Berga single grave
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The individual grave of Berga was found during the route exploration of the Heringen - Roßla section of the BAB 38 on the Loh in Berga in Saxony-Anhalt . It is a 5500 year old woman grave of the Bernburg culture . From this culture one only knew collective graves in central Germany.
As early as the mid-1980s, numerous finds were made during an emergency rescue. When clearing the topsoil, around 50 discolorations were noticed in the soil on the 400 m² excavation site. A few hundred ceramic shards and bone fragments from pit houses, post holes and settlement pits came to light.
Extraordinary finds were found in pits 12, 29, 35, 36, 37 and 49. Pit 37 contained a well-preserved skeleton. Based on the ceramics, it was classified in the Bernburg culture. Special features indicate that the person is very likely to be a woman. She had been buried on a plaster made of broken vessels in a crouched position, lying on her side. It is astonishing that it is a single burial of this culture that has so far only been documented in Berga.
Other finds are the neck of a collar bottle from the Bernburg culture, which was found in the excavation, and a so-called "flax hackle". This is a very seldom found tool made from a shoulder blade and provided with small notches.
Pit 36 is a fireplace in a medieval pit house. Paul Grimm found similar objects on the Palatinate grounds of Tilleda . They are the forerunners of the dome furnaces. Pit 35 was a hearth made of reading stones in another pit house. A continuous thin layer of fire in the trench wall suggested that it was either layers of ash or that this building was destroyed by fire.
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