Prince graves of Marwedel

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Grave inventory of the princely graves of Marwedel

The princely graves of Marwedel were found near the village of Marwedel in the city of Hitzacker in the northern part of the Lüchow-Dannenberg district in Lower Saxony . These are important archaeological finds from the Roman Empire in Germania magna .

Finds and Findings

South-east of the village of Hitzacker, two, perhaps even three richly furnished graves were discovered on a hill not far from the mouth of the Jeetzel river into the Elbe during gravel mining in 1928 and 1944.

Grave I.

Grave I was examined in 1928 by the state representative for prehistoric antiquities , the architect Franz Krüger . It was located at a depth of 2.0–2.30 m under today's sward and contained the body burial of an approximately 50-year-old man in a NW-SE orientation. There were no traces of a burial chamber, but remains of wood and charcoal as well as the arrangement of the vessels suggest that the deceased was originally buried in a tree coffin that was not preserved in the damp ground.

In the dead were found several silver and bronze fittings of a belt, three silver strap ends , the fragments of a dagger or an extended diameter with tang , two silver fibulae (Almgren IV / 77 and Almgren group V / called. Knees primer) , four bronze ring brooches , which could have belonged to a leather case, as well as several small metal parts (fittings, etc.). A bronze so-called Østland bucket (Eggers 39) , a basin (Eggers 100) , a casserole (Eggers 142) as well as a ladle and a sieve (both Eggers 162 ) were placed in the grave of the deceased . In the bronze basin there were two drinking horns, a wooden vessel, a bowl and a goblet made of clay. The grave also contained toilet utensils, leather scraps that indicate a bag, metal scraps that probably belonged to a sword, as well as shoe scraps with spurs on them, which probably gave the name of the first publication by F. Krüger in 1928.

Grave II

Grave II was discovered by walkers not far from the first grave on July 13, 1944 and examined by the museum director Gerhard Körner. This grave also had no remains of the coffin. On the sides and in the head area of ​​the deceased there was a packing consisting of 165 stones that had collapsed into the grave and the former cavity. The grave pit could thus be secured with a height of 80 cm and a base area of ​​3.50 × 1.80 m. Apart from some discoloration and the remains of tooth enamel, nothing remained of the body. Nevertheless, their position could be reconstructed with the orientation from SE (head) to NW.

The dead man carried a silver knee fibula on his right shoulder (Almgren V / Series 9) , which was probably holding a coat with which he was clothed. In the left chest area there were five ring brooches with silver-plated end caps, which, like in grave 1, could have belonged to leather armor. There was also a 9.9 g golden finger ring in the grave pit. The metal dishes and drinking utensils were placed at the feet of the deceased. It comprised a large bronze saucepan (Eggers 142) , two smaller silver saucepans (Eggers 153) , two silver mugs (Eggers 174) , a ladle and strainer (both Eggers 160 ), a bronze bucket (Eggers 40) , two drinking horns as well two glass vessels. Furthermore, the bronze spurs, remains of a shoe and fittings that belong to a leather bag are also from the dead man's foot area.

Grave III

Grave III is only occupied by two bronze spurs inlaid with silver , which were given to the Museum of the Principality of Lüneburg in autumn 1937 by a finder who found them near grave I. Friedrich Laux assumed that grave I had been examined too carefully, especially in the foot area, and since grave II had not yet been affected by the gravel extraction at this point in time, he assumed that this pair of spores would lead to a third, probably only peripherally cut grave could belong.

Classification and dating

The type of burial with this time position is unusual. From the burial places of the middle imperial period located nearby, only cremations in urns or other containers are known. The graves on the Scharfenberg near Marwedel clearly stand out due to their rich grave goods, whereby grave II was even more lavishly furnished than grave I. Grave I is due to the unfortunately past remains of the sword and the cingulum parts, albeit with incomplete equipment, still to be assigned to the so-called warrior burials. For grave II, on the other hand, the lack of weapons is very characteristic, but it is all the more splendid with metal dishes. In relative chronological terms, grave II is dated later than grave I. Based on comparisons of the finds with other graves, the Marwedel burials are dated between the beginning and the middle of the 2nd century AD.

One is inclined to suspect a relationship (aristocratic family) in the group of graves, which would enable a socio-historical assessment. Accordingly, with grave I at the turn of the 1st to the 2nd century, the newly emerging, elevated social position of the "warrior nobility" could become tangible. Grave II then represents the rise of the family to the status of a “prince” in the next generation.

literature

  • Hans Jürgen Eggers : Lübsow, a Germanic princely seat of the older imperial times. In: Prehistoric Journal . 34/35, 1949/50, 1953, pp. 58-111.
  • Bernd-Rüdiger Götze: The princely graves of Marwedel. In: The customer . NF 38, 1987, pp. 151-159.
  • Gerhard Körner: Marwedel II. A princely grave of the older Roman Empire. In: Lüneburg leaves. 3, 1952, ISSN  0076-1443 , pp. 34-64.
  • Gerhard Körner: To complete the princely grave of Marwedel II. In: The customer. NF 16, 1965, pp. 99-106.
  • Gerhard Körner, Friedrich Laux : Prehistory in the district of Lüneburg. Museum Association for the Principality of Lüneburg, Lüneburg 1971.
  • Franz Krüger: The equestrian grave of Marwedel. F. Delbanco, Lüneburg 1928 ( festival sheets of the Museum Association for the Principality of Lüneburg 1, ZDB -ID 413061-3 ).
  • Friedrich Laux :  Marwedel. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 19, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2001, ISBN 3-11-017163-5 , pp. 371-374. (Introductory article)
  • Friedrich Laux: Thoughts on the Germanic princely graves near Marwedel, Gde. Hitzacker, Kr. Lüchow-Dannenberg. In: Report of the Roman-Germanic Commission . 73, 1992, pp. 315-376.
  • Friedrich Laux: The princely graves of Marwedel, Gde.Hitzacker, Kr.Lüchow-Dannenberg. In: Ralf Busch (Ed.): The Longobards. From the Lower Elbe to Italy. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1988, ISBN 3-529-01833-3 , pp. 148–158 ( publications by the Hamburg Museum for Archeology and the History of Harburg, Helms-Museum 54).
  • Ernst Andreas Friedrich : The princely graves of Marwedel , pp. 29–31, in: If stones could talk , Volume III, Landbuch-Verlag, Hanover 1995, ISBN 3-7842-0515-1 .
  • Hans-Jörg Nüsse: The “Princes” of Marwedel. Mercenary in the service of the Roman emperor? in: Archeology in Lower Saxony , Vol. 17. Oldenburg 2014, pp. 68–71
  • Jan Schuster: Lübsow. Prince tombs from the Middle Ages in northern Central Europe . Bonn contributions to prehistoric and early historical archeology 12. Bonn 2010.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Oscar Almgren : Studies on Northern European fibula forms of the first centuries AD with consideration of the provincial Roman and southern Russian forms. Leipzig 1923.
  2. ^ Hans Jürgen Eggers : The Roman import in free Germania. Hamburg 1951.
  3. ^ Franz Krüger: The equestrian grave of Marwedel. Festblatt Museumsverein Lüneburg 1, 1928.
  4. ^ F. Laux: Thoughts on the Germanic princely graves near Marwedel, Gde. Hitzacker, Kr. Lüchow-Dannenberg. In: Report of the Roman-Germanic Commission 73, 1992, p. 364.

Coordinates: 53 ° 7 ′ 55.1 ″  N , 11 ° 2 ′ 6 ″  E