Menosgada ("town above the Main valley")Motschmann 2006, p. 10 was a Celtic metropolis on the Upper

Main (river) The Main () is the longest tributary of the Rhine. It rises as the White Main in the Fichtel Mountains of northeastern Bavaria and flows west through central Germany for to meet the Rhine below Rüsselsheim, Hesse. The cities of Mainz and Wie ...

that was mentioned by the Greek geographer,

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...

. It was probably located on the hill known today as the Staffelberg. In the 1st millennium BC,

Celts The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancien ...

settled on the Staffelberg. Around 200 BC, the simple Early Celtic fortification was expanded into an ''

oppidum An ''oppidum'' (plural ''oppida'') is a large fortified Iron Age settlement or town. ''Oppida'' are primarily associated with the Celtic late La Tène culture, emerging during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, spread across Europe, stretchi ...

'', covering an area of 49 hectares, that was protected by a 2,800-metre-long defensive wall and

ditch A ditch is a small to moderate divot created to channel water. A ditch can be used for drainage, to drain water from low-lying areas, alongside roadways or fields, or to channel water from a more distant source for plant irrigation. Ditches ar ...

against the inhabitants of the neighbouring Jura lands. Menosgada was the northernmost ''oppidum'' in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. In the centre of the site is an acropolis measuring 3 hectares in area. Menosgada met its demise around 50 BC when the Romans tried unsuccessfully to advance eastwards along the Main graben to the

Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Re ...

river, but ran into massive opposition from the

Germanic tribes The Germanic peoples were historical groups of people that once occupied Central Europe and Scandinavia during antiquity and into the early Middle Ages. Since the 19th century, they have traditionally been defined by the use of ancient and e ...

. The times were too turbulent. In 50 AD, Menosgada was at the northernmost point of the area occupied by the

Varisci The Varisci ( German: ''Varisker'') were a Germanic tribe, the presumed prior inhabitants of a medieval district, ''Provincia Variscorum'', the same (in presumption) as the Vogtland district of Saxony in Germany. They do not appear under that name ...

. The immediate area was settled later after the Migration Period.

References

External links

Archaeological and excavation reports

Literature

* Josef Motschmann: Altenkunstadt - Heimat zwischen Kordigast und Main. Gemeinde Altenkunstadt, Altenkunstadt, 2006 * Jörg W. E. Fassbinder, Florian Becker, Sarah Abandowitz: Vom Datenpuzzle zum Gesamtbild: das latènezeitliche Oppidum Menosgada auf dem Staffelberg, München, 2018 * Markus Schußmann: Menosgada: Die keltische Stadt auf dem Staffelberg, Regensburg, 2022 {{Coord, 50.092222, N, 11.024722, E, type:landmark_region:DE-BY, display=title Celtic archaeological sites Archaeological sites in Germany Settlements in Germania Magna