Hort find from Rülzheim

The Rülzheim hoard find (also the barbarian treasure of Rülzheim ) is the find of a late Roman hoard by a probe near Rülzheim ( Palatinate ). It is kept in the collection center of the Historisches Museum der Pfalz in Speyer .

description

Lecture on the hoard found by Ulrich Himmelmann ( GDKE ) at the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation

The find includes a silver plate, a silver bowl, golden decorations of a magnificent robe (not certain due to the destruction), remains of a gold-plated and silver-plated folding chair that was probably only incompletely preserved by the excavator and therefore no longer exactly reconstructable , silver statuettes and other objects. Stylistic elements of the pieces refer to the East Germanic- Hunnic area. The find is dated to the middle of the 5th century ( Migration Period ).

From September 21, 2018 to January 6, 2019, the find in the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin was shown in the exhibition Moving Times. Archeology shown in Germany , which took place on the occasion of the European Cultural Heritage Year 2018.

Finding circumstances

In spring 2014, the late antique hoard attracted public attention, which was handed over to the Rhineland-Palatinate State Office for Monument Preservation (State Archeology at the end of December 2013 of the General Directorate for Cultural Heritage of Rhineland-Palatinate ) by metal seeker Benjamin Mike Czerny under the pressure of investigations . The unauthorized excavations have destroyed valuable information about the treasure. What is being forgotten is that without this unauthorized excavation, this treasure would probably never have been found with a probability bordering on certainty.

Due to the improper recovery of the treasure hunter, only limited statements can be made about the circumstances of the laying down of the hoard. Regular archaeological excavations, which would have been carried out as block salvage , could have shown whether the hoard was in a wooden box, quickly discarded or carefully hidden. Information on the reconstruction of the gold-adorned objects could have been obtained from precise documentation of the location and pedological analyzes.

The treasure hunter was sentenced in early 2015 by the Speyer District Court for embezzlement to a prison sentence of 15 months on probation . As the convicted person appealed, the case was retried in early 2016. This led to a conviction by the Frankenthal (Palatinate) regional court to eight months' probation and a payment of 2000 euros to the German Foundation for Monument Protection . The defense lawyer announced a revision of the judgment .

At the beginning of 2018, after the decision by the Higher Regional Court against the treasure hunter had been rejected, new proceedings were initiated before the Regional Court. The Frankenthal regional court imposed a fine of 90 daily rates of 30 euros on probation for embezzlement. In addition, the 26-year-old had to pay a premium of 500 euros in favor of the Speyer cathedral building association. The judge justified the correction mainly with the fact that the man had previously waived all rights from the treasure trove and the finder's fee.

literature

• Andreas Precht: "Barbarian Treasure of Rülzheim". Artifacts from the 5th century provide confirmation of the presence of the Huns in the southern Palatinate . In: Rheinische Heimatpflege . Volume 51, No. 4, 2014, ISSN  0342-1805 , pp. 312-316.

Web links

Commons : Hortfund von Rülzheim  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Exhibition of the hoard find in the Landesmuseum Mainz ( Memento from October 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
• Exhibition brochure with photos of the found objects ( Memento from October 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (pdf)
• Eckhard Fuhr: Rülzheim - "Barbarian treasure" found and all traces destroyed. welt.de, April 1, 2014
• Spectacular find in Rhineland-Palatinate - looted graves come across "barbarian treasure". Series of images at n-tv.de
• Radio interview on the circumstances of the find on DRadio Wissen with the Lower Saxony state archaeologist Henning Haßmann on January 25, 2016 (6:25 min.)
• Opinions on the “Barbarian Treasure” judgment. Report and analysis of a survey, March 2015. Bangor Studies in Archeology, Report No. 9 of Bangor University

Individual evidence

1. ^ The "Barbarian Treasure of Rülzheim" website of the General Directorate for Cultural Heritage of Rhineland-Palatinate (accessed on February 27, 2015)
2. ↑ Archaeologist: Barbarian Treasure could be shown in Rülzheim in focus from April 16, 2018.
3. ↑ Is it the whole barbarian treasure? faz.net from February 19, 2014
4. ↑ A robber in the magic forest - the destruction of a spring during the migration period. Archeology (February 21, 2014) .
5. ↑ Finder receives suspended sentence for embezzlement. faz.net from February 25, 2015
6. ↑ Beware of finding treasure at DRadio Wissen from January 25, 2016
7. ^ Barbaric shine in: Süddeutsche Zeitung from January 25, 2016