ABSTRACT
When Rome made its first historical contact with the inhabitants of the future province of Noricum, the ethnic composition of the native population had already almost reached its final form. The people described by the annalists of the time as Galli Transalpini and by later authors, beginning with Polybius, as Taurisci and Norici, was made up of heterogeneous elements. At the end of the early Iron Age, immediately before the appearance of the Celts, the Hallstatt culture was universally dominant in Noricum, with variations and sub-groups. Prehistorians and linguists now use two terms to designate the pre-Celtic population of Noricum: Veneti and Illyrians. Prehistoric studies are in a position to distinguish spatially and temporally between prehistoric cultures, which can be recognised by more or less uniform types of artefacts, settlement-patterns and funerary customs. The Celtic settlement in northern Noricum proved to be permanent and was not affected by any major movements of peoples until the Roman imperial period.
