Manching

Large Celtic oppidum (fortified settlement) of the Vindelici tribe, 8 km/5 mi southeast of Ingolstadt, Bavaria. This Iron Age settlement has a defensive wall 7 km/4 mi long, probably built about 100 BC. It was a market centre and embryo town until its annexation by the Romans in 15 BC.

Extensive excavations since 1955 have uncovered streets of post-built houses, including elite dwellings with palisaded enclosures, and workshops and stores that show iron and leather were worked here and coins were minted; also a large amount of domestic and industrial refuse, including 400,000 animal bones.

The importance of this settlement for the archaeological study of the northern European Iron Age lies in the wealth of its finds. Since these can be linked to a known historical date, they provide a fixed chronological point for many other sites.

Oppida were distributed from western France to Serbia, and were frequently trading centres showing some urban characteristics; coins were often minted at these sites. In the 2nd century BC Roman merchants traded with Noricum in the eastern Alps using Magdelensburg, a native oppidum, as the port of exchange between the Roman and ‘barbarian’ worlds.