Beusterburg
The Beusterburg is a ring wall on the wooded elevation of the Hildesheim forest . It is located in the Betheln district of the city of Gronau in the Leinebergland community in the Hildesheim district in Lower Saxony . The 15 hectare ramparts are estimated to be 5,000 years old. About their former function, there are different assumptions, according to which it is a Wallenburg , an earthwork or Viehkraal could have acted.
location
The Beusterburg is located at about 250 m above sea level on the ridge of the "Leaning Mountain", sloping in terraces to the southwest, on the western slope of the Hildesheim Forest. It was created between the river valleys of the Rottebach in the south and the Nordbach in the north. The Beuster , after which the facility is named, rises about 400 meters to the east .
description
Large parts of the two-kilometer-long ring wall in the shape of an oval have been preserved. With dimensions of around 500 × 420 meters, the internal area is around 15 hectares. The Beusterburg is delimited by a ditch 2.5 m to 3.5 m deep with an outer, fortified, i.e. inverted rampart about one to two meters high. In several places on the inside of the trench, a palisade trench with a small amount of earth was found. Seen from the outside, the fortification presents itself as a rampart, base ditch and palisade fence with pointed wooden posts.
Wall, ditch and palisade ring are interrupted in numerous places by earth bridges and culverts, some of which can be traced back to recent punctures for forest reasons. Six passages with a width of around 1.5 meters could be classified as Neolithic during the excavations , their original total number is estimated at 20. The excavation findings indicate that the passages could be closed with posts and wood. In the northeast of the interior of the ramparts, an inner rampart 120 meters long has been preserved.
Research history
After an initial prospecting in 1930 by the Hildesheim Association for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory , the prehistorian Kurt Tackenberg carried out excavations in 1933, 1935 and 1936 . Inside the complex there were remains of a palisade ditch , which indicates that the interior was surrounded by a palisade fence. In addition, ceramic remains, flint stones and flint blades were found, but no house floor plans. The excavator Kurt Tackenberg assigned the finds (ceramics, stone tools) to the Michelsberg culture , others assumed an origin from the funnel beaker culture . Edge, wall and floor fragments from the time of the corded ceramics were also found . In addition, settlement remnants were found that came from a time before the ramparts. The results of the archaeological excavation campaigns led by Kurt Tackenberg in the 1930s are still the most important source of information today.
In 2001 and 2002, the archaeologist Erhard Cosack from the Lower Saxony State Office for the Preservation of Monuments carried out inspections with the metal detector in the inner area of the ramparts . A fragment of a bronze spout ax and a medieval sickle were found.
function
To date, it is unclear for what purpose the facility was built. Its function as a Neolithic earthwork has not yet been proven. The excavator Kurt Tackenberg suspected a cattle kraal due to the few finds and high phosphate levels in the soil. The numerous passages in the wall, which would have made defending the complex too difficult, speak for an enclosure. The proximity of salt springs that existed at the northern foot of the Hildesheim Forest near Heyersum also speaks in favor of animal husbandry. The fences that often lead to the streams in the north and south also speak in favor of a cattle protection system. In a second construction phase, which cannot be dated, conversions in the wall and ditch system took place.
The specialty of the Beusterburg lies in the fact that the ramparts and moats have been preserved since they were built in the Neolithic period , which is apparently due to their secluded location on a wooded ridge.
literature
- Kurt Tackenberg: The Beusterburg. A Neolithic earthwork in Lower Saxony . Hildesheim 1951.
- Hans-Jürgen Häßler (Ed.): Prehistory and early history in Lower Saxony . Theiss, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-8062-0495-0 , p. 390.
- Ernst Andreas Friedrich : The Beusterburg near Betheln , pp. 6–8, in: If stones could talk . Volume IV, Landbuch-Verlag, Hannover 1998, ISBN 3-7842-0558-5
- Hans-Wilhelm Heine : The prehistoric and early historical castle walls in the administrative district of Hanover. Hannover 2000, ISBN 3-7752-5645-8 , pp. 117-119.
- Margret Zimmermann, Hans Kensche: Castles and palaces in Hildesheimer Land . Hildesheim, 2001, pp. 113-115
- Erhard Cosack : The Beusterburg near Betheln, district of Hildesheim in: New research on the Latène period fortifications in the former administrative district of Hanover , Neumünster, 2008, pp. 24–33
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ernst Andreas Friedrich: The Beusterburg near Betheln , p. 6, in: If stones could talk. Volume IV
- ↑ Ernst Andreas Friedrich: The Beusterburg near Betheln, p. 7, in: If stones could talk. Volume IV
Coordinates: 52 ° 7 ′ 55.1 ″ N , 9 ° 49 ′ 41.6 ″ E