Bettelbühl burial ground

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Bettelbühl - flat burial mound next to the Bettelbühl stream

The early Celtic burial ground of Bettelbühl is located about two and a half kilometers southeast of the Heuneburg in the broad, flat Danube floodplain of the Baden-Württemberg community of Herbertingen in the Sigmaringen district .

Name and location

The name "Bettel" indicates poor soil, as does the name of the district "Gesöd" for swampy, boggy meadows. The wide flood plain, in which the Danube once meandered and repeatedly changed its bed, was only usable for arable farming after it was drained. One of the drainage ditches leads as Bettelbühlbach directly past the largest burial mound.

The burial ground comprises seven hills, six of which have been largely flattened by agriculture. Only the eponymous Bettelbühl protrudes significantly from the plain with 3.7 meters and a base diameter of 50 meters. It is protected as a ground monument.

research

The two northernmost hills were only discovered in 2000, when fragments were found several times during archaeological field inspections, which indicated a plowed-up grave inventory. In order to anticipate further destruction by the plow, the two barely recognizable mounds were examined in August 2006 as part of educational excavations by the Society for Pre- and Protohistory in Württemberg and Hohenzollern .

The archaeological excavation revealed a grave border of around 9.6 x 9.6 meters in one hill, which was sunk as a grave in the Danube gravel. In the center there were some ceramic fragments and a single long bone.

On the basis of four post positions in the edge area of ​​the second hill, it was possible to infer a former diameter of around 20 meters. It contained a set of dishes from the Hallstatt period consisting of several conical neck vessels, some of which still contained small bowls, as well as a step plate decorated with incisions. The shards showed little stability, which is characteristic of pure funeral ceramics, which were specially made for burials and only lightly fired. Remnants of bones or corpse fire were not found in the rather acidic soil.

Block recovery of the step plate

  • The ceramic is protected with foil.

  • Stabilization of the top with up to three layers of plaster bandage

  • Name of the find and its location

  • After turning the block, the bottom is also plastered in.

Children's grave

In the autumn of 2005, the archaeologist Siegfried Kurz discovered the remains of a children's grave on another flattened hill northwest of Bettelbühl. A two- to four-year-old girl was buried with precious jewelry: two bronze fibers each clad with gold sheet and gold pendants decorated with filigree, as well as numerous small glass ring beads, several bronze rings , a bronze arm ring and a so-called chain slider made of antlers . The age of the buried was determined on the basis of tooth enamel caps, other skeletal parts had not been preserved in the acidic soil. The artistically designed pendants indicate an Etruscan origin. The rich costumes gave reason to suspect a connection with the Celtic prince seat on the Heuneburg.

Princess grave

In 2010, the State Office for Monument Preservation of Baden-Württemberg opened another excavation area on the same field . A four by five meter chamber shaft grave from the 6th century BC was found. Discovered with rich additions of gold, amber , gagat (pitch coal) and bronze. Due to the storage in waterlogged ground, the wood of the oak planks was well preserved. The entire grave could therefore be recovered in the block on December 28, 2010 when there was frost . On the occasion of the rescue, the find was presented to the public.

The professional examination and scientific evaluation is carried out under laboratory conditions. Two female skeletons were exposed. One was very richly decorated and is therefore called the "Celtic princess". The second only had a bronze bracelet and it is still unclear whether it was a companion of the princess or a later burial. In addition to the wood of the burial chambers, the dendrochronological dating of which will provide precise information about the time of the burial, further organic material was found. Its processing will provide technical-historical information. The processing of the block recovery was completed in 2013.

The “Celtic Block” project met with a great response from the public. Finds from the grave were shown from September 15, 2012 to February 17, 2013 in the state exhibition The World of the Celts in Stuttgart. State archaeologist Dirk Krausse presented a comprehensive overview of the grave goods to the public in December 2013. This includes over 40 pieces of gold and over 100 made of amber.

literature

  • Siegfried Kurz, Siegwalt Schiek: Burial places in the vicinity of the Heuneburg . Research and reports on prehistory and early history in Baden-Württemberg 87, Stuttgart 2002. ISBN 3-8062-1693-2
  • Jörg Bofinger , Susanne Walter: A grave in the cornfield - investigations in the area of ​​the early Celtic Bettelbühl necropolis near the Heuneburg, Gde. Herbertingen, district Sigmaringen . In: Archaeological excavations in Baden-Württemberg 2006, pp. 68–71. Theiss, Stuttgart 2007. ISBN 978-3-8062-2093-3
  • Siegfried Kurz, Joachim Wahl: To continue the excavations in the Heuneburg outlying settlement on the Ertingen-Binzwangen mark, in the Biberach district. In: Archaeological excavations in Baden-Württemberg 2005, pp. 81–82. Theiss, Stuttgart 2006. ISBN 978-3-8062-2019-3
  • Dirk Krausse , Nicole Ebinger-Rist: 80 tons of Celtic grave - a newly discovered early Celtic pompous grave near Heuneburg, Herbertingen, Kr. Sigmaringen. In: Jörg Bofinger, Nicole Ebinger-Rist and Solveig Möllenberg: Discoveries - Highlights of State Archeology 2007-2010 . Volume accompanying the exhibition, Esslingen 2011, pp. 110–115.
  • Dirk Krausse, Nicole Ebinger-Rist: News from the "Celtic Princess" of Herbertingen. In: Archaeological excavations in Baden-Württemberg 2011, pp. 113–118. Theiss, Stuttgart 2012. ISBN 978-3-8062-2626-3
  • Dirk Krausse, Nicole Ebinger-Rist: The Celtic princess of Herbertingen. Discovery, recovery and scientific significance of the new Hallstatt period grave of the Heuneburg. In: Denkmalpflege in Baden-Württemberg , 40th year 2011, issue 4, pp. 202–207. ( PDF; 5.6 MB )
  • Dirk Krausse, Nicole Ebinger-Rist: The secret of the Celtic princess. The sensational find from the Heuneburg , Darmstadt 2018, ISBN 978-3-8062-2801-4

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Early Celtic pompous grave discovered ( Memento of the original dated December 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.archaeologie-online.de
  2. ↑ Dirk Krausse, Nicole Ebinger-Rist: News from the "Keltenfürstin" from Herbertingen. In: Archaeological excavations in Baden-Württemberg 2011, pp. 113–118.
  3. ↑ Photos of the recovery and finds
  4. ^ Exhibition review: The world of the Celts
  5. ↑ Finds in the princely grave of Bettelbühl ( Memento of the original from December 11, 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.archaeologie-online.de

Coordinates: 48 ° 4 ′ 28 "  N , 9 ° 25 ′ 37"  E