Franzhausen Swietelsky I burial ground
The Franzhausen Swietelsky I cemetery was recovered as part of rescue excavations by the Austrian Federal Monuments Office and is assigned to the Early Bronze Age Böheimkirchen group of the Věteřov culture due to the additions and costumes of the dead .
Geographical location
The grave field was in the Lower Traisental ( St. Pölten district , Lower Austria), 170 m south of the Early Bronze Age grave field Franzhausen II of the Unterwölblinger cultural group .
Find history
Since the beginning of 1980, the Lower Traisental has been the target of extensive archaeological investigations through the expansion of the S 33 expressway and systematic gravel mining activities, which uncovered numerous prehistoric settlements and burial sites. In 2004 the burial ground, which was named Franzhausen Swietelsky I, was discovered and recovered.
Finding situation
The site comprised 57 findings, 36 of which can be clearly verified as graves due to the presence of skeletal remains. 22 graves were clearly affected by secondary interventions , which was documented by the massive displacement or lack of skeletal parts, a known and often observed phenomenon of the Early Bronze Age. The dead were buried in a crouched position on their side, gender-differentiated. According to regional custom, women lay their heads in the south and men with their heads in the north facing east.
At this time, the burial ritual changed : The previous tradition of providing the dead with food and drink was abandoned, so that the receptacles in the form of ceramic vessels were only found in a few graves. A special piece should be emphasized here: the foot shell from grave 27, which is known in technical jargon as the “socket”. Its straight vessel wall is decorated with a large, dotted zigzag pattern, as we know from a few parallel finds. In grave 33 the simple bowl contained a flint blade and a bronze pfriem, the remains of the former cutlery.
Otherwise, only the imperishable parts of the death costume were preserved in the graves next to the skeletons. In order to close the clothes, needles were used in the shoulder area, according to the fashion of the time, it was diagonally perforated ball-headed needles. Bracelets and anklets with spiral ends, bow rings as hair accessories and small earrings could be found as jewelry. The circular needle from grave 47 is a specialty . This larger needle with a decorated washer head was on the forehead of a 20 to 30 year old woman. Presumably it was used to close a shroud. These artefacts are exhibited with many other finds from the Traisental in the prehistoric museum in Nussdorf ob der Traisen.
The skeletons were examined anthropologically to determine the age and sex of death. 15 women and 12 men could be identified. Eight children were laid down next to 24 over 20 year olds. The oldest lived to be 50 years old.
Dating
Due to the frequent use of the diagonally perforated ball-head needle, a key type of the late Early Bronze Age, the cemetery can be traced back to a period around 1700/1500 BC. To be dated. The closest, simultaneous necropolis of the Böheimkirchen group of the Věteřov culture are common barn F and Neumarkt an der Ybbs .
literature
- Christoph Blesl and Alois Gattringer: Franzhausen. In: Find reports from Austria 43, 2004, pp. 15-16.
- Christoph Blesl and Violetta Reiter: The Franzhausen type circular needles from Lower Austria. In: Archeologické Rozhledy LXVI, 2014, pp. 695–703.
- Johannes-Wolfgang Neugebauer: The necropolis F von Gemeinlebarn Lower Austria. In: Römisch-Germanische Forschungen 49, 1991, pp. 30–31.
- Oliver Schmitsberger: An early Bronze Age "socket" from Bullendorf, Lower Austria. In: Archaeologia Austriaca 89, 2005, pp. 145–151.