Princely grave of Quetzdölsdorf
Coordinates: 51 ° 35 ′ 5 ″ N , 12 ° 8 ′ 18 ″ E
| Princely grave of Quetzdölsdorf | ||
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| location | Saxony-Anhalt , Germany | |
| Location | Quetzdölsdorf | |
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| When | early Roman Imperial Era , approx. 65 - 90 AD |
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| Where | Quetzdölsdorf , Koethen Plain / Saxony-Anhalt | |
| displayed | Permanent exhibition, State Museum of Prehistory, Halle , section The Invention of the Teutons |
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The Germanic princely grave of Quetzdölsdorf from the older Roman Imperial Era of the 1st century was discovered in November 1982 during construction work on the edge of the sports field in Quetzdölsdorf in the Köthen plain in Saxony-Anhalt . The site became known for its rich grave goods, which are assigned to the elite graves of the Lübsow group . The Elbe Germanic body grave is traditionally assigned to the Hermunduren by historical research .
Find description
The found objects include, among other things, Roman imports that date back to the earlier Roman Empire. In the body grave only the bones of the lower extremities could be observed in their original position. The deceased was oriented west-northwest-east-southeast and originally buried in a wooden coffin.
Several grave goods in the western part of the grave - originally they probably came from near the belly of the dead person - were torn out of their natural find context by the excavator, some of them were collected in the overburden. This grave goods consisted of a bronze bucket with a bronze trowel sieve fitting for straining the wine spices, to two bronze pans , a bronze bracket scissors, a provided with bronze rings wooden knife handle and a ceramic vessel.
The preserved part of the elite grave contained nine small rectangular bronze plates, which, together with a bronze horseshoe spur, belonged to the dead man's footwear, as well as an ornate double button and a bronze clip, the way of which has not yet been determined.
Roman ladle and sieve set
The Roman ladle-sieve set made of cast, chased and twisted bronze was used to strain the wine spices. The ladle (with a height of 5.3 cm; a diameter of the mouth of 9.7 cm and a length of 28 cm) and the strainer (with a height of 5 cm; a diameter of the mouth of 9.7 cm and a Length of 28 cm) have a hemispherical shape and are made from one piece. The narrow handle of both the trowel and the sieve becomes wider at the end, the end of the handle is straight, with a small head-shaped extension. There are two fine, concentric double grooves on the underside of the trowel. Parts of the wall of the sieve are missing. The perforation of the screen in the form of a meander band is limited at the top by horizontal rows of holes and at the bottom by radial arched bands; the perforation is carried out from the inside out, but several times it was not completed.
Conical neck jar
The hand-formed cone-necked vessel (from the situle group ) has a high, conical base as well as a narrow shoulder and a pronounced shoulder-neck shoulder. The cone neck has a short, curved edge that is leveled horizontally at the top. The vessel with a height of 18.3 cm, a largest diameter of 18.5 cm and a rim diameter of 12.8 cm as well as a base diameter of 7 cm is traditionally assigned to the Hermunduren and belongs to the black- gloss ceramics that the Elbe Germans made by blackening smoke has been.
Bronze scissors
The bronze scissors with a semicircular handle (length: 16 cm, length of the blade: 9.6 cm, maximum width of the handle: 2.3 cm) are also known as ironing scissors in the professional world. It is a Germanic production, the blades are straight and reinforced on one side at the back, the cutting edges are ground on both sides and there is a central bead and double line decoration on the handle.
Roman bronze bucket
The bronze bucket in the shape of a situle with face attachments, long neck, accentuated shoulder and horizontal rim decorated with a "running dog" pattern (with a height of 27.8 cm; a diameter of 28.8 cm and a rim diameter of 24.5 cm) used to mix wine, water and spices. The bucket was also equipped with a bronze ladle-sieve set.
The bucket was poured and driven - especially in the middle part of the vessel it shows traces of driving - as well as twisted with turning grooves on the neck up to the break and shortly above and on the floor; The bucket is decorated with a tailstock imprint. No solder traces give an indication of soldered feet.
Further details are the palmette-shaped attachments with a head en face and a stylized animal head attached on both sides, which correspond to the profiled eyelets above the center parting. The handle itself is profiled by longitudinal grooves, the last quarter of the handle is set off by a transverse bead, underneath is a leaf-shaped extension, the end of which is shown as a stylized animal head.
In the middle of the handle sits a ring eyelet with an ornament made of semicircular arcs. The attachments and the handle were cast.
Roman saucepans
Two bronze saucepans with flat bottoms and concentric rotating grooves and tailstock imprints on the inside and outside were usually used as cookware by the Roman legionnaires in the early Roman Empire. Both saucepans - with a height of 9.4 cm or 5.4 cm; a length of 26.8 cm or 27 cm, an edge diameter of 14.9 cm or 14.4 cm respectively and a weight of 329 g and 330 g - had handles with central circular perforations as well as notches parallel to the edge and were with a pearl-like notch strip decorated; The saucepans were tinned on the inside and outside; there were also turning grooves in the outer edge area.
Bronze horseshoe spur with iron spur tip
The grave ensemble includes spurs made of bronze (with a width of 2.4 cm and a height of 2.6 cm) with an H-shaped chair - ie a "chair spur" - and a trapezoidal plate; the base of the iron spike - a forged spur point made of iron (with a length of 1.8 cm) - is decorated with three annular beads; the iron spike itself is square; the panels are profiled parallel to the edge on the outside.
Wooden handle with bronze rings
A double-shell knife handle (7.2 cm long and 2 cm wide) made of turned yew wood, originally held together by three bronze rings, completes the grave ensemble.
Find interpretation
This Hermundurian body grave is characterized by the custom of body burial, Roman imports, rich grave goods and lack of weapons as well as the elaborately designed burial in an isolated small cemetery as a grave of the Lübsow group type .
exhibition
The outstanding finds of the Germanic elite grave of Quetzdölsdorf are part of the permanent exhibition of the State Museum for Prehistory in Halle .
literature
- Matthias Becker, Jan Bemmann , Rudolf Laser, Rosemarie Leineweber , Berthold Schmidt-Thielbee: Corpus of the Roman finds in the European Barbaricum. Germany . Volume 6: Saxony-Anhalt. Bonn 2006, p. 154.
- Waldemar Nitzschke, Erhard Schröter: An aristocratic grave of the early Roman imperial period from Quetzdölsdorf, district of Bitterfeld . In: Annual Journal for Central German Prehistory 72, 1989, p. 71 ff.