Salzmünde earthworks
The Salzmünde earthworks was discovered in 2005 through the construction of the Federal Motorway 143 (the western bypass from Halle ) near Salzmünde -Schiepzig. The archaeologists were able to only 10% of the transition from the 4th to the 3rd millennium BC. Unearth the Neolithic earthworks dating back to BC , the greater part of which had long been destroyed by gravel mining .
The oldest finds on the excavated route are around 7000 years old. A central burial site was later built here. The complex, which is 550 × 800 m in size and enclosed by a double trench with a total length of 4500 m, is known as the “City of the Dead of Salzmünde”. But trapezoidal pits, which are believed to be storage pits from this time, but which were used here as burial sites, were found. The bearers of the Schiepziger group (4200-3800 BC) and the Salzmünder culture , a subgroup of the little more recent funnel cup culture , are represented here. Analysis of the skeletal remains showed that the buried did not die in fighting. Digital recordings of the surface showed circular ring graves at a shallow depth, which contained stone boxes in the center .
A Neolithic funeral hut and its bones were reburied in the past to form the Salzmünde earthworks. This is considered to be the second evidence of a prehistoric reburial, because a number of rebursts were also found in the Herxheim ceramic earthworks .
Huts for the dead were built around 3000 BC. Why this was relocated is open. Their remains were found in the trench. They consist of three parts, which are delimited by specially brought megaliths .
- In the front area, the archaeologists found small and large shattered ceramic vessels that were grave goods.
- In the middle, a depot with more than 20 skulls was created on a stone pavement - close together. Some of the skulls, from both adults and children, appear to have been intentionally placed with "eye contact". An anatomical association of the bones cannot be recognized, but the laying down of the long bones suggests a certain order.
- In the third part there is the skeleton of an approximately three-year-old cattle, which is a sacrificial animal.
See also
List of earthworks of the Funnel Beaker Culture
literature
- Jonas Beran : Studies on the position of the Salzmünder culture in the early Neolithic of the Saale region (= contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe. Volume 2). Beier & Beran, Wilkau-Haßlau 1993.
- Helge Jarecki and Christoph Sommerfeld: Research: The "Erdwerk Salzmünde": Of trenches and graves - an imposing structure from the Neolithic. AiD - Archeology in Germany, issue 2/2007.
- Harald Meller (Ed.): 3300 BC. Mysterious stone age dead and their world. Special exhibition from November 14, 2013 to May 18, 2014 in the State Museum for Prehistory in Halle. State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt / State Museum for Prehistory, Nünnerich-Asmus, Mainz 2013, ISBN 978-3-943904-33-8 .
- Harald Meller, Susanne Friederich (eds.): Salzmünde-Schiepzig - one place, two cultures. Excavations at the western bypass in Halle (A 143). Part I (= Archeology in Saxony-Anhalt. Special Volume 21 / I). State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt, Halle (Saale) 2014, ISBN 978-3-944507-02-6 .
- Harald Meller, Susanne Friederich (Ed.): Salzmünde - Rule or Exception? Salzmünde - rule or exception? (= Conferences of the State Museum for Prehistory in Halle. Volume 16). State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt, Halle (Saale) 2017, ISBN 978-3-944507-11-8 .
- Harald Meller, Susanne Friederich (eds.): Salzmünde-Schiepzig - one place, two cultures. Excavations at the western bypass in Halle (A 143). Part II (= Archeology in Saxony-Anhalt. Special Volume 21 / II). State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt, Halle (Saale) 2019, ISBN 978-3-944507-70-5 .
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 31 ′ 9 ″ N , 11 ° 50 ′ 9 ″ E