Alcimoennis

Alcimoennis or Alkimoennis is the name widely attached to a Celtic Oppidum, or hill fort above the modern town of Kelheim in Bavaria, Germany [1]. The oppidum was located on the Michelsberg hill, dominating the peninsula at the confluence of the Danube and the Altmühl rivers near Kelheim [1]. The peninsula has been inhabited more or less constantly since 13,000 BCE and the Celts built there as early as 500 BCE [1]. The oppidum dates to the late La Tène period, however, and it is estimated that it was abandoned some time around the middle of the first century BCE [1]. The exterior wall of the late-Celtic oppidum surrounded the whole Michelsberg and Hirschberg [1]. Inside the area of roughly 600 ha the settlement from the second and first century BCE now referred to as Alcimoennis was located [1]. Scientific excavations were conducted in 1959 and 1960, directed by K. Schwarz and between 1964 and 1972 by F.-R. Hermann [1].