Band ceramic well construction

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Wells belong to the important archaeologically verifiable findings in settlements of the Bandkeramischen culture . A well is a construction for pumping water from an aquifer. Well construction not only manifests the desire for perfect and always sufficient drinking water, but it is also evidence of a well-organized water supply since the early Neolithic . For this reason, wells represent a characteristic feature of the Neolithic way of life, whichfitsinto the typical features of Neolithization ( settling down , building houses , farming , livestock farming , and later pottery ). Currently (as of 2016) at least 48 wells are known that allow generalizations to be made about the water supply for ceramic settlements, even if their function is controversial.

Ceramic tape wells consist of up to 15 m deep pits in which mostly in the log- assembled wooden structures and hollow / (. So-called box spring) hollowed Originates drums (so-called. Tube wells) from the sole up to the surface were erected. However, it is still controversial whether a well had to be stiffened with wood, since over the years wells have been dug out in which the findings did not allow any conclusions to be drawn about wood. In the course of the construction work, the pits were backfilled with the excavation. So far there has been no evidence of a secure expansion of the construction pits (the so-called Pölzung ). Obviously, the tightly joined and also usually caulked well boxes had two functions: they once formed a storage container for the groundwater and at the same time played the indispensable role of a clearing.

Representation of the principle of block construction technology . Exterior view.

chronology

Wells have been detected in the Mediterranean region since the PPNB (Pre-Ceramic Neolithic B, around 8000 BC), such as in Kissonerga-Mylouthkia and Shillourocambous on Cyprus , where they were sunk in the limestone. From the PPNC (approx. 7000 BC) there are three stone wells from the Sha'ar Hagolan site in Atlit Yam (Israel), which were built with a compound of large boulders .

In the late Mesolithic of Central Europe there were artificially created pits for water supply, for example in the Friesack site . A birch bark scoop was discovered in one of these pits.

In Europe, wooden fountains are first known from the early Starčevo culture (around 6000 BC). At the site near Slavonski Brod ( Croatia ), a cylindrical well shaft about 5 meters deep was documented from this period.

The earliest ribbon ceramics well can be found in a settlement of the oldest ribbon ceramics in Mohelnice ( Moravia ). From the planks there are dendrodata from 5540 ± 5 BC to 5460 ± 5 BC. BC, with the sapwood missing from the planks. In addition to the first phase of the Plaussig well , Eythra 2 (in the Zwenkau opencast mine ), Brodau and Dresden-Cotta were built in the 53rd century BC. Dated between 5300 and 5200 BC. There is a concentration of dated wells around 5100 BC. BC, as in the case of Erkelenz - Kückhoven , Eythra B17 and the Altscherbitz fountain . The Niederröblingen fountain ( district of Mansfeld-Südharz ), discovered in 2007, fits into the horizon of the younger band ceramics. The view reported in the daily press that Niederröblingen is the "world's oldest well of its kind" is based on dendro data from older wood residues that are not described in more detail in terms of architectural history. These are up to 7,500 years old.

In 2011, the base of Morschenich's deepest well to date was reached in the Hambach open-cast mine , which is about 15 m below the surface of the ceramic band.

The introduction of well construction has so far not revealed any geographical trend that, according to theoretical considerations , could exist along the immigration route of the ceramic culture from the Pannonian Basin to the west. Instead, the wells are found selectively in the entire distribution area of ​​the linear ceramic. Nevertheless, the introduction of well construction in Central Europe was a novelty of the first Neolithic population.

Action

raw material

By far the most suitable native wood species for hydraulic engineering is oak , followed by alder . Due to the high tannin content , oak is particularly resistant to adverse environmental conditions. The right tree should be nine meters long as straight as possible, have a circumference of only about 80 cm and have few branches. A completely circular cross-section is desirable in order to avoid possible wood defects and so that further processing is not made difficult. The direction of growth of the fibers should not be twisted if possible. The desired growth is favored by a flat soil and ideal soil horizon ( forest communities of Central Europe ).

Contemporary smooth cross-section through a felled oak

Tool

The most important tool for woodworking is on a lower bar transversely geschäftete with the cutting edge to the striking direction Dechsel . Symmetrical ax blades that are operated in parallel are not documented for linear ceramics and do not appear until the late Middle Neolithic period at the earliest, but usually only in the early Neolithic period. Experiments with replicas of ribbon ceramic dechs have clearly demonstrated their effectiveness.

Blade of a stone ax from the linear ceramic fountain in Schkeuditz-Altscherbitz
Cord from the fountain in Schkeuditz-Altscherbitz

Felling the tree and transporting it

The felling must be well thought out and done according to the following considerations. Dead branches could fall when hitting the felling notches . The fall path should be clear to avoid dragging other trees away. What is the position of the tree in the desired direction of fall, does it have a slope? If the tree has one-sided, strong root growth, uneven branch growth, a crooked trunk or rotten spots, this could change the direction of fall. The tree should be lower with the crown so that water can be released from the trunk through the leaves in the following days. Stone axes are suitable as a tool for hitting felling notches. Notches are made with high and low blows facing each other. If the resulting web is thin enough, it breaks through on its own under the weight of the tree. It is also possible to edit the tree all around. The consequence would be that more wood would have to be felled and the direction of fall would not be controllable.

The linear ceramic people probably made the tree transportable on the spot, that is, dismantled it into portable pieces. The separation of the top, the removal of the bark, the cutting to length, the separation of the sapwood and the cutting of the trunk were carried out with this in mind. It is very likely that the planks were also prepared before they were removed. The archaeologist Jürgen Weiner (1995) believes that it is possible that pack animals ( ox ) were used here, since pieces with weights of up to 137 kg were moved in Erkelenz-Kückhoven.

Debarking and splitting

When debarking , the bark and cambium are removed from the tree trunk . Bark is made from cork and the dead part of the bast and serves as protection, while the cambium is the layer that carries the sap. A long-handled flat adze was probably used as a tool. The bast can be separated from the sapwood easily with a relatively blunt edge and an adapted angle of attack. Debarking immediately after felling is easier due to the freshness of the wood.

There are two ways of splitting the wood: In the case of radial splitting, work is carried out from the outside of the trunk towards the core and you get triangular pieces in cross-section. If you want to get posts and boards out, use tangential splitting. Wedges are driven into the logs parallel to the diameter . As an example, Erkelenz-Kückhoven should be mentioned, where this method was obviously used. A wedge was presumably made of hardwood at the time. The aim is to produce usable planks of the same thickness as possible for the construction of the well shaft. On the other hand, if drying cracks are used as the starting point for inserting the wedge, it must be expected that the resulting fission products will vary in size, depending on the naturally occurring drying cracks. To avoid this, the trunk must be processed immediately after it has been felled. You can then work on the pieces in a targeted manner and without dry cracks.

Dressing and blocking

Heartwood lies inside the trunk cross-section. Heartwood is produced by secondary metabolic processes in the dying parenchyma . The resilience of heartwood is ensured by phenolic ingredients, which is why it is preferable to sapwood. The sapwood was removed from the Erkelenz-Kückhoven fountain . The above-mentioned criterion for the right tree in terms of its growth properties now comes into play. Since only a few trees have a straight fiber structure, it is usually necessary to prepare the planks so that they fit through post-processing. To align the not optimal to each other sitting Bohlen is a straight edge used, which is used to detect, control and measuring of uneven surfaces. It is impossible to understand whether there were such just-made pieces of wood in linear ceramic times. The extensive processing was certainly done with cross hatchets or dechs. Wide-flat adze blades are the ideal tool for large-area machining.

The planks are recessed at the top and bottom edge to a quarter of their height each so that they can be blocked in the best possible way. In order to achieve a uniform height of the well box, the planks should be sorted in pairs with the same dimensions at the beginning. The correct alignment of the timbers is necessary, as small deviations add up and result in a strong displacement of the well shaft. It was therefore necessary for the people of that time to use a measuring device in the form of a stick with two notches or a cord with two knots. Wooden nails were also used to nail the wooden well. Nails are the oldest known fasteners . The oldest find of a wooden nail was around 5000 BC. Used to nail this wooden well in Saxony . These could be precisely dated using the annual rings in the wood.

List of localities

To date, at least 48 ceramic wells have been found, some of which are still open:

No. Location Found year Well type / type Remarks conservation
1 Altscherbitz (Saxony) 2005 Box well very good wood preservation, recovered in the block
2 Arnoldsweiler (North Rhine-Westphalia) - B1 2009 Box well very good wood preservation
3 Arnoldsweiler - B2 2009 Tube fountain
4th Arnoldsweiler 2009 Tube fountain
5 Bohunice, district of Brno (Czech Republic) 2007 probably box well not completely excavated because groundwater penetrated
6th Brodau ( Delitzsch ) (Saxony) 2005 Box fountain with presumably simultaneous tube installation Remains of two pigs between the box and the pipe installation good wood preservation
7th Cotta (Dresden) (Saxony) 2004 Box well no wood preservation
8th Droßdorf ( Peres opencast mine ) (Saxony) B1 2014 Box well
9 Droßdorf (Saxony) B2 2014 Box well
10 Droßdorf (Saxony) B3 2014 Box well
11 Droßdorf (Saxony) B4 2014 Box well
12 Droßdorf (Saxony) B5 2014 Tube fountain
13 Droßdorf (Saxony) B6 2014 Tube fountain
14th Emseloh ( Allstedt ) ( Saxony-Anhalt ) 2013 probably box wells and tubular wells Presumably tube wells set in collapsed box wells. no wood preservation
15th Erkelenz - Kückhoven (North Rhine-Westphalia) - Box 1 1990 Box well very good wood preservation
16 Erkelenz - Kückhoven (North Rhine-Westphalia) - Box 2/3 1990 Box well Two well boxes, telescopically placed one after the other.
17th Eythra , well "B17" ( opencast mine Zwenkau , Saxony) 1997 Box well
18th Eythra, fountain "B21" 1998 Tube fountain
19th Eythra, fountain "B22" 1998 Box well probably, slightly offset on the B21
20th Füzesabony-Gubakút (Hungary) 1995/1996 no fixtures found or proven
21st Fußgönheim (Rhineland-Palatinate) 2007 Box well no wood preservation
22nd Ittenheim ( Alsace ) - B1 2006 Box well
23 Ittenheim (Alsace) - B2 2006 Box well
24 Kruszyn "A42" 2008 Tube fountain
25th Kruszyn "A47" 2008 Form allows for interpretation as a box as well as a tube fountain no wood preservation
26th Mannheim , OT Straßenheim (Baden-Württemberg) 2001 Box well Wood only detected on the basis of discoloration of the sediment
27 Mannheim-Vogelstang (Baden-Wuerttemberg) 1969 Box well Only refurbished in 2002 no wood preservation
28 Most (Czech Republic) 1976 without internals with a round cross-section
29 Meuselwitz -Zipsendorf (Saxony) 1907 probably box well
30th Mohelnice (Czech Republic) 1970 Box well possibly a tree trunk was also built in, but this is not certain.
31 Morschenich ( Hambach opencast mine ) (North Rhine-Westphalia) 2009 Box well currently the well with the greatest depth very good wood preservation
32 Niederröblingen (Saxony-Anhalt) 2007 Box well salvaged in the block, possibly many more wells in the settlement very good wood preservation
33 Plaussig (Saxony) 2003 Box well
34 Rehmsdorf -Rumsdorf 1921
35 Riestedt (Saxony-Anhalt) 2006 presumably without internals
36 Sajószentpéter 2012 Tube fountain
37 Schletz (Lower Austria) 1993 Box well Wood only detected by discoloration of the sediment
38 Schönebeck (Elbe) 2006 Tube fountain Wood badly preserved
39 Schönebeck (Elbe) 2006 Tube fountain
40 Schönebeck (Elbe) 2006 Tube fountain
41 Schönebeck (Elbe) 2006 Tube fountain
42 Windehausen - B1 2012 Box well no wood preservation
43 Windehausen - B2 2012 without internals no wood preservation
44 Würnitz 2009 without internals

Further wells

In addition to the above, there are other well findings that are often controversially discussed in the specialist literature. This is often due to the unclear dating, unfinished excavation or poor documentation.

literature

  • Christian Grube: The Wells of the Linear Pottery - definitions, features, chronology . In: Proceedings of the 11th Annual Symposium Onderzoek Jonge Archeologen 12th April 2013, Groningen 2014, pp. 33-38. Available online
  • Harald Koschik (Ed.): Fountain of the Neolithic Age - International Symposium Erkelenz. October 27-29, 1997. Materials for the preservation of monuments in the Rhineland 11, Cologne 1998
  • Wolfgang Lobisser: The reconstruction of the linear ceramic well shaft from Schletz . In: Materials on the preservation of soil monuments in the Rhineland, International Symposium Erkelenz October 27-29, 1997, Cologne-Bonn 1998, pp. 177–192.
  • Harald Stäuble: Stone Age beyond the stones . Spectrum of Science , 3/2010, pp. 62-69.
  • Willy Tegel, Rengert Elburg, Dietrich Hakelberg, Harald Stäuble & Ulf Büngen: Early Neolithic Water Wells Reveal the World's Oldest Wood Architecture . PLoS ONE 7 (12): e51374. doi : 10.1371 / journal.pone.0051374
  • Jürgen Weiner: Neolithic wells. Notes on terminology, typology and technology with a model for the ceramic water supply. , in: Fountain of the Neolithic Age. International Symposium Erkelenz October 27-29, 1997. Materials for the preservation of monuments in the Rhineland 11 (Cologne 1998) pp. 193-213
  • Jürgen Weiner & Jutta Lehmann: Remarks concerning Early Neolithic Woodworking: The Example of the Bandkeramik Well of Erkelenz-Kückhoven, Northrhine-Westfalia, Germany. in: L. Castelletti & A. Pessina (arr.) Introduzione all´Archeologia degli Spazi Domestici. Atti del seminario - Como, November 4-5, 1995. Archeologia dell'Italia Settentrionale 7 (Como 1998) pp. 35-55
  • Jürgen Weiner: Water supply in the Stone Age and wells in the New Stone Age . In: Frontinus series 25 (Bonn 2003) pp. 101-104.
  • Jürgen Weiner: Knowledge-Tool-Raw Material. A vademecum on the technology of stone age woodworking . Archaeological information 26,2,2003b pp. 407-426 doi: 10.11588 / ai.2003.2.12704
  • Jürgen Weiner: Ceramic fountains - exceptional findings or standard installations for water supply? . In: R. Eichmann, F. Klimscha & Ch. Schuler (eds.) Innovations in early water technology. Cluster research by the DAI. Cluster 2, innovation: technical, social (Rahden / Westf. 2012) pp. 83–92.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rengert Elburg: Holy water or industrial water? Some thoughts on the function of ceramic wells. Archaeological Information 34-1, 2011, pp. 25-37 (Accessed March 27, 2012)
  2. Grube 2014, p. 35
  3. Europe's deepest stone age well discovered and recovered ( Memento from July 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (LVR press release, accessed on July 9, 2011)
  4. a b "Exciting two meters" deep in the ground (Kölnische Rundschau from July 6, 2011, accessed on April 25, 2017)
  5. a b Yosef Garfinkel, Ariel Vered, Ofer Bar-Yosef : The domestication of water: the Neolithic well at Sha'ar Hagolan, Jordan Valley, Israel. Antiquity 80, 2006, pp. 686-696
  6. Bernhard Gramsch: Mesolithic water holes in Brandenburg In: Harald Koschik (Ed.) Wells of the Neolithic Age . International Symposium in Erkelenz, October 27-29, 1997. Materials on the preservation of soil monuments in the Rhineland, issue 11, 1998, pp. 17-23.
  7. Kornelija Minichreiter: The oldest Neolithic water-well in Croatia from the early Starčevo settlement near Slavonski Brod . In: Harald Koschik (Ed.) Well of the Neolithic Age . International symposium in Erkelenz, October 27-29, 1997. Materials on the preservation of soil monuments in the Rhineland, issue 11, 1998, pp. 25-30
  8. ^ R. Tichý: 13th excavation season in Mohelnice (district Sumperk). Prehled Vyzkumu 1971 (1972), pp. 17-21
  9. B. Schmidt, W. Gruhle: Growth homogeneity as a new analytical method to improve the dendrochronological dating method. In: Jörg Eckert, Ulla Eisenhauer, Andreas Zimmermann (ed.): Archaeological Perspectives. Analyzes and interpretations in transition . (Festschrift for Jens Lüning on his 65th birthday). International archeology. Studia Honoraria 20, Rahden / Westphalia, 2003, pp. 49-60
  10. Ingo Campen: Two more ceramic wells from the Zwenkau opencast mine. Archeology currently in the Free State of Saxony 6, 1998/99, pp. 42–47.
  11. ^ Rengert Elburg & P. ​​Herold: Deep insights into the past. The Neolithic fountain from Altscherbitz provides information about life 7,100 years ago . Archæo - Archeologie in Sachsen 7, 2010, pp. 23-27 (accessed on March 27, 2012)
  12. ^ W. Tegel, R. Elburg, D. Hakelberg, Harald Stäuble & U. Büntgen: “Early Neolithic Water Wells Reveal the World's Oldest Wood Architecture”. PLoS ONE 7 (12): e51374. doi : 10.1371 / journal.pone.0051374 .
  13. Niederröblingen: Sensational archaeological well find in Saxony-Anhalt (Shortnews from August 10, 2007)
  14. a b Archaeologists uncover a 7500 year old well (mz-web.de, accessed on September 9, 2011)
  15. cf. Pit 2014
  16. ^ Rengert Elburg / Wulf Hein: Stone axes in action. Felling trees like 7000 years ago . Archaeo: Archäologie in Sachsen 8, 2011, pp. 20-25 (accessed on November 6, 2012)
  17. ^ J. Weiner, J. Lehmann: Remarks concerning early neolithic woodworking: the example of the Bandkeramik well of Erkelenz-Kückhoven, Northrhine-Westfalia, Germany. In: L. Castelletti, A. Pessina (Ed.): I ntroduzione all'Archeologia degli Spazi Domestici. Atti del seminario - Como, November 4-5, 1995. Archeologia dell'Italia Settentrionale 7 (Como 1998) 35-55.
  18. J. Weiner, A. Pawlik: New to an old question. Observations and considerations on the attachment of ancient Neolithic adze blades and on the reconstruction of ceramic cross-ax spars. In: Experimental Archeology, Balance 1994. Symposium in Duisburg, August 1993. Archäologische Mitteilungen Nordwestdeutschland, Supplement 8 (Oldenburg 1995) 111–144
  19. Angelika Franz: The oldest wooden nails in the world . In: Der Spiegel , December 30, 2010. Retrieved March 6, 2012.
  20. ^ Archeology in Saxony. Ceramic fountain from Droßdorf, Kr. Leipzig
  21. ^ Bandkeramische Brunnen von Droßdorf, Kr. Leipzig. map
  22. U.Petersen: A settlement of linear ceramics near Riestedt, district of Mansfeld-Südharz. In: Archeology in Saxony-Anhalt 6/12 (Hall 2013) 5-24
  23. cf. C. Bogen 2012 - sources of life 7000 years ago. In: Harald Meller (Ed.) From Egeln to Schönebeck. Archeology in Saxony-Anhalt. Special Volume 20 (Hall 2012)
  24. Archaeological discoveries near Nordhausen (accessed December 3, 2014)
  25. cf. Joana Pyzel, Preliminary results of large scale emergency excavations in Ludwinowo 7, comm. Włocławek, In: S.Wolfram / H.Stäuble: Settlement Structure and Cultural Change in Bandkeramik, Dresden 2012, p. 165.
  26. Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, Köthen Finds are still puzzling, online