Bas-Rhin Iron Age Echoes

The Bas-Rhin Iron Age communities occupied a riverine landscape where the Rhine and its tributaries braided trade, ritual movement, and seasonal cycles. Archaeological data indicates settlement and funerary practices in the Grand Est region between roughly 550 and 50 BCE, a period that overlaps the broad La Tène horizon across much of temperate Europe. Sites represented in this dataset—Untergasse (Erstein, Bas-Rhin), Goxwiller (Bas-Rhin), and Isles sur Suippe “Les Sohettes” (Marne)—sit on alluvial plains and low terraces favored by Iron Age farmers and craftspeople.

Material culture from contemporary excavations in the Bas-Rhin area shows a tapestry of local Late Hallstatt traditions and emerging La Tène influences in metalwork, pottery, and burial rites. This suggests a cultural mosaic rather than a single uniform group. Limited evidence from three genomes can capture threads of ancestry but cannot, by itself, define the full population history. Archaeological indicators point to incremental continuity from earlier Neolithic and Bronze Age communities combined with new social networks and mobility during the Iron Age.

Key actors in this landscape were rural households, specialized artisans, and river traders. Their emergence is best described as the confluence of long-term local development and wider Iron Age transformations brought by increased connectivity across central and western Europe.

Three individuals sampled from Untergasse, Isles sur Suippe “Les Sohettes,” and Goxwiller (550–50 BCE) provide a narrow but valuable genetic window into Bas-Rhin Iron Age populations. Y-chromosome lineages recorded are G (1), R (1), and I (1); mitochondrial lineages are Ia4 (1), J (1), and T (1). These lineages mirror a mixed ancestral tapestry: G and certain J/T maternal lineages are often associated with long-standing Neolithic farmer ancestry in Europe, while R and I Y-lineages can reflect later Bronze Age and local Mesolithic/Neolithic derived components that persisted into the Iron Age.

Archaeological data indicates regional continuity from earlier periods; the genetics are consistent with that picture, showing both deep local roots and the signatures expected in a mobile Iron Age world. However, the sample count is very low (n=3). Limited evidence suggests patterns consistent with broader Iron Age Western Europe—intermediate ancestry between Neolithic farmers and steppe-derived lineages—but any population-level inference must remain tentative.

Future sampling across more burials and sites in Bas-Rhin and neighboring departments will be necessary to resolve kinship, sex-biased migration, and the extent of genetic continuity versus influx. For now, these genomes act as evocative fragments that complement the archaeological story.