History of Alsace
The history of Alsace has been influenced by the Rhine and its tributaries, a favorable climate, fertile loess soils, and the region's relative accessibility through and around the Vosges. It was first inhabited by early modern humans during the Paleolithic. Peoples speaking Celtic and Germanic languages occupied the region prior to its conquest by Roman armies under the command of Julius Caesar. In the centuries after the fall of Rome the area acquired its name and identity as an early medieval pagus. Since then, suzerainty and effective control have shifted among competing European powers, including the Kingdom of Alamannia, the Frankish Empire, Lotharingia, the Holy Roman Empire, France, and the German Empire. Alsace has remained part of France since the end of the Second World War.
Paleolithic and Mesolithic Alsace
The earliest evidence of hominids in Alsace dates to 700,000 BP. Neanderthals were established in the region by 250,000 BP. Important Neanderthal archaeological sites are found near the town of Mutzig west of Strasbourg and elsewhere in the valley of the Bruche.By 35,000 BP Aurignacian remains at Achenheim and Entzheim indicate the arrival of early European modern humans.
The Mannlefelsen cave near Oberlarg in southern Alsace contain substantial traces of occupation dating from 13,000 BP to as late as 5,500 BP. Upper Paleolithic remains at Mannlefelsen include stone scrapers, chisels, projectile weapons, and evidence of a tent site. Later Mesolithic remains include more finely shaped microliths used for arrowheads, as well as an intentionally severed head, similar to others found in Bavaria. Red deer, boar, auroch, and roe deer remains are also present, consistent with the post-glacial afforestation of central Europe.
Neolithic Alsace
By 5300 BCE Neolithic farming cultures were established in Alsace, particularly on the light and fertile loess soils between the river Ill to the east and the Vosges to the west. In Alsace evidence has been found for the cultivation of einkorn and emmer wheats, barley, and vetch; the raising of cows, pigs and sheep; and transhumance: all typical of the Neolithic in Europe generally. Technologies include polished stone tools used to clear forests and cultivate the soil, pottery, and leather goods.The Neolithic in Alsace has been divided by archaeologists into four distinct periods: Linear Pottery Culture, or LBK ; middle Neolithic ; recent Neolithic ; and a final, relatively obscure period with only spotty archaeological remains.
LBK culture is distinguished by pottery with distinctive linear designs and by large timber longhouses. LBK spread to Alsace, along with much of the rest of central Europe, from the Danube and Hungarian plain. Archaeological remains suggest two distinct waves of settlement in Alsace, with northern Alsace having been colonized by farmers from near the rivers Main and Neckar, and southern Alsace being culturally closer to the upper reaches of the Danube in Switzerland. LBK cultures likely coexisted with earlier hunter-gatherer cultures, which survived in mountain refugia in the Vosges.
The middle Neolithic shares much in common with LBK, at least as demonstrated by burial practices. Longhouses, however, disappear, and little is known of middle Neolithic residential structures.
Around 4200 BCE archaeological remains suggest the occurrence of a more significant cultural break, in particular in the north of Alsace in the form of the Michelsberg culture. Genetic and archaeological evidence suggests the movement of peoples from the Parisian basin in the west eastwards to Alsace and Germany, possibly accompanied by violence. Genetic testing of skeletons near Gougenheim suggests that the invaders carried with them a significant admixture of European hunter-gatherer ancestry, distinguishing them from the LBK-derived neolithic peoples previously established in Alsace. At Bergheim, a mass grave contains the remains of a group of these western invaders. Their skeletons show signs of having been violently killed. Ultimately, however, the Michelsberg peoples established themselves in much of Alsace, replacing the earlier LBK derived groups.
Bronze Age Alsace
Alsace is characterized by the appearance of tumulus graves and hilltop fortifications as well as widespread use of bronze. Otherwise the archaeological record suggests considerable regional and temporal variety, as well as several significant social, economic and political transitions.The very beginnings of Bronze Age Alsace, around 2200 BCE, occurred within the context of Bell Beaker culture, itself a complex cultural phenomenon emerging out of western Europe. Bell Beaker remains in Alsace include characteristic bell-shaped pottery and underground inhumations with no mound or tumulus above. Bell Beaker sites have been found near Achenheim and Kunheim, among other locations.
After 2200 BCE, Bell Beaker remains become less common, and inhumations with mounds or tumuli above them, associated with Tumulus Culture of the Middle Bronze Age in north-central Europe, take their place. This and other earlier tumulus cultures emerging out of Central and Eastern Europe, such as Corded Ware Culture and Yamnaya Culture, are associated by some paleontologists with the migration of Indo-European speakers from the steppes of eastern Europe to the forests of central Europe. From Proto-Indo-European would eventually emerge the Continental Celtic spoken in much of Gaul. In Alsace, important examples of tumulus graves from this period can be found in the forest of Haguenau.
After a brief cool period between 1600 BCE and 1400 BCE, the number of known settlements and burial sites in Alsace increases significantly. This period belongs largely to the Urnfield Culture, characterized by cremated remains in pots buried together in fields. Notable during this period is a range of settlement sizes, which suggest to archaeologists the formation of political units in which smaller settlements were subject to larger ones. Large late Bronze Age settlements have been found near Reichstett and Colmar.
Iron Age Alsace
The Iron Age in Alsace begins with the advent of iron metallurgy and ends with the incorporation of all of Gaul into Rome. In Alsace, in common with much of central Europe, two phases of this period have been identified by archaeologists: the Hallstatt and La Tène.The Hallstatt is characterized by an increased differentiation in wealth and power among settlements and individuals, continuing trends from the late Bronze Age. Increased exchange of goods and ideas with Mediterranean regions and elsewhere appears to have encouraged the development of a wealthy elite, or "Hallstatt aristocracy," in a zone extending from central France, through Alsace, to Hungary and Bohemia. Cultural practices of this aristocracy, so far as the archaeological remains demonstrate, appear to have included horsemanship, the accumulation and display of highly decorated weapons and other fine goods, and the drinking of imported wine with the paraphernalia of the Greek symposium.
In Alsace, the hill fort Britzgyberg, near Illfurth, is the most important aristocratic center of the Hallstatt. It is situated in the pass between the Rhine valley and Burgundy, and Greek pottery and other luxury imports have been found there. Also in Alsace are several elite Hallstatt tombs, whose contents may include torcs, pins, armbands and other jewelry, decorated swords, and horse trappings, depending on the status and occupation of the individual. The very richest tombs include an entire funerary cart, as at Hatten and Ensisheim, or abundant quantities of elaborate gold jewelry, as for a young woman buried near Nordhouse.
Away from the aristocratic centers are small farming communities situated in a variety of ecosystems, including wetlands, confirming the spread of agriculture well beyond the fertile loess soils that had first attracted farmers to the area.
During the end of the Halstatt and beginnings of the La Tène, the centres of Celtic power and production in central Europe generally moved northwards. However, Alsace and the middle Rhine, unlike other centres of Hallstatt power, show a great deal of continuity from one period to the next, as demonstrated by continuity in burial practices and the uninterrupted occupation of Britzgyberg.
Later, during the second and first centuries BCE, large fortified settlements appear throughout central Europe, including in Alsace and surrounding areas. These settlements are generally referred to as oppida both by contemporary observers and modern historians. The larger of these settlements may be distinguished from Hallstatt hill forts by their size, their less uniform association with centers of elite power and accumulation, and the form of defensive walls that surrounded them. The largest oppidum in Alsace from this period is the Oppidum du Fossé des Pandours, northwest of modern Strasbourg, in what was the territory of the Mediomadrici.
Roman Alsace
By 100 BCE Germanic peoples had begun to settle areas along the upper Rhine and Danube long occupied by Celtic speaking Gauls. By no later than the first half of the first century BCE, much of Alsace was occupied by the Triboci, a Germanic tribe.Rome conquered Alsace in the early stages of the Gallic Wars. In 58 BCE, the Aedui, a Gallic tribe located to the southwest of Alsace, appealed to the Roman Senate for aid against the Suebi, a Germanic tribe located principally to the east of the Rhine. The Suebi had united with other Germanic tribes under their chieftain Ariovistus, and had asserted control, through conquest, migration, and alliances, in territories within Gaul itself. Julius Caesar, fresh from victory against the Helvetii, by his own account attempted to negotiate with Ariovistus, but the Suebian leader refused to make the concessions Caesar demanded. A battle broke out at the foot of the Vosges near Cernay in southern Alsace. Caesar routed the Suebi, and Ariovistus fled east. There followed a "long period of security... for the Gauls along the middle and upper Rhine."
From the first century CE to the early fifth century CE Alsace was incorporated into the Roman province of Germania Superior, formally established in 85 CE. The portion of the Rhine flowing along the eastern boundary of Alsace was also the Roman frontier, or limes, from 53 BCE to approximately 70 CE, and again from approximately 250 CE to before the fall of the Empire in the fifth century. Throughout the Roman period Argentoratum was a major Roman military camp. Roman installations, including a major fortress from about 365 CE, were also located near Biesheim on the Rhine when it formed part of the frontier.
Alsace was administered from three cities, or civitates. These were, initially, Brocomagus, Divodorum, and Augusta Raurica. The administrative role of Brocumagus was eventually taken over by Argentoratum. Otherwise urbanization and population growth was marked the Roman period, likely reaching its greatest extent in the second century, and remaining significant until the middle of the fourth century. Urban buildings appear largely to have been half-timbered, as opposed to the predominantly stone construction in the rest of Gaul, likely due to the lack of accessible bedrock in the valley of the Rhine. In the fourth and fifth centuries, several urban centers were fortified by ramparts, including Brocumagus, Tres Tabernae Cesaris and Argentovaria. In the fifth century urbanization declines rapidly throughout Alsace.
Among food crops the cultivation of cereals predominated. It is assumed by most historians that the Romans introduced viticulture, although evidence for wine growing during the Roman period remains limited. Certainly large quantities of wine, oil, and salted meats were imported from elsewhere in the Roman Empire, most notably from Iberia. Manufacturing centers were also developed, including a steel works close to the military camps at Argentoratum.