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An oppidum (plural ''oppida'') is a large fortified Iron Age settlement. Oppida are associated with the Celtic late La Tène culture, emerging during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, spread across Europe, stretching from Britain and Iberia in the west to the edge of the Hungarian plain in the east. They continued in use until the Romans began conquering Europe. North of the River Danube, where the population remained independent from Rome, oppida continued to be used into the 1st century AD. ==Definition== ''Oppidum'' is a Latin word meaning the main settlement in any administrative area of ancient Rome. The word is derived from the earlier Latin ''ob-pedum'', "enclosed space", possibly from the Proto-Indo-European '' *pedóm-'', "occupied space" or "footprint". In his ''Commentarii de Bello Gallico'', Julius Caesar described the larger Celtic Iron Age settlements he encountered in Gaul during the Gallic Wars in 58 to 52 BC as ''oppida''. Although he did not explicitly define what features qualified a settlement to be called an ''oppidum'', the main requirements emerge: They were important economic sites, places where goods were produced, stored and traded, where sometimes Roman merchants had settled and where the Roman legions could obtain supplies. They were also political centres, the seat of authorities taking decisions that affected large numbers of people – for example the appointment of Vercingetorix as head of the Gallic revolt in 52 BC. Caesar named 28 oppida. By 2011, only 21 of these had been positively identified by historians and archaeologists: either there was a traceable similarity between the Latin and the modern name of the locality (e.g. Orléans-Cenabum), or excavations had provided the necessary evidence (e.g. Alesia). Most of the places Caesar called oppida were city-sized fortified settlements. However, Geneva for example was referred to as an oppidum, although no fortifications dating to this period have yet been discovered there. Caesar also refers to 20 oppida of the Bituriges and 12 of the Helvetii, i.e. twice the number of fortified settlements of these groups known today. This implies that Caesar likely counted some unfortified settlements as oppida. A similar ambiguity is in evidence in writing by the Roman historian Livy who also used the word for both fortified and unfortified settlements.〔 In his work ''Geographia'', Ptolemy listed the coordinates of many Celtic settlements. However, research has shown many of the localisations of Ptolemy to be erroneous, making the identification of any modern location with the names he listed highly uncertain and speculative. An exception to that is the oppidum of ''Brenodurum'' at Bern that was confirmed by an archaeological discovery.〔 In archaeology and pre-history, the term ''oppida'' today refers to a category of settlement; it was first used in this sense by , and in reference to Bibracte, Manching, and Závist.〔Woolf (1993), pp. 223–24〕〔Jones (2001), p. 46〕 In particular, Dehn suggested defining an oppidum by four criteria: * Size: The settlement has to have a minimum size, defined by Dehn as . * Topography: Most oppida are situated on heights, but some are located on flat areas of land. * Fortification: The settlement is surrounded by a (ideally uninterrupted) wall, usually consisting of three elements: a facade of stone, a wooden construction and an earthen rampart at the back. Gates are usually '. * Chronology: The settlement dates from the late Iron Age, i.e. the last two centuries BC.〔 In current usage, most definitions of ''oppida'' emphasise the presence of fortifications, so they are different from undefended farms or settlements; and urban characteristics, marking them as separate from hill forts. They could be referred to as "the first cities north of the Alps". The period of 2nd and 1st centuries BC places them in the period known as La Tène. A notional minimum size of has often been suggested, although it is flexible and fortified sites as small as have been described as oppida. However, the term is not always rigorously used, and has been used to refer to any hill fort or circular rampart dating from the La Tène period. One of the effects of this inconsistency in definitions is that it is uncertain how many oppida were built.〔Woolf (1993), pp. 224–225〕 In some cases, even significantly older hill-top structures like the one at Glauberg (6th or 5th century BC) have been called oppidum. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「oppidum」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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