Lately I've been reading about oppida in the late Iron Age and how they fit into the development of cities outside of the classical Mediterranean world. What I've found indicates that many of these places were not densely occupied continuously, but rather served as monumental assembly places for ritual, prestige, and governmental functions in "barbarian" Europe. Do we have any record by Classical authors of the proceedings at one of these great assemblies? Do we have any cross-cultural examples that might provide a framework to guess how they operated? Thanks for any replies.
Questions about late Iron Age tribal assemblies
- Thread starter cincpac overboard
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The Roman Senate and the Ecclesia of Athens, seeing as they belong to the same cultural sphere and probably originated as "tribal" assemblies. Also the Norse Things and the noble councils of Anglo-Saxon England.
I can't think of any, but Norse assemblies were recorded, and they were probably quite similar to proto-Germanic ones.
The various Norse Things seem like a good research avenue. I'm interested in how they were used to deal with foreign relations with Christian neighbors. I can't be sure but I figure that late Iron Age assemblies were used in a similar fashion to address relations with an expanding Rome.