Ancient Glass Workshop Discovered in Czech Republic May Have Hosted Sacred Rituals, Archaeologists Say

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   An ancient glass workshop with Celtic coins and glass, sunken huts, and a possible sanctuary have been identified by archaeologists more than 20 years after the initial discovery of an Iron Age settlement at the Němčice site in Moravia in the eastern Czech Republic.

   According to this latest study, published in Antiquity last month, this is the earliest known glass workshop in Transalpine Europe or present-day France, Belgium, parts of Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. The site dates to the La Tène Age, between roughly 250 BCE and 150 BCE.

   Previous excavations had yielded “semi-finished products and rejects of glass beads and production waste” within the same circular area. While the team believed that glass was being produced at the site, they hadn’t identified evidence of a glass workshop until now.

   Traces of production features and equipment were found that, according to the study, have lent new insight into early production methods.

   A mysterious square structure was also explored by archaeologists. Ritualistic spaces of this kind have been found at comparable sites. They believe that this sanctuary could have been used for similar purposes, making the site both a hub for commerce and production and, perhaps, for sacred rituals.

   More than 2,000 Celtic coins dating to the first and second centuries BCE were also found in previous surveys of the site, along with glass bracelets, beads, and various bronze artifacts.

   Němčice would have been part of a larger infrastructure of Central European settlements along the Amber Road, a notable trade route that linked the Baltic coast with the Adriatic region.