Excavation on the Mader Heide
The excavation on Mader Heide in 1708 was one of the earliest "scientific" archaeological excavations in Germany.
Finding
excavation
Landgrave Karl had excavations carried out in 1708 on the Mader Heide near Maden , east of Gudensberg in northern Hesse . The place offered itself for research on the earliest history of Hesse : The estates of the Landgraviate of Hesse had met here and the place had been a Thingplatz until the Middle Ages . In addition, the place was thought to be a Chattic cult place and the center of the “Chattengau”, ie the historical center of Hesse. It was assumed that it was identical to the Mattium mentioned by Tacitus .
Several burial mounds were opened in the presence of the landgrave . Stone tools, vessels and three skeletons came to light . The latter lay prone in the largest of the hills, about a meter above the ceramic vessels. The objects were brought to the Ottoneum in the royal seat of Kassel , which the Landgrave used as an "art house" to store his collections. Stone tools and vessels were brought to the Hessian State Museum in Kassel and are preserved there. Such excavations were nothing unusual at the time and are also documented elsewhere, including in Hesse .
interpretation
With the knowledge and methods that were available at the beginning of the 18th century, it was not possible to classify the finds correctly. Today, however, they can be assigned to three time levels with some certainty:
- Stone tools and most of the vessels made of corded ceramics ,
- some vessels from the Hallstatt period ; they probably come from subsequent burials and
- the three skeletons. They probably came from executions in the late Middle Ages or early modern times .
The interpretations of the time tried to attach the find to known text sources. They were classified as Roman or as coming from the Chatti , the Mader Heide was interpreted as the campus Mattiacus , the capital of the Chatti. The Neolithic was not yet known.
Impact history
The scientific processing of the excavation took place in 1714 in the dissertation " De urnis sepulchralibus et armis lapideis veterum Cattorum ". Their authorship is controversial. She assigns the most thorough investigation to Johann Hermann Schmincke (1684–1724). But Johann Österling (1691–1751) was also suspected to be the author. For the first time, the editor went beyond the approach of attaching the finds to known text sources. Rather, he tried to use the finds themselves as a source, just as archeology as a science still does today. The author clearly recognized that the skeletons must have got into the ground after the ceramic vessels because they were on top of them. From this he concluded that the burial site would continue beyond Christianization : he interpreted the ceramic vessels as the remains of the cremation burials of pagan chats, and the body burials as those of Christianized descendants of the cremated. On the other hand, he had considerable difficulties in interpreting the stone tools. He thought they were weapons made of stone because iron was scarce.
The excavation on the Mader Heide is considered to be the origin of modern Hessian prehistoric research because of this new methodological approach . It has therefore been widely received in the specialist literature.
literature
- Gabriele Dolff-Bonekämper : The Discovery of the Middle Ages. Studies on the history of the registration of monuments and the protection of monuments in Hessen-Kassel and Kurhessen in the 18th and 19th centuries . Hessian Historical Commission , Darmstadt / Historical Commission for Hesse , Marburg 1985, ISBN 3-88443-149-8 (= Dissertation Marburg 1984).
- Conrad Mel: Urnae Mattiacae or Gedancken über die Madische Pöpffe, which were excavated in 1708 on the Drisch between Gudensberg and Maden, besides which historical antiquities are explained and presented . (Lost handwritten manuscript )
- Wilhelm Niemeyer (eds.): Johann Hermann Schminckes and Johannes Österling's dissertation on the funerary urns and stone weapons of the old Chatten from 1714. 250 years of prehistoric research in Kurhessen (= Kurhessische Boden antiques 4). Marburg 1964.
- Johann Hermann Schmincke: De urnis sepulchralibus et armis lapideis veterum Cattorum . Leipzig 1714 ( digitized ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dolff-Bonekämper: The discovery of the Middle Ages , p. 9, inadvertently mentions the year 1709.
- ↑ Schmincke: De urnis sepulchralibus , p. 4; Dolff-Bonekämper: The discovery of the Middle Ages , p. 9.
- ↑ Schmincke: De urnis sepulchralibus , p. 4.
- ^ Niemeyer (eds.): Johann Hermann Schminckes and Johannes Österling's dissertation , p. 65.
- ^ Trogillus Arnkiel: Cimbrian pagan burials . Hamburg 1702, p. 263, reports on finds from the year 1674, which were excavated near "Hirschfeld" (probably meant: Hersfeld ).
- ^ Niemeyer (eds.): Johann Hermann Schminckes and Johannes Österling's dissertation , p. 65.
- ↑ So Mel: Urnae Mattiacae ; see: Niemeyer (ed.): Johann Hermann Schminckes and Johannes Österling's dissertation , p. 59.
- ↑ So Mel: Urnae Mattiacae ; see: Niemeyer (Ed.): Johann Hermann Schminckes and Johannes Österlings Dissertation , p. 62.
- ↑ So Mel: Urnae Mattiacae ; see: Niemeyer (Ed.): Johann Hermann Schminckes and Johannes Österlings Dissertation , p. 62.
- ↑ Niemeyer (eds.): Johann Hermann Schminckes and Johannes Österling's dissertation , p. 59.
- ^ Niemeyer (eds.): Johann Hermann Schminckes and Johannes Österling's dissertation , p. 63.
- ↑ Schmincke: De urnis sepulchralibus , pp. 11, 24f.
- ↑ Schmincke: De urnis sepulchralibus , p. 27.
- ^ Niemeyer (eds.): Johann Hermann Schminckes and Johannes Österling's dissertation , p. 63.
- ^ Niemeyer (eds.): Johann Hermann Schminckes and Johannes Österling's dissertation , p. 66f. lists 29 works with the years of publication 1719 to 1960, which refer to the excavations in Mader Heide.
- ↑ Cited from Niemeyer, p. 37, note 12.