Glauberg

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The Glauberg is a hill near the village of Glauburg in the Wetteraukreis, some 30 km. northeast of Frankfurt am Main that is made notable by the discovery there of earthworks and elite burials of early La Tène culture, mid-5th century BCE. The site was identified from the air as a tumulus in 1987, and excavations continue at the site, which now seems to have constituted a major seat of power. The natural hill is crowned with a hill fort.

The tumulus, surrounded by a circular ditch is sited on the southern slope of the hill. A processional way 350 m long and 10 m wide and flanked by deep ditches approaches the tumulus from the southeast, beyond the settlement perimeter. The tumulus contains several wood-clad chamber tombs, with extraordinary grave goods, with both a cremation (a Halstatt feature) and an inhumation (a Le Tène feature). A finely-executed ribbed bronze flagon is very similar to one found at Dürrnberg, Austria. Near the graves were buried four life-size sandstone sculptures: one that is almost complete, the "Lord of Glauberg" (Fürst vom Glauberg), is of a mustached and bearded male, with a leafy diadem or helmet and a headdress of bladderlike or leafblade forms, "sometimes regarded as a symbol of divinity." (Frey 2004) that is paralleled in sculptures and so-called "stele" from other La Tène sites, such as the Holzgerlingen figure (Stuttgart Landesmuseum), a pillar-stele from Pfalzfeld, St Goar, the Hirschlanden "warrior" and others. At his side hangs a typical La Tène short sword, called of "antenna" type from its scrolling hilt. His thick torc bears three pendants.