Kundl cemetery

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The Kundl cemetery is the site of an Iron Age burial site and a pre-Christian settlement near Kundl in Tyrol , which can be dated from the older Hallstatt period to the early Roman provincial period (2nd half of the 7th to 1st half of the 1st century BC. ). The convenient location in the Inn Valley , a main axis between the Alpine foothills and northern Italy, favored the creation of a trading center between these regions.

Burial ground

In a gravel pit near Kundl, grave sites from the early , middle and late Latène period (from 450 to 15 BC) were destroyed during gravel extraction work from 1970 to 1973 . Only a few metal objects and ceramic parts could be recovered. Between 1974 and 1976 166 graves from the Hallstatt period and a grave area from the late Latène period were uncovered. While the cremation graves are individual burials, the Latène grave field is an area with randomly scattered remains of the pyre in the form of pieces of charcoal, corpse burns and gifts. It was therefore no longer possible to count the buried there. Scattered remains of this type could also be found between the individual grave sites.

Most individual graves contain cremation burials, mostly in urns , and more rarely fire burials , partial burials often occurred. The graves, which were lined with stone, contained grave goods that had not been destroyed . In the Hallstatt period, these sparse objects were, next to the urn with a lid, an accessory vessel, often broken, needles, fibulas , belt hooks and knives. In the early La Tène period swords, lances , helmets, halberd axes and shields were added. Clothing artefacts were represented by fibulae and glass rings, everyday devices by knives, wood, fabric and leather processing tools (sewing needles, awls ), household and kitchen utensils (handles, fittings, car parts) and scraps of metalworking.

The additions from the Hallstatt period are mostly local products in the inner-Alpine style. Influences from outside - from southern Bavaria to northern Italy and Slovenia - were accepted and changed into local tradition.

In the Latène period, influences of the Fritzens-Sanzeno culture dominated , iron tools from the local production were also imported from Sanzeno ( Trentino ). In the 1st century BC The northern Italian influence became stronger, the continuity of which is proven by finds from the early imperial period.

settlement

In 1973, objects found in the vicinity of the grave found the location of the settlement. From 1984 detailed excavations took place, which uncovered a Latène period workshop area with bronze foundries and iron processing as well as copper ore smelting. Slag remains, bronze and iron workshop waste and ceramics are evidence of the use of the site. The local style glass arm rings found in the graves suggest that glass was produced. The stored copper and iron ores probably come from the nearby deposits in Brixlegg . It can be assumed that the products were sold in the region - even as far as Manching in Upper Bavaria, after style comparisons, few objects, including a so-called mandolin primer, are likely to have come.

According to archaeological findings, a first mudslide had partially buried the grave area and the production area, a later one in Roman provincial times was even larger, covered the area several meters high and thus ended the use of the space.

literature

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