Wahrenholz Castle
| Wahrenholz Castle | ||
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 In the foreground the stables of the former Wallburg with uneven ground on a meadow on the Ise |
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| Creation time : | around 994 | |
| Castle type : | Niederungsburg | |
| Conservation status: | Burgstall | |
| Place: | True wood | |
| Geographical location | 52 ° 36 '56.3 " N , 10 ° 36' 25.1" E | |
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The castle Wahrenholz is an Outbound Wallburg from the 11th century, perched on the edge of Wahrenholz in Lower Saxony is located.
Location and structure
The former castle site is in the lowlands of the Ise on a meadow across from a water mill . The fortification was an oval wall-trench system with a diameter of 70 to 75 meters. It consisted of a 12 to 16 meter wide wall as a wood and earth construction, which was secured at the edges by fascines . The interior was an oval of about 22 × 32 meters, in which there were individual wooden structures. The complex was surrounded by a moat that was fed by the Ise flowing past. The excavation in 2014 revealed that the moat was created in two phases. The first trench was only about 2 meters wide and 60 centimeters deep. Later it was replaced by a 10 meter wide and a one meter deep trench. The shallow depth of the moat was sufficient as the complex was located in a damp lowland.
The wall was removed in earlier times, so that it is no longer noticeable in the area. The moat has been well preserved. The structure of the facility can still be seen in aerial photographs .
history
The castle complex was first mentioned in a document between 1013 and 1022 in the ownership records of the Hildesheim diocese . It is said to have been built to protect the crossing over the Ise under Bishop Bernward von Hildesheim against incursions by Slavs in 994, as was the Mundburg on the Aller . It is believed that the ecclesiastical ruler had the fortification at the very edge of his diocese built as a military post against enemy attacks. At the same time, it could have served as an administrative and economic center in a sparsely populated settlement area.
Archaeological research
Site plan of the castle stables by Carl Schuchhardt at a watermill on the Ise (subsequently colored)
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First excavations
During the first excavation in 1873, the remains of the castle complex were examined. At that time, it was still a four-meter-high hill surrounded by a 250-meter-long moat . Stones, rubble and ceramics from around the 11th century were found. In another excavation in 1916 by a teacher from Wahrenholz, stakes and other ceramics were found. In 1919 the prehistorian Carl Schuchhardt carried out an excavation. He described the complex as an artificial round hill in the river valley. Schuchhardt found a ten-meter-wide berm secured with fascines and a mud wall . In the interior of the ramparts, the remains of buildings were found that had been built sunk into the ground. A layer of charcoal indicated that the buildings had burned down. The pottery found was black-brown to black-gray sherds with simply bending edges, which were dated from around the year 1000 to the last third of the 11th century.
Recent investigations and excavations
From 2006 to 2014 archaeological prospections were carried out at the castle site . These were initially carried out using aerial archeology , through which the moat could be recognized on the basis of vegetation features . Further geophysical prospecting by means of geomagnetic and geoelectrical measurements confirmed the structures of the facility discovered during earlier excavations.
In August 2014, a research team from the University of Göttingen and the Technical University of Braunschweig carried out a five-day excavation with 14 students. The excavation consisted of a cut of the ground almost 40 meters long and 2.5 meters wide that reached a depth of 1.5 meters. The excavation cut ran from the center of the castle across the complex to the outer wall and was intended to provide random insights into the structure. Remnants of a pavement inside the castle were uncovered.
The finds include 76 medieval ceramic shards that are typical of the 10th and 11th centuries in a Saxon settlement area. A corrugated horseshoe is one of the metal objects found. The overall small amount of finds is typical of fortifications from this period in northwest Germany and can be attributed to the castle's short existence at 70 to 90 years.
The oak beams found have been well preserved due to their storage in the moist soil environment in the meadow on the Ise. A dendrochronological determination of the age of 40 samples showed time positions between the years 1030 and 1078 with individual outliers in the 930s and 1200s. After the excavation, the excavation cut was backfilled to protect the remaining remains in the ground.
literature
- Sigrun Ahlers: Topographical and archaeological studies of prehistoric and early historical fortifications in the districts of Gifhorn, Helmstedt and Wolfenbüttel as well as in the urban district of Wolfsburg. (Dissertation), Hamburg, 1988.
- Margret Zimmermann, Hans Kensche: Castles and palaces in Hildesheimer Land . Hildesheim, 2001, p. 187
- Christian Schweitzer, Christian Frey: Bishop Bernward of Hildesheim's castle in Wahrenholz. New insights thanks to geophysics. in: Archeology in Lower Saxony , pp. 92–94, 2013
- Felix Biermann , Christian Frey: New excavations at Bishop Bernwards Ringwall in Wahrenholz in: Archeology in Lower Saxony 18/2015, pp. 124–127
- Felix Biermann, Christian Frey: The castle wall of Wahrenholz, district Gifhorn - archaeological and historical research on a fortification by Bishop Bernwards of Hildesheim. in: News from Lower Saxony's Prehistory 84, 2015, pp. 93–124 ( online )
- Felix Biermann, Christian Frey: Der Burgwall von Wahrenholz, Ldkr.Gifhorn - archaeological and historical research on a fortification Bishop Bernwards von Hildesheim In: Nachrichten aus Niedersachsens Urgeschichte, Vol. 84, Stuttgart 2015, S. 93ff.
- Felix Biermann, Christian Frey: 75 Wahrenholz FStrNr. 2, Gde. Wahrenholz, Ldkr. Gifhorn In: Fundchronik Niedersachsen 2014. (= News from Lower Saxony's prehistory . Supplement 19). 2016, ISBN 978-3-8062-3308-7 , pp. 67-68
Web links
- Entry by Christian Frey zu Wahrenholz in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
- 1,000-year-old remains of a castle unearthed ( memento from August 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) at ndr.de on August 14, 2014
- Wahrenholz Castle: Students uncover the remains of the medieval complex in the Göttinger Tageblatt of August 18, 2014
- Press release on the excavation at the Technical University of Braunschweig from August 13, 2014
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wahrenholz: Students uncover a medieval castle ( memento from October 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) in: Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung from August 14, 2014
- ↑ Excavations at Wahrenholz Castle
- ^ Journey into the past in: Altmark Zeitung, August 13, 2014
- ↑ Students find remains of the castle during excavations: pavement, beams, ceramics ( memento from October 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) in: Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung from August 14, 2014
- ↑ 1000 year old wood: Students from Braunschweig and Göttingen dig out the castle at: Braunschweig heute.de