Gallery tomb Calden II
The 1990 examined until 1992 Gallery grave Calden II is located in northern Hesse Kassel district , about 100 meters south of Erdwerks of Calden and has close ties to the Gallery I on. Chronologically, it is younger and shows parallels to phase B of the earthworks.
location
The gallery grave II lies outside the double ring of the earthworks, under a farm road. The system was cut in 1969 when laying a water pipe. A later check raised the suspicion of a gallery grave, especially since quartzite blocks and human bones had already come to light in 1969 . Search cuts confirmed the suspicion. As a result, the megalithic system was examined parallel to the earthwork.
description
The most recent interventions and older disturbances from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages affected the complex more than Gallery Tomb I. That a reconstruction is possible is due to the construction method. Similar to the earthwork, the foundation trenches of the bearing stones were sunk into the shell limestone . The same applies to the bottom of the grave, so that the findings proved to be extremely robust against later disturbances.
The gallery grave is oriented southwest-northeast, the entrance is in the northeast. The external length is 11.9 m, the maximum width 3.8 m. Based on the footprints and the excavation pits for removing stones, the number of former wall stones can be set to 18, eight side stones and one end stone each. The bearing stones that have been preserved enable the clearance height of the chamber to be reconstructed: it was around 1.4 m in the access area and 1.05 m in the rear. As with the gallery grave I, the design of the entrance remains uncertain. Based on the parallels in the northern Hessian area of the “gallery graves of the Züschen type”, an antenna-like access and a soul hole are the most likely variants. The number of capstones remains uncertain, seven being a conceivable number. The facility was likely to have been overgrown. Numerous limestone and sandstone slabs around the complex speak for a hill foot framed by dry masonry and in the access area for a facade of the same kind.
Finds
Burials
Despite the disturbances, the burials in the rear third of the chamber were well preserved. The ritual seems to have largely congruent with that found in gallery grave I. Observations during the excavation and anthropological analyzes confirm that the dead were laid down in a stretched supine position, coaxial to the system axis with the head facing the entrance (northeast). There are also signs that children's corpses are oriented perpendicular to the axis. Occasional corpse burns prove the biritual burial method, a finding that occurs repeatedly in the Wartberg culture. The number of individuals is at least 78. In relation to the entire chamber, it can be assumed that 200 people are buried.
Additions
The grave goods corresponds to the focus of gallery grave I. The pottery finds to the area in front of the access, with indications of a in situ - Zerscherbung . The vessels include a clay drum with hump and hole decoration (the latter in the foot area), a deeply engraved and a dome-shaped bowl with a ribbon handle, a collar bottle fragment as well as fragments of the edge of egg-shaped pots with deep incisions below the edge, as they appear as the main form of use phase B of the earthwork . A fragment of a large rectangular ax made of Wieda slate was also found in the access area . A second clay drum comes from the interior of the chamber, which was probably used as part of the cult of the dead.
The remaining finds in the burial layer consist of pierced teeth of brown bear, badger, fox, dog, horse and wolf, unretouched flint blades and a number of triangular and cross-edged arrowheads made of flint and slate . A ring-shaped amber bead and a polished, pierced bone disk are noteworthy .
Time position
Two 14C dates on human bones revealed a significantly younger age than gallery grave I (around 3100 BC). The result agrees with the ceramics of use phase B of the earthwork and the typochronological dating of the deep engraving ceramics .
Gallery grave I and II in comparison
The building material was determined by the local availability of the tertiary quartzite . There are clear affinities in the chamber dimensions. This is evident in the chamber widths, which are hardly due to chance. The distance value for the middle of the foundation trenches, which fluctuates between 2.65 and 2.80, corresponds to twice the dimension that was determined for the width of the entrances to the earthwork. In length, gallery grave I seems to have exceeded Annex II by a pair of wall stones.
The funeral rite and the custom of adding correspond to each other down to the last detail. However, no corpse fire was observed in gallery grave I, but this may be due to the excavation technique used at the time (1948). Gallery grave I was, to judge by the pottery and the 14C dates, at the beginning of the Wartberg culture around or before 3400 BC. Built in BC. For gallery grave II, however, there are no indications that a construction was carried out significantly before 3200 BC. Allow. The systems follow one another, linked by a tradition in architecture and ritual.
Later activities
It is not possible to determine when the dismantling of the gallery grave began. Cup fragments in the fault area above a tilted wall stone belong to the time of the single grave culture (2800–2300 BC). At the end of the Middle Bronze Age (1600-1300 BC) a stone was removed. A fire was kindled in the resulting pit and after the embers had cooled down a six-month-old sheep was laid down and covered with a stone wrap. It is conceivable that these ritual activities also included the sinking of the directly adjacent wall stone, for which a pit was cut in the limestone of the chamber floor. A dense store of broken fragments documents activities at the gallery grave up to the Iron Age . For the particularly massive southeastern capstone, a removal in the High Middle Ages can finally be proven.
literature
- Dirk Raetzel-Fabian: The archaeological excavations at Calden 1988–1992. From findings to interpretation . Yearbook `93 of the district of Kassel. Kassel 1992, 7-14.
- Otto Uenze: The stone chamber grave of Calden, Kr. Hofgeismar. In: Stone Age excavations and finds (Ed. Otto Uenze). Electoral Hessian soil antiquities 1. Marburg 1951, 22–31. (meaning Calden I)
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 23 ′ 51.8 " N , 9 ° 22 ′ 56.8" E