Uncovering the Past
MUNICH – From the soil of Manching, Germany, emerges a bronze warrior barely three inches tall, yet fierce with sword and shield in hand. Cast more than two millennia ago, this rare Celtic figurine echoes ancestral memory while highlighting Celtic artistry and their mastery of fire and metal.
Archaeologists in Bavaria have uncovered a remarkable bronze warrior figurine during the latest excavations at Manching, a vast Celtic oppidum, an Iron Age fortified town, and one of the most significant Celtic settlements north of the Alps. The La Tène oppidum settlement began at the end of the 4th century BC.
The discovery, announced at a press conference and press release on August 13, 2025, by the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments (BLfD), i among more than 40,000 artifacts recovered in a three-year project that sheds new light on Iron Age Europe.
The little Celtic warrior artifact after restoration. Courtesy: [Courtesy: Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege]
At just 7.5 centimeters tall and weighing 55 grams, the statuette may be small, but it has quickly become one of the most captivating finds from Manching. The warrior is shown in a lunging pose, sword in one hand and shield in the other. A loop on his head suggests it may have been worn as a pendant. Despite its modest size, the figure is exceptionally intricate, made using the lost-wax casting process, a technique that produced a particularly complex and delicate work..
“This 75-millimeter high and 55-gram statuette is a particularly complex and delicate work,” explained Thomas Stöckl, conservator at the BLfD. “It was made using the lost-wax casting process as a solid bronze casting, which reveals the impressive skills of Celtic metalworkers.”
X-rays carried out at the BLfD’s restoration workshops confirmed the statuette’s solid bronze composition and revealed fine details beneath centuries of corrosion. Despite its small size, experts describe it as a particularly complex and delicate work, raising new questions about its role and meaning within Celtic culture. Future research will explore those questions.
Found in a City of the Celts
The figurine was recovered from a ditch context that pottery evidence dates to the 3rd century BCE, when Manching was at its height. Established in the late 4th century BCE, the oppidum eventually covered 400 hectares and may have housed up to 10,000 people—larger than medieval Nuremberg. Fortified with walls and ditches, Manching was not merely a refuge but a planned town with residential quarters, craft zones, and extensive workshops.
Celtic Warrior prior to restoration (left) and (right) and x-ray image before the restoration. [Courtesy: [Courtesy: Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege]
The warrior was recovered from a ditch dated to the 3rd century BCE by associated pottery. Its purpose, whether ornament, ritual piece, or symbol of status, simply remains unknown. Its recovery adds to a tradition of human representations at the site, but few are as technically accomplished. “We already knew Manching as a site of remarkable human depictions,” Stöckl noted. “But this statuette stands out as a particularly complex and highly detailed piece.”
A Treasure Trove of Finds
The warrior is only one of more than 40,000 objects uncovered between 2021 and 2024. Excavators documented 1,300 archaeological features across a 6,800-square-meter stretch of land southeast of Ingolstadt. The project, required by a road construction scheme, was carried out with interdisciplinary teams including archaeologists, anthropologists, archaeozoologists, and archaeobotanists.
Their work has yielded a comprehensive snapshot of Celtic life. Evidence of iron processing was identified through hammer marks, while more than 15,000 metal fragments were scanned in detail, generating over 2,000 X-ray images for future study. For the first time at Manching, fish bones and scales were discovered, proving that freshwater fish supplemented the Celtic diet alongside beef, pork, and grain. Horses, meanwhile, were typically slaughtered only after long working lives, while sheep and goats provided wool and milk.
One of the most unusual contexts was a ritual deposit dating to the 2nd–1st century BCE. Inside a boxlike pit, archaeologists found the remains of at least three individuals, animal bones, 32 metal objects, and fragments of more than 50 ceramic vessels. The recovery of two nearly complete skeletons in one context was described as “extraordinary” by excavation manager Sebastian Hornung of Pro Arch Prospektion und Archäologie GmbH.
The restored bronze warrior [Courtesy: Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege
The Figurine in Context
Yet it is the warrior figurine that continues to draw the most attention. Its presence highlights the skill and artistry of Celtic metalworkers at Manching. For context about the period the statuette was made, the 3rd century BCE was a time of wider upheaval in Europe, with Rome and Carthage at war and Celtic oppida flourishing across central Europe. Manching itself was a hub of trade and craftsmanship, connecting northern Europe to Mediterranean exchange networks.
Whether the little warrior was a protective amulet, a status symbol worn by an elite, or part of ritual practice may never be resolved. What is clear is that its maker possessed both technical mastery and access to high-quality materials. The loop on the figure’s head suggests mobility—it could have been carried, displayed, or worn, allowing it to allowing it to be carried, displayed, or worn.
The finds from Manching, including the bronze warrior, are now state property and will enter Bavarian collections for conservation and study. Only about 12 percent of the site has been excavated, meaning that much of Manching’s story remains underground.
For Prof. Mathias Pfeil, General Conservator of the BLfD, the new discoveries underline the site’s enduring importance: “The diversity of finds allows us to see how the Late Iron Age settlement was organized, how people lived, worked, and fed themselves, what trade relationships they maintained, and what technical skills they had developed.”
The warrior figurine may be diminutive in size, but it stands tall as a symbol of Celtic ingenuity and the enduring mysteries of Iron Age Europe. Its discovery reminds us that even the smallest objects can open windows into entire worlds—worlds of warriors, artisans, and communities whose legacies continue to shape our understanding of Europe’s ancient past.
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