Prince's tomb of Arpvar

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The prince's grave of Arpvar is the burial place of a prince of the Merovingian era in Gellep-Stratum in North Rhine-Westphalia . The grave, which is also known as the Prince's Grave No. 1782 , is located on the southern burial ground of the Gelduba site from Roman times. The grave was discovered and uncovered in 1962 under the direction of Renate Pirling . The grave, dated around 500 AD, was intact, richly furnished and is referred to as the founder's grave for this part of the burial ground. In its neighborhood there were hundreds of simpler burial sites and five noticeably large graves, which are assigned to high Franconian aristocrats.

Gellep stratum / Gelduba

Spread of Salfranken and Rhine Franconia until 5th / 6th century

Gellep-Stratum is a small district of Krefeld about two kilometers south of Uerdingen near the Rhine. Most of the area covered by the Gellep part of the village was the site of the former Roman fort Gelduba , where systematic excavations and research have been carried out since the 1930s. The fort existed from about AD 69 until at least the middle of the 5th century. The Roman period was followed by a settlement from the 3rd / 4th. Century from the right bank of the Rhine over the Rhine expanding Franconia . The grave field in front of the fort and in particular the southern grave field somewhat separated from it were continuously occupied until the 8th century, over 6,200 graves were excavated and numerous, in some cases unique, grave goods secured.

The princely grave

Towards the end of a long, not very successful excavation season, in which 200 graves with almost no additions were uncovered south of the former Roman fort, the team around Renate Pirling surprisingly came across a larger pit, barely recognizable on the surface, over an area of ​​4 × 5 m was covered by some chunks of tufa. As it went deeper, the pit assumed an increasingly rectangular shape. The grave was given the number 1782 .

Grave fields of Krefeld-Gellep - at No. 5: Location of the Prince's grave Arpvar and a group of other prominent Franconian graves
Contents of the tomb "Arpvar" - 5th / 6th centuries century

The first thing to be found at a depth of 180 cm was a large skewer 126 cm long, including a wooden bucket with a bronze handle and ornate fittings. Immediately it turned out that the grave area lying on a sole 280 cm deep was covered with an abundance of grave goods on 270 × 140 cm. The grave was intact and evidently not discovered by grave robbers over the centuries. However, no skeletal remains were found in the lime-poor sandy soil.

The location of the deceased was easy to determine from the finds and additions. According to the custom of the time, he lay with his head to the west, his gaze to the east at the rising sun.

Exposure and additions

The three days of uncovering produced an abundance of sensational, sometimes unique finds, which indicated that it was a man's grave , namely that of an extraordinarily high-ranking Frankish person of princely rank .

The dating was made easier by the discovery of the Franconian re-minting of a gold coin based on a solidus of the Eastern Roman emperor Anastasius I (491-518). Probably they had been put in the mouth of the dead as an obolus for the journey to the underworld, as was already the case with the Romans. The grave cannot have been laid before 491 and not much later than 518, the burial would thus fall in the time of the Merovingian king Clovis I (* 466; † 511).

A rusty lump was found next to the coin, which later turned out to be the most magnificent piece of the excavation after the restoration:

Golden spangenhelm from the princely grave of Krefeld-Gellep
  • It is a so-called Spangenhelm , consisting of an iron base with bronze plates. Gilded bronze clasps riveted over this are decorated with punched ornaments. The forehead band is covered with gilded bronze sheet metal with a matrix pressed in three times: a human mask between lion-like animals, in between vines with grapes that birds peck at. The type of Spangenhelm probably goes back to Iranian models (of which 32 were found in Europe besides Gellep). It was certainly the privilege of high-ranking personalities to wear such helmets, more for decoration and as a badge of rank than as a protective helmet in combat.

Other outstanding additions include:

  • A horse bridle with trimmings of gold, silver and precious stones (to which there are no parallels found so far). The bridles are covered with silver and gold sheet, the leather browbands - almost completely old - riveted with golden plates, on the surface of which three dark red gemstones are filigree
  • Belt distributor with bronze discs and golden cross-shaped and arched Almadin plates
  • ornate fittings of a wooden, leather-covered saddle (which, however, was not included)
  • a filigree pocket fitting with horse heads set in gold
  • silver spoons and a pair of iron knives in leather sheaths
  • a roughly 126 cm long skewer
  • a finger ring made of solid gold, probably the most beautiful find ; with a filigree gem , perhaps a scene from Greek mythology

The Franconian prince had all his armament in the grave, which also underlines his high position:

  • a double-edged long sword with a gold ring pommel, the spathe , the most important weapon of the Franconian warrior. The upper part of the blade is damascene (using a technique that has only been proven in Gellep so far)
  • a 164 cm long javelin, called Ango , which was originally much longer. Ordinary warriors did not have an ango, they must have been an outstanding personality
  • a single-edged stabbing sword, a sax , as it was common among all Germanic tribes, but also in the Roman army
  • and for a franc, of course, a Franziska , the throwing ax typical of the Frankish warrior
  • further utensils: a shield boss, tips of a wing lance , clay and metal vessels, a basin, a pot, valuable glass beakers (probably inherited from Roman times)

inscription

A small, 22 cm high bronze jug at the foot of the grave turned out to be particularly interesting and informative. On its belly it has a soldered bronze ribbon on which an awkward but easily legible inscription is incised in Latin letters, according to the Heidelberg epigrapher Prof. Géza Alföldy as follows:

  • ARPVAR ERAT (F) ELEX UNDIQUE PRE (expanded as Praecelsus)

It is obvious that with ARPVAR the buried prince is meant. The saying dedicated to him is therefore:

  • Arpvar was happy and respected everywhere

Thus, the name of the prince is known, but nothing about his person, his work during the Merovingian era. There are also no clear indications of his religion, whether Christian or pre-Christian. It is conceivable that he was commissioned by the Franconian king as regional governor with the administration of the Lower Rhine area. It is possible that he resided in the fort that was abandoned by the Romans or in its vicinity.

The turning basin of the Krefeld Rhine port, which today covers parts of the Roman / Franconian ground monument of Gellep.

The other (robbed) princely graves

Twenty-five to sixty meters southwest of the Arpvar tomb, five other graves were discovered, which because of their size stood out from their surroundings. They were dated to the period between 530 and 600 AD, and therefore served for three generations of high-ranking personalities to be buried. The four largest are attributed to people of princely rank according to their layout and the accessories and remains of the former furnishings that have still been found. Possibly these are family tombs of relatives of the Franconian prince Arpvar. All four graves were anciently looted, one was completely robbed, and the others were left with remains.

These are chamber graves with wooden fixtures. In contrast to the grave of Arpvar, the pits were provided with small mounds (which is why they were easy to spot by grave robbers), which later collapsed:

  • Grave 2528 : relatively close to the grave of Arpvar, based on findings it is the oldest of the group and the grave of a man. Only the shield boss was preserved from his weapons equipment. There were also shards of glass vessels (including a drinking horn with melted glass threads and a snout cup), as well as a small bronze scale (which was used in the Merovingian period to weigh coins made of precious metal).
  • Grave 2590 : about 35 m slightly south of the Arpavar grave, was completely robbed.
  • Grave 2589 : about 35 m west of the Arpvar grave, was wider than it was long and consisted of a double chamber grave in which two men were apparently buried. Included were a lance, a wooden bucket, a comb and an ango (throwing lance). A coin found in the grave was minted during the time of the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian the Great, so the burial must have taken place after 540 AD. In the pit, there were also remains of body armor made of iron lamellas, which was very valuable for the time, possibly a loot that had been made in Central Asia. The lamellar armor recovered in 1964 was dropped during transport to the restoration laboratory and consists only of fragments.
  • Grave 2613 : (the smallest grave, subject to this group) about 10 meters to the right of grave 2589. In the smallest grave of the group there were still: strap tongues , decorative or game stones, remains of a warrior's long sword.
  • Grave 2268 : at 60 meters west of the farthest from Arpvar's grave, was discovered in spring 1964. With a depth of 355 cm and an area of ​​650 × 420 cm, it is the largest of the “royal tombs”. The grave robbers had overlooked some interesting finds: a fitting made of sheet gold, remains of an artfully made leather bag with silver buckles and fittings, two luxurious wooden boxes with gold sheet strips, remains of a car (with hub rings, rim clips and tire fragments). It was probably the grave of a noble Frankish lady. The dendrochronological examination of the remains of an oak beam resulted in an assignment of the grave to the end of the 6th and beginning of the 7th century.

Résumé

In Arpvar and the other deceased, the "princely tombs Group" should there have been a small class of privileged and begüteter people. Possibly they belonged to a family of the Frankish nobility who had the power to dispose of others and whose possessions included items that were not accessible to the general public. The grave goods found are exhibits in the Archaeological Museum Center Burg Linn, three kilometers away .

literature

  • A Franconian princely grave from Krefeld-Gellep. In: Germania . 42, 1964, pp. 188-216.
  • Renate Pirling, Otto Doppelfeld : Franconian princes in the Rhineland: The graves from the Cologne Cathedral of Krefeld-Gellep and Morken. (= Writings of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn. Volume 2). Düsseldorf 1966, DNB 456481001 .
  • Renate Pirling , Heinrich Tiefenbach :  Gelduba. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 10, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1998, ISBN 3-11-015102-2 , pp. 636-646.
  • The Roman-Franconian burial ground of Krefeld-Gellep . (= Germanic monuments of the migration period. Series B, The Franconian antiquities of the Rhineland. Volume 8). Steiner, Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-7861-1062-X .
  • The excavations in Krefeld-Gellep. In: Excavations in the Rhineland '77. Rheinland-Verlag Köln, Bonn 1978, pp. 136–140.
  • The Roman-Franconian burial ground of Krefeld-Gellep. (= Germanic monuments of the migration period series B, The Franconian antiquities of the Rhineland. Volume 10). de Gruyter, Berlin 1979.
  • Romans and Franks in Krefeld-Gellep. Zabern, Mainz 1986, ISBN 3-8053-0893-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christoph Reichmann: The late antique fortifications of Krefeld-Gellep. In: Archaeological correspondence sheet. 17, 1987, pp. 507-521.
  2. ↑ a b c Renate Pirling: The princely grave. In: Reinhard Feinendegen, Hans Vogt (ed.): Krefeld - the history of the city. Volume 1: From the early days to the Middle Ages. Verlag van Ackeren, Krefeld 1998, ISBN 3-9804181-6-2 , p. 227f.
  3. ↑ a b The princely grave. In: Renate Pirling: The Roman-Franconian grave fields of Krefeld-Gellep. Museum leaflet. Verlag Freunde der Museen Burg Linn eV Krefeld 2011, p. 50f.
  4. ↑ Renate Pirling: The robbed princely graves. In: Reinhard Feinendegen, Hans Vogt (ed.): Krefeld - the history of the city. Volume 1: From the early days to the Middle Ages. Verlag van Ackeren, Krefeld 1998, ISBN 3-9804181-6-2 , p. 243f.
  5. ↑ The robbed “princely graves”. In: Renate Pirling: The Roman-Franconian grave fields of Krefeld-Gellep. Museum leaflet. Verlag Freunde der Museen Burg Linn eV Krefeld 2011, p. 66f.
  6. ↑ Renate Pirling: The robbed princely graves. In: Reinhard Feinendegen, Hans Vogt (ed.): Krefeld - the history of the city. Volume 1: From the early days to the Middle Ages. Verlag van Ackeren, Krefeld 1998, ISBN 3-9804181-6-2 , p. 250f.