Moose from Hansaplatz

The elk from Hansaplatz is the fossil remains of an elk (broad-forehead elk) (Alces latifrons) that perished in the 11th millennium BC and was discovered in the Berlin district of Tiergarten .

history

On May 16, 1956, construction workers came across some animal bones at the subway construction site between Turmstrasse and Hansaplatz at a depth of seven meters. Archaeologists were finally able to recover a complete animal skeleton with antlers typical of broad-forehead or giant moose, dating back to around 10730 BC. Is dated. The elk was 2.40 meters long, had an instep height of 1.90 meters and is classified as a young bull. He probably died naturally. Other bones of wild horses , reindeer and red deer were found around the skeleton .

The elk skeleton was exhibited in 2002 in the Tiergarten local history museum on Turmstrasse. However, it is owned by the Berlin Museum of Prehistory and Early History , which brought the exhibit back in 2009 and exhibited it in its new exhibition rooms in the Neues Museum (in the Stone Age Hall ). It is one of the main attractions of the museum.

literature

• Uwe Aulich: The elk from Hansaplatz is back home , In: Berliner Zeitung , April 30, 2002.
• The elk from Hansaplatz. Archaeological finds in the Tiergarten district. Berlin 1991.
• Claudia Maria Melisch, Matthias Wemhoff : Archeology of Berlin. Elsengold, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-944594-37-8 .

Web links

• Entry in the online database of the National Museums in Berlin .

supporting documents

1. ↑ Thomas Joerdens: Moabit: When the elk from Hansaplatz sank into the morass . In: Berliner Morgenpost , May 7, 2002.