Pathways in the camp moor
Coordinates: 52 ° 27 ′ 57 ″ N , 8 ° 11 ′ 13 ″ E
| Pathways in the camp moor | ||
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 Excavation area with the youngest pile path, 2006 |
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| location | Neuenkirchen-Vörden | |
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| When | around 4550 BC Chr | |
Six prehistoric moor paths in the camp moor near Neuenkirchen-Vörden ( Vechta district , Lower Saxony ), which were archaeologically examined from the 1990s to 2004, are designated as pile paths in the camp moor . They were made of round wood and existed at different times. One of the paths was discovered in the Middle Neolithic around 4550 BC. Built in the 4th century BC and is considered to be the world's oldest discovered moor path. The path constructions remained underground to this day due to the favorable conservation conditions for organic material in the bog .
location
The six staked paths discovered are located in the Campemoor southwest of the Dümmers and south of Damme and the Dammer Mountains . You are in the area of the Campemoor district of the Neuenkirchen-Vörden community. The Campemoor is part of the Great Moor , a contiguous high moor area between Damme, Lohne , Vechta and Goldenstedt within the approximately 300 km² large Dümmer basin. The camp moor has a layer of peat about 2.4 meters thick , in which the pile paths were found about one meter deep. As from 3000 BC When the process of raised bog formation began, the bog covered the pile paths. Within the moor and later peat, the paths have been preserved in situ under the exclusion of air .
About one kilometer southeast of the sites with the pile paths, two bog bodies from the 3rd or 4th century were found in the camp moor with the men of Hunteburg in 1949 .
discovery
A moor path was recognized as early as the hand peat dig in the camp moor in the 1950s and 1960s. It was not examined scientifically and was soon forgotten. When the camp moor was mechanically peated in the 1980s, the path reappeared in 1986. The peat mining company reported the discovery to the State Museum of Natural History and Prehistory in Oldenburg in 1991 . The site was assigned to the Hanover Institute for Monument Preservation (IfD) as the forerunner of the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation (NLD), which undertook the first archaeological investigations in 1992. They were carried out on the basis of the IfD's priority program moor archeology, which was established in 1987, in conjunction with an interdisciplinary research project on the prehistoric settlement of the Dümmer region.
Excavations
The excavations , which began in 1992 and were initially completed in 1997, uncovered several pile paths in the peat body of the former moor, which are designated as Pr with the corresponding number. The naming of bog trails in the Dümmer region takes place in recognition of the achievements of the bog researcher Hugo Prejawa with the abbreviation Pr . The excavations met with strong public interest. On the day of the open monument in 1996, around 1500 visitors came to the excavation site. There were further excavation campaigns in 2002, 2004, 2006, 2009 and 2011.
The age of the pieces of wood recovered from the excavations was determined using the C14 method and dendrochronology . They revealed that the oldest stake path was around 4550 BC. Was created. The process of bog formation had only begun a few centuries earlier. At that time there were still sand islands that protruded from the moor and were apparently connected by the paths.
31 pr
The stilted path known as PR 31, which is around 6,500 years old and is considered the world's oldest discovered moor path, ran in a north-south direction in a flat depression. It was located in an area that was in the transition from the low moor to the high moor at the time of construction. The path had the typical structural features of a Neolithic pile path and was between 2.5 and 4.5 meters wide, depending on the nature of the subsoil. It had a three-layer structure. The lowest layer was made up of thin birch trunks on the boggy subsoil. On top of it lay a substructure made up of three parallel rows of pine trunks. The running surface created on it was made of up to 20 cm thick pine logs , at the ends of which there were still traces of stone axes . The construction was secured by edge safety pegs made of birch, which were set at regular intervals. In the archaeologically excavated area over a length of 60 meters, the path was only partially preserved. He could be followed to a length of about 300 meters. The built-in pine and birch wood (substructure in the direction of the road, surface across it, partly with fixation in the subsoil) was dated 4614–4540 BC. Dendrodated. The construction took place at a time of increased precipitation and expansion of the moors.
32 pr
Another stake path was the younger one, dating from 2900 to 2879 BC. Trail 32 Pr, dendrochronologically dated and discovered in 2004. At the time of construction - a period of renewed waterlogging - it led through a pine-birch forest in which tree stumps were used to wedge the road construction. The stumps may also be the remains of trees that grew here after the path was abandoned and died after some time due to lack of oxygen as a result of the development of peat moss.
The approximately 2.5 meter wide path ran on a flat sand rib at a distance of 30 meters parallel to the 31 Pr stake path. The 32 Pr stake path had a two-layer structure. The lower layer was formed by several rows of birch and pine trunks in the running direction, the spaces between them being filled with brushwood and tree bark. A tread made of up to 15 cm thick pine logs lay on top. Pollen analysis studies showed that shortly after its installation, the spread of the pine in this area decreased. The reason is assumed to be the enormous amount of wood consumed by pine trunks for the construction of the pile path. The path was discovered as early as 1960 while excavating a four-meter-deep moat, but has not been investigated. In 1991 it was rediscovered while mechanically cutting peat. The path could be followed for almost 400 meters; its total length is estimated to be up to 500 meters. In the archaeologically examined area, the almost 5000 year old path was almost completely preserved.
33 Pr - 36 Pr
Four more pile paths were discovered in the immediate vicinity, some of which were next to and on top of each other. They were designated as 33 Pr - 36 Pr. The way 33 Pr originated between 4000 and 3700 BC. BC, the way 34 Pr around 3900 to 3700 BC. And the way 35 Pr around 3800 BC. BC, while route 36 Pr has not yet been dated.
Résumé
During the archaeological investigations in the 1990s, the paths could not be traced over their entire length despite the use of geophysical prospecting methods (including ground radar in 1999 and geoelectrics ). It is not known what the purpose of the paths was. It is believed that they linked settlement areas on sand islands. In the 1960s, a settlement was archaeologically investigated in the lowland south of the Dümmers, which was based on C-14 determinations and dates back to around 4700 BC. And coincides with the beginning of the construction of moor roads. The first way around 4550 BC BC should not have been created for means of transport, as it existed around 1000 years before the invention of the wheel .
During the excavations on the routes of the pile paths, there were hardly any finds. The few found objects included a rock hatchet , a flint knife and fragments of a clay pot. The excavation results are presented in the Damme City Museum and the Lohne Industrial Museum . In New Church Vördener district Campemoor, a former peat colony in Campemoor are mounted two information panels on the investigations to the Moor Because the so-called club house.
literature
- Ursula Dieckmann: Investigations into the structure and location of the Neolithic plank paths 31 (Pr) and 32 (Pr) in the Campemoor in: Paleo-ecological investigations into the development of natural and cultural landscapes on the northern edge of the Wiehengebirge , volume 4, 1998, pp. 67-71 ( online , 5 MB, pdf)
- Andreas Bauerochse, Regine Ziekur, Rolf Schuricht, Alf Metzler: Archaeological prospection in Campemoor with the help of ground penetrating radar measurements in: Reports on the preservation of monuments in Lower Saxony , 4/1999, pp. 174–177
- Andreas Bauerochse: Results of the ground radar investigations from the Campemoor in: Reports on the preservation of monuments in Lower Saxony, 2/2001, pp. 48–50
- Alf Metzler: Neolithic moor path construction in the Dümmerniederung In: Mamoun Fansa , Frank Both, Henning Haßmann (editor): Archeology | Land | Lower Saxony. 400,000 years of history. State Museum for Nature and Man, Oldenburg 2004.
- Mamoun Fansa, Frank Both (ed.): "Oh, it's scary to walk over moor ..." 220 years of moor archeology , 2011
Web links
- Website about the camp moor and the stake paths with excavation photos
- "P 31" remains the oldest way in the world in: Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung from July 17th, 2008
- Campemoorer Bohlenpfad oldest traffic route in the world in: Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung from June 29, 2011
- 6,600 years ago pioneers approached the Dümmer report of the Heimatverein Damme from June 23, 2011 (pdf)
- Neolithic boardwalks, including 3 photos from excavations in 2002 in Campemoor
Individual evidence
- ^ Bog and wet soil archeology in the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation
- ↑ Ortschronik Campemoor 1997 ( Memento of the original from May 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Ortschronik Campemoor 1996 ( Memento of the original from May 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Ortschronik Campemoor 2002 ( Memento of the original from May 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Ortschronik Campemoor 2004 ( Memento of the original from May 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Andreas Bauerochse, Marion Heumüller: Wooden paths in the moor as sources of housing and transport history. In: Matthias Wemhoff, Michael M. Rind (Ed.): Moving Times. Archeology in Germany. Petersberg 2018, pp. 47–54, here: p. 49.
- ↑ Andreas Bauerochse, Marion Heumüller: Wooden paths in the moor as sources of housing and transport history. In: Matthias Wemhoff, Michael M. Rind (Ed.): Moving Times. Archeology in Germany. Petersberg 2018, pp. 47–54, here: p. 50.
