Triwalk fireplace site

The Triwalk fire pit is located on a hill east of Triwalk , in Lübow , near Wismar , in the district of Northwest Mecklenburg in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . Traces of Neolithic pottery and Bronze Age fire cults were found there.

location

context

In Scandinavia and northern Germany , the Gargruben ( Danish Kokegroper ), ( Swedish Kokgropar med Skärvsten ), ( English Pit Alignments ) first recognized in 1906 are a phenomenon of the younger Bronze and Iron Ages . The more recent research calls such sites as cult fire or fireplace sites. In 1989 Sigrid Heidelk-Schacht lists 30 such places in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and in the north of Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt ( Zedau ). The places are collections of similar fireplaces, which were almost always set up in an exposed position and in the immediate vicinity of the water. They are sometimes close to Bronze Age graves, but always away from settlements. Fireplaces rarely contain finds and are hardly detectable above ground.

The site

In young moraine areas, soil types such as clay and sand occur in a very small space. Such an occurrence on the crest at Triwalk adjacent to a stream was used for a long time as a sand pit, with Neolithic finds being recovered in 1970. During the excavation of the route for the Federal Motorway 20 , there was an opportunity to excavate parts of the site.

The rows of hearths

In Triwalk the pits have an average depth of 30 cm and a diameter of one meter. They are filled with black fire earth, which contains high proportions of charcoal and glowed field stones. Below the summit at Triwalk, an oval row of fire places ran across the 60 m wide excavation area, which roughly follows a contour line. These also turned out to be poor. Of the 27 sites examined, only half contained found material. It mostly consisted of flint artifacts . In a few cases, Middle Neolithic pottery was found.

Unlike in Triwalk, cult fire places are usually not associated with settlements at the same time. Based on the ceramic, three neighboring pits can be dated to the same time horizon. The complex includes a furnace, the steep walls of which have a thin, bricked layer of clay. The relatively low heat exposure can indicate that it was used for baking bread or drying it.

In the absence of other possible interpretations, rows of fireplaces are viewed as an expression of cultic-religious acts, which is why they are referred to as cult fires or fire cult places. The charcoal from the Triwalk fireplaces was identified by radiocarbon dating to the Late Bronze Age around 850 BC. Dated.

Neolithic

In front of the cult fire places of the Bronze Age there was a settlement of the funnel cup culture (TBK) on the hilltop and on the slope on the side of the stream . However, the exposed location does not correspond to the image of a settlement of the first arable farming culture , which was preferably established on southern slopes on light (dry) soils.

The 180 or so findings are mostly simple pits with a maximum length of about three and a depth of one meter. Almost 37,000 ceramic shards come from them. Among the 19,000 flint artefacts are over 700 scrapers , drills, fire beaters, two almost completely preserved chisels and two disk knives, a typical form of equipment from the Middle Neolithic.

Between the findings there are large open spaces on which the locations of houses that are part of the image of a settlement were to be expected. The endeavor to track down findings on them, however, was unsuccessful. The tracks may have fallen victim to erosion over the millennia .

The delimitation by a row of pits also distinguishes Triwalk from Neolithic settlements in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. To the northeast, the area is delimited by a series of round pits, the course of which follows the contour line. In contrast to the other findings in Triwalk, the pits with a diameter of around 1.5 m and a depth of around one meter showed a well-planned picture. In two of the pits there were almost complete vessels. They were often backfilled in layers with layers of broken ceramics embedded in them.

This delimiting row of pits is reminiscent of simultaneous earthworks , the area of which is outlined by trench segments. A geophysical investigation, however, found that this thought could not be kept. An interpretation as storage pits was rejected mainly because of the peripheral location.

The row of pits is based on a strip of relatively light clay with a high proportion of sand in some cases, which could be used as a raw material for pottery. It is conceivable that the pits owe their creation to the extraction of this raw material. However, this does not explain their regular arrangement and the charcoal.

The question of the choice of location remains. Two recessed stove systems can provide an explanation. They each consisted of an oval combustion chamber with a small pit in front that contained charcoal. The lower part of the combustion chamber was still intact in the best preserved furnace. The individual parts of the collapsed dome were salvaged from the interior - numerous fragments of bricked clay with wickerwork imprints.

Based on the ceramics, the kilns can be dated to the Nordic Middle Neolithic . The large amount of heat generated and the relatively small combustion chamber suggest kilns for clay pots. The estate's ceramics, which are elaborately decorated with ladder ribbons, hanging or standing triangles or fir branch patterns, are evenly fired and partly of excellent quality. Mainly there are funnel cups, but baking plates , funnel bowls, jugs and amphorae are also represented. The pottery is typical of the time around 3000 BC. Chr.

literature

Detlef Jantzen : Pottery and fire cult - From life on the hill near Triwalk, district of Northwest Mecklenburg. In: Uta Maria Meier (Red.): The A20 motorway - Northern Germany's longest excavation. Archaeological research on the route between Lübeck and Stettin (= archeology in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. 4). 2nd, unchanged edition. Archaeological State Museum and State Office for Land Monument Preservation Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Schwerin 2006, ISBN 3-935770-11-1 , pp. 33–36.

Individual evidence

↑ The first series that could be dated in England produced the uncalibrated date 4360 + 50 BP (i.e. around 2900 BC). Stephen Carter: A radiocarbon dated pit alignment at North Straiton, near Leuchars, Fife. In: Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal. Vol. 2, 1996, ZDB -ID 2664954-8 , pp. 45-51, ( digitized version (PDF; 569 kB) ).

↑ Sigrid Heidelk-Schacht: Young Bronze Age and Early Iron Age cult fire places in the north of the GDR. In: Friedrich Schlette , Dieter Kaufmann (ed.): Religion and cult in prehistoric and early historical times. 13th meeting of the Pre- and Early History Section from November 4 to 6, 1985 in Halle (Saale) (= Conference of the Pre- and Early History Section. 13). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-05-000662-5 , pp. 229-240.

53.872113888889 11.493483333333Coordinates: 53 ° 52 '19.61 " N , 11 ° 29' 36.54" O

[1] The first series that could be dated in England produced the uncalibrated date 4360 + 50 BP (i.e. around 2900 BC). Stephen Carter: A radiocarbon dated pit alignment at North Straiton, near Leuchars, Fife. In: Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal. Vol. 2, 1996, ZDB -ID 2664954-8 , pp. 45-51, ( digitized version (PDF; 569 kB) ).

[2] Sigrid Heidelk-Schacht: Young Bronze Age and Early Iron Age cult fire places in the north of the GDR. In: Friedrich Schlette , Dieter Kaufmann (ed.): Religion and cult in prehistoric and early historical times. 13th meeting of the Pre- and Early History Section from November 4 to 6, 1985 in Halle (Saale) (= Conference of the Pre- and Early History Section. 13). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-05-000662-5 , pp. 229-240.