GOING ROUND AND ROUND – COMPASS DECORATION IN THE LA TÈNE PERIOD OF THE LOWER TRAISEN VALLEY, LOWER AUSTRIA

• Authors: Ramsl Peter C.
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This article presents new discoveries from the Iron Age cemetery of Franzhausen, focusing on two ceramic bowls with exceptional interior decorations (ornaments), created and executed directly using a compass. The designs consist of intersecting semi-circular arcs and swirling arms encircling the omphalos. Both patterns were incised directly into the surface using a compass, with the swirl additionally enhanced by stamped impressions. The study aims to reconstruct the compass-based design process and to find comparative examples within and beyond the cultural sphere. The finds raise the question of whether the mathematical and geometrical knowledge necessary for such constructions was introduced, directly or indirectly, into early La Tène culture and how it was put into practice. It further highlights the advanced and complex knowledge of the craftsman of the earliest La Tène culture north of the Alps.

Keywords

EN

LOWER AUSTRIA; FRANZHAUSEN; LA TÈNE CULTURE; COMPASS; DECORATION; TRAISEN VALLEY

• Publisher: Slovak Academy of Sciences, Archaeological Institute
• Journal: Študijné zvesti
• Year: 2025
• Volume: 72
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 167 – 182

Contributors

author

Ramsl Peter C.

• Institut für Urgeschichte und Historische Archäologie, Franz-Klein-Gasse 1, 1190 Wien, Austria

• https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1906-3875

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31577/szausav.2025.72.8