The Celts were divided into many different tribes, whose settlement area encompassed large parts of Europe. From Spain to the Balkans, Celts shaped the development of numerous European landscapes, including the British Isles. Many of the so-called Celtic earthworks, also known as square enclosures, were built before the Roman invasion in 15 BC. These square enclosures, or Celtic earthworks, are remnants of a square, sometimes rectangular, area with a rampart and ditch, primarily found in southern Germany. Parts of such an enclosure can be seen near Olgishofen in the Unterallgäu region.
What was the significance of these Celtic earthworks? This question has apparently not yet been definitively answered by scholars. It is likely that many square enclosures were Celtic estates. It is conceivable that the Celts also surrounded cult sites with square enclosures. It is also possible that square enclosures served as sites of Druid rituals. "In Bavaria alone, over 200 such sites are occupied," writes the scholar Dorothea van Endert in her account of the South Swabian Prehistory Museum in Mindelheim. She also reports on the "traditional quarrelsomeness" of the Celts.