion.

From 285 to 395, Augusta Treverorum was one of the residences of the western Roman Emperor, including Maximian, Constantine the Great, Constantius II, Valentinian I, Magnus Maximus, and Theodosius I;[16] from 318 to 407, it served as the seat of the praetorian prefecture of Gaul. By the mid-4th century, the city was counted in a Roman manuscript as one of the four capitals of the world, alongside Rome, Alexandria, and Constantinople.[8] New defensive structures, including fortresses at Neumagen, Bitburg and Arlon, were constructed to defend against Germanic invasion. After a Vandal invasion in 406, however, the imperial residence was moved to Mediolanum (Milan) while the praetorian guard was withdrawn to Arelate (Arles).
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