Born in Embers

Middle Bronze Age to Late pre-Roman Iron Age

ca. 1550 to 58 BC

© State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt, Klaus Pockrandt.

Fire – no element was more important for the cultural developments of the Middle Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age. More than in the millennia before, fire had a decisive function in the central areas of life for the people of central Germany. Not only in technology and ecology, but also in religious rites and in caring for the dead, fire served as a transforming force, turning simple brine into precious salt, raw ore into bronze or iron, and the body of a deceased into smoke and ashes.

Weapons, tools, and valuables herald this in the glow of impressive installations. At the end of this eventful period, the cultures of central Europe emerge from their historical anonymity.

Museum Exklusiv

Here you will find films from the »Museum exklusiv« series of the State Museum of Prehistory, which bring you closer to this exciting epoch and individual finds from the Middle Bronze Age to the Iron Age (German version only).

»Der Sichehort aus Frankleben«

»Der Brunnen von Schönebeck«

»Der Bronzehortfund von Oberwünsch«

»Eine Siedlungsbestattung aus Wennungen«

»Die Erfindung des Krieges«

»Kelten: Meister der Symbolik«