In archaeology, the Rhine-Weser Germanic peoples (German: Rhein-Weser-Germanen) were the Germanic peoples who shared an identifiable set of identifiable technologies and material goods which appeared during the Roman era, and existed in a region encompassed approximately by the Rhine, Weser, Werra and Main rivers in what is now western Germany. Traditionally the changes in this archaeological culture have been associated with the spread of Germanic languages from the Elbe river region to its east, during the period in which the Roman Empire dominated the region from the west.
In archaeology the concept of a Roman era Rhine-Weser zone of related cultures has been influential since 1938, but it has remained difficult to define the limits of this zone, and distinguish them clearly from both their neighbours to the north, east and south, and their precursors. In the early first century AD the region was dominated by the La Tène culture which is associated with Celtic languages in regions to the south and west of the Rhine-Weser region, including pre-Roman Iron Age regions now in France and southern Germany. Evidence of later cultural influences from the Elbe during the Roman era are clear, but they are also clear in neighbouring regions to the north and south.
