Shallow grave
In archaeological parlance, a shallow grave is a burial that is not visible above ground (e.g. through hills). Shallow graves can occur in the form of simple earth graves, but they can also be provided with wooden or stone fixtures such as floor or side plates. In principle, they are not tied to a specific form of burial ( cremation or body grave ), but in the narrower sense they are simple body graves in more or less deeply deepened pits. The other forms of burial may have special names (for example, fire pouring).
Flat graves of the band ceramists
The importance of shallow graves in the area of band ceramic culture is dealt with in Gräberfeld .
Flat graves of the funnel cup culture
In addition to large stone graves , the carriers of the funnel beaker culture (TBK) also dug earth graves, which are called "flat graves" in Norway "flatmarks gravar". The shape of these graves and their location is by no means the same or only similar. Flat graves can be found under the mounds of some stone graves and under burial mounds. Small grave pits occur as well as wooden chamber tombs and systems with built-ins and covers from rolling or boulders. Shallow graves are observed less often because they are not marked on the surface. They are often found by chance. Their number will therefore be considerably greater. Most were discovered in the vicinity of megalithic sites . Often not all graves in a burial ground have been recorded. So it is not yet possible to draw a clear picture of the number, their grouping and their relationship to the stone graves.
Individual shallow graves are rare, most of them are in burial fields . Numerous vessel remains and axes accidentally collected as reading finds are believed to have ended up in the ground as grave goods and that when they were found, the grave character was not recognized because the skeletal remains had passed. Many shallow graves consist of pits with no recognizable fixtures. Sometimes field stones give the only indication of their shape when any wood remains have passed. They don't always point to larger wooden chambers.
If they are separate, they will only be recognized by chance. Such a rare grave was found in 2001 in Wendorf (North Western Pomerania). It contained three dead (two crouched) and deep-engraved pottery. The design is also inconsistent in shape and size within the same complex. As early as 1941, the Danish archaeologist Knud Thorvildsen (1907–1987) established that stone-supported earth graves (stone packing graves) exist at the same time as the megalithic structures, which are typical of the late TBK and are partially marked by low mounds. Whether the importance of the shallow graves in the area of the TBK was similar to that in the LBK is open.
- band Aid
- Wooden chambers
- Conversions made of stones
- End stones
Himmelpforten district of Stade
At Himmelpforten , six flat graves were found on an area of 16 x 18 m. Unclear findings suggest another three. There are no references to stone graves in this area.
- Grave I contained a rectangular stone packing made of granite slabs measuring approximately 3.0 x 4.5 m. There were larger blocks at one end. Stone packs of this size usually lie in chamberless giant beds . Shards of vessels, a flint ax and a golden arm ring were found, the first (oldest) gold find in the area of north - west German deep engraving ceramics .
- Grave III had a roughly 3.4 m long oval pit.
- Grave V was also long oval. On the bottom of the pit, at a depth of 95 cm, it was 2.25 m long and 1.2 m wide. The excavator was able to prove a tree coffin with a clay pot next to it .
- Grave VI was 1.90 m wide and rather round-oval. In the middle of the pit was a 0.75 m wide and probably 2.00 m long field stone pavement.
Issendorf, district of Stade
In Issendorf north of a stone tomb lay the flat graves. Scattered finds of deep-engraved ceramics on the arable land indicate further unrecognized grave sites.
- Grave A had a rectangular shape with the dimensions 3.25 x 18 m and a depth of 0.95 m. On one side was a granite slab 50 cm wide and 32 cm high. Seven clay vessels were found in such a way that one stood next to the pit and the other six different depths in the grave. The finding can only be explained by the fact that the vessels stood on the wooden cover of the pit and after their disintegration slipped into the grave at the same time as the sand.
- The shape and dimensions of grave B could not be determined. It contained four clay pots and two flint scrapers.
- Grave C had a long oval pit of 2.20 x 1.25 m (like grave V of Himmelpforten).
- Only the end of a two-meter-wide pit of grave D is documented, at which a one-meter-wide granite slab stood.
Grave A from Issendorf and graves I + III from Himmelpforten indicate unfilled wood-paneled grave chambers. Pavements were found in the giant beds with and without a chamber. The former often contain only one megalithic chamber, although the hill length seems to be intended for several. During the investigation of the giant beds in Horneburg and Bliedersdorf , district of Stade, stone pavements came to light that were similar to those of the flat graves. Obviously there were burials on them.
A stone packing was also found next to the megalithic grave under the round hill of grave 1 of Horneburg. Like some of the Issendorf graves, it was bordered at one end by a vertical stone slab. Such “gravestones” have also been observed in the flat graves of Sievern , Cuxhaven and Zeijen in the Netherlands. In a report from the year 1846, Carl von Estorff refers to six skeleton graves above a stone pavement that lay within the megalithic bed next to the stone chamber. During excavations in the Oldendorfer Totenstatt , ( Lüneburg district ), wooden chamber graves came to light in the giant beds. These examples can be multiplied by finds (e.g. at the megalithic complex at Hagestad ) in Sweden and elsewhere.
Cuxhaven-Gudendorf
In Gudendorf a pit with a stone monument was found next to the (more than 100 years destroyed) megalithic site. A pavement was covered with granite gravel, like the pavement in large stone graves. The paving was surrounded by a wall up to a height of 40 cm with granite slabs and rolling stones. This wall is 3.85 m long and 1.20 m wide and rounded at the ends. The grave contained four cross-edged arrowheads , two flint axes and two clay vessels from different periods. The clay vessels and the unusual length of the stone setting indicate a double burial that took place at the same time , whereby the dead (of which, however, no traces were found) may have been laid lengthways one behind the other. There are counterparts for this type of stone setting in Denmark (Frydenlund).
Because of the ceramics, the grave complex belongs to the same time as the dolmen of Haaßel ( Uelzen district ). The hill of the stone grave covers more than half of the earth grave. When it was heaped up, the earth grave may no longer be visible above ground. It was also covered by a younger pit in which ceramic shards (possibly clearing out the stone grave) were deposited secondarily. Since there can be no greater distance between the construction of the earth grave and the megalithic complex, a cemetery tradition can be assumed that began with the earth grave. Some of the earth graves date from the time of the older passage graves and belong to the beginning of the Middle Neolithic. In this phase, megalithic structures, wooden chamber graves and earth graves (each with floor paving, if necessary) existed side by side. If one looks at the inventories, such as the high-quality clay vessels from grave A in Issendorf or the golden ring from Himmelpforten, there are no social differences between the dead in megalithic structures and earth graves.
British Islands
In contrast to the Neolithic of continental Europe, shallow burial grounds are not a feature of the British and Irish Neolithic. However, there is evidence of a small number of seemingly isolated bodies. Their discovery - be it through construction work, coastal erosion or excavations - shows that their "isolated" character is often not confirmed. However, they can only be dated to the Neolithic if they are connected to the material culture (ceramic or stone artefacts) or can be directly dated.
See also
literature
- Wilfried Hicke: Hill and flat graves of the Early Bronze Age from Jois and Oggau. In: Burgenland State Museum (ed.): Scientific work from Burgenland . Issue 75, Eisenstadt 1987, ISBN 3-85405-101-5 .
- H. Hingst: Flat graves of the Stone and Bronze Ages from Schleswig-Holstein. In: Offa. 31, 1974 (1975), pp. 19-67.
- Werner Krämer: The manching grave finds and the flat graves of the Latène period in southern Bavaria . (Excavations in Manching, 9). Steiner, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-515-02490-5 .
- Wolf-Dieter Tempel : Flat graves of the funnel cup culture . In: H. Schirnig (Ed.) Large stone graves in Lower Saxony. 1979, ISBN 3-7848-1224-4 , pp. 111-116.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jörg Eckert: Die Steinzeit In: Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Nordwestdeutschland p. 55 "The burial equipment does not differ from that in the large stone graves, so that social differences that could be documented in them can be excluded here. An explanation for the coexistence of such There are not yet any fundamentally different funeral customs ".
- ↑ https://frydenlundsarup.wordpress.com/