Feddersen Wierde

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Coordinates: 53 ° 39 ′ 40 ″  N , 8 ° 33 ′ 0 ″  E

Feddersen-Wierde
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Model of a Hofwurt on Feddersen-Wierde with a long stable house, granary and cattle shed

Model of a Hofwurt on Feddersen Wierde with long byre-dwelling , storage and cowshed

location Lower Saxony , Germany
Location at Wremen
Feddersen-Wierde (Lower Saxony)
Feddersen-Wierde
When from the 1st century BC Until the 5th century AD
Where near Wremen , district of Cuxhaven / Lower Saxony

The Dorfwurt Feddersen-Wierde was an early historical Wurtendorf in the sea ​​march of the state of Wursten in the district of Cuxhaven . The former settlement area lies between the present-day places Wremen and Mulsum near the mouth of the Weser . He was from the 1st century BC. Inhabited by Old Saxons until the 5th century BC , who probably emigrated to England afterwards . A comprehensive archaeological excavation between 1954 and 1963 yielded valuable information about prehistoric settlements in northern Germany .

Settlement development

The Feddersen-Wierde was when the first settlers arrived in the early 1st century BC. A wall of waves in the march . They built farmsteads at ground level on it, which stood in a row. These were elongated three-aisled residential stable houses about 20 m long and 5 m wide. Oak posts were used as pillars and mud-covered wattle were used as walls. From the later 1st century onwards, the inhabitants began building sausages to protect them against sea flooding . For each new house, they made ring-shaped mounds about 1 meter high from dung and clay . The constant increase resulted in farm or kernel sausages. From their amalgamation to the Dorfwurt a large Wurtendorf developed in the 3rd century on an area raised by 4 m. The total area of ​​the elongated, oval area was around 4 hectares. During this time, the settlement was at its greatest extent with 26 residential stables and around 300 residents. According to calculations, around 450 large cattle (cattle, sheep, horses, pigs) probably lived on the Wurt. The residents had around 300 hectares of land in the area. Most of it was used as pastureland and only to a lesser extent as arable land.

In addition to the Feddersen-Wierde, there were other sausages in the Elbe-Weser triangle , for example the Wurten in the Land of Wursten : Alsum, Barward, Dingen, Dorsum, Fallward .

In the 5th century the Feddersen Wierde was given up. The development stopped abruptly, similar to other settlements in the Elbe-Weser triangle . It is believed that the residents emigrated to England . During this time, several Germanic tribes left their traditional settlement areas and sailed to the British island, where they formed the Anglo-Saxon people .

In the course of around 600 years of settlement history, around 175 residential buildings and 144 storage buildings were built on Feddersen-Wierde during 8 settlement phases .

House building

Schematic sketch of a stable house based on the findings of the excavation

The houses of the Feddersen Wierde are of the type of the stable house . These were divided into a larger stable area and a smaller living area. The entrances were on the gable side of the barn and on both sides of the barn directly in front of the living area. These entrances were reinforced with wooden sleepers, and the clay floor in front of them was covered with woven mats. The walls were formed from rows of posts that carried the roof load. The main load, however, lay on the longitudinal inner posts. All posts were secured against sinking with wedges and tenons. Woven walls were laid between the outer posts, but they had no load-bearing function.

Type of settlement

The stable houses stood in a semicircle around a free space. The development of the Wurt consisted of different sized residential stables as well as a multi-company farmstead, a large courtyard with ancillary buildings, which was interpreted as a "manor house".

A large three-wing building with no internal partitions may have been used as a meeting house. A threshing floor and metallurgical workshops for bronze and iron processing were also found .

Economy

The range of uses of pets included basic products such as meat, milk, leather / fur / wool or bristles as well as dung and bones as raw materials, in addition to the work performance, whereby the use of the individual pet species and the quality of the products must have differed considerably in some cases. Most of the work was performed by cattle and horses as riding and draft animals. The dog presumably had the task of a guard and herding dog, whereby the life of the dog was not infrequently marked by numerous injuries and pathological changes.

Cattle, horses, goats and sheep, as well as dogs, probably served as suppliers of leather. Meat for food was obtained from all types of domestic animals, including dogs, which is clearly demonstrated by studies of the traces on dog bones from Feddersen Wierde.

Hunting and fishing seem to have attracted little interest on the agricultural-based Wurt. So far there is only a small amount of archaeozoological evidence of land game animals, marine mammals and fish. In the case of fish in particular, however, it remains to be seen whether the numbers of finds come close to the actual importance of fishing. Because, according to Pliny (Naturalis historia XVI 1, 2-4), the Chauken hunted fish that remained "from their huts [after the flood]." They also grew barley , oats and wheat , but also beans and flax . During the last settlement phase, the storm surges increased considerably, which flooded the economic area of ​​the Wurt more frequently. This was probably related to a rise in sea levels. Roman coins, bronze artifacts and vases were found on imported objects . These indicate that part of the company's own products also ended up in long-distance trade.

Archaeological excavation

The Feddersen-Wierde settlement was almost completely excavated in Wilhelmshaven between 1954 and 1963 by the “Lower Saxony State Institute for Marsh and War Research”, today's Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research . The head of the excavation was then director of the facility, Werner Haarnagel . The finds are exhibited in the Bederkesa Castle Museum in Bad Bederkesa . In 1958 an excursion of 530 archaeologists from 50 countries to the excavation site took place. You were a participant of the 5th International Congress on Prehistory in Hamburg.

Building findings

To protect against storm surges, the settlement was built on a small hill, a Wurt , which rose higher and higher over time. In this way, a sequence of settlement phases emerged that could be extensively examined archaeologically and scientifically. Not only did the wooden foundations of the houses remain, but also the lower beginnings of the wattle walls . Since the settlements in the Geest have not survived due to the poorer soil, the Feddersen Wierde, alongside the Fallward , plays a special role among the Iron Age settlements in Lower Saxony. The use of scientific methods in excavations is still considered exemplary today. Statements could also be made about the development of the Wurt, its economic mode and social structure. A comparably well-documented Wurtensiedlung is the Elisenhof site in Schleswig-Holstein .

today

The former settlement of Feddersen-Wierde was no longer inhabited after it was left in the 5th century. Today it is a grassy hill used for grazing. The earlier excavation site is not indicated by signs. It is located between Mulsum and Wremen on a dirt road southwest of Wierde. Presentations on the complex of finds, including courtyard models, can be found in the Lower Saxony State Museum in Hanover and in the Bederkesa Castle Museum in Bad Bederkesa , where numerous of the excavated finds are also exhibited.

literature

  • Ralf Berhorst: The village of the pioneers . Article in: GEO Epoche, Issue No. 34 - Die Germanen, pp. 102–115. With numerous graphic representations of the settlement and archaeological finds. Gruner & Jahr, Hamburg 2008, ISSN  1861-6097
  • Ernst Andreas Friedrich : The Feddersen Wierde. In: If stones could talk. Volume III, Landbuch-Verlag, Hanover 1995, ISBN 3-7842-0515-1 , pp. 35-37
  • Werner Haarnagel : The excavation Feddersen Wierde. Method, house construction, settlement and economic forms as well as social structure. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1979, ISBN 3-515-02511-1
  • Udelgard Körber-Grohne : Geobotanical investigations on the Feddersen Wierde. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1967
  • Martin Kuckenburg: From Stone Age Camp to Celtic City , Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, Order No .: 14625-5, Germanic settlements of the Roman Empire in northwest Germany, Brandenburg and Thuringia, Die Feddersen Wierde, pp. 177–187
  • Matthias D. Schön: Feddersen Wierde, Fallward, Flögeln - Archeology in the Museum Burg Bederkesa in the district of Cuxhaven. District of Cuxhaven (Ed.), 1999
  • Jörn Schuster: The non-ferrous metal finds from the Feddersen Wierde excavation. Chronology - chorology - technology (= Feddersen Wierde results of the excavations. Volume 6). Isensee, Oldenburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-89995-391-6

Web links

Commons : Feddersen Wierde  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. J. Ewersen, keeping dogs on the Wurt Feddersen Wierde from the imperial era - an attempt at reconstruction. Settlement and coastal research in the southern North Sea area 33 (2010) 53 - 75.
  2. Martin Kuckenburg: From Stone Age Camp to Celtic City, Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, Order No .: 14625-5, p. 185
  3. Museum Burg Bederkesa ( Memento of the original from April 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed February 5, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.burg-bederkesa.de