Gevensleben burial ground

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The Gevensleben burial ground is an early Christian cemetery in Gevensleben in the Helmstedt district in Lower Saxony , which was discovered and archaeologically examined in 2016. The deceased between the 7th and 9th centuries were buried on the row grave field , the total number of which is estimated at up to 200. The burials enabled the researchers insight into the time of the adoption of Christianity in the until then pagan influenced Braunschweiger Land in Ostfalen .

A burial in the exhibition on the Gevensleben cemetery

description

As early as 1874, when a pit was dug, a burial was discovered in the cemetery. The fact that it was a larger complex was only known at the beginning of 2016 through bone finds during the garden redesign on a property. The burials were 70 cm below the surface. Immediately after the discovery, a project team of archaeologists and students from the University of Göttingen , Helmstedt District Archeology and Braunschweig District Archeology from the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation carried out a two-week emergency excavation with the support of an excavation company under the direction of the archaeologist Immo Heske . Over 50 graves were uncovered on an area of ​​around 400 m². The grave pits, originally about one meter deep, stood out from the yellowish loess soil due to their dark discoloration . In 54 grave pits, 63 people were buried in a stretched supine position due to individual multiple burials. The bones of the deceased are well preserved due to the calcareous loess soil. The grave pits were dug in a rectangular or oval shape. Only in a few graves did wood residues suggest the use of a coffin or death board as a base. The graves were mainly oriented in a west-east direction, with the head facing west. The graves could be assigned to three occupancy phases. The cemetery has not been completely excavated, so that further burials can be expected in areas that have not been investigated. As a row graveyard, the burial site probably contained up to 200 graves in total.

Grave goods

Knife in a funeral

Grave goods were found in only nine graves, which were more like parts of the traditional costume and everyday equipment of the deceased with knives and belt buckles. The relative lack of gifts is due on the one hand to the beginning of Christianization in the early Middle Ages with burials without gifts . On the other hand, according to archaeological investigations, there were grave robberies through secondary grave openings in nine cases during the Middle Ages. The additions found include seven iron knives, a belt buckle and two indeterminate iron objects.

Outstanding graves

Unusually rich furnishings were found in the grave of a 40- to 50-year-old woman with a knife, a pearl necklace with almost 20 colored glass beads and a silver earring.

A special addition was in the grave of a man around 40 years old. This was an iron bar spike that was originally attached to the tip of a wooden bar. The function of such bars is not yet known. It could have been a Schulzen staff as a badge of a dignitary or a walking staff.

Skeleton of a 20 to 25 year old man with a large opening in the skull

On the skeleton of a man around 20 to 25 years old, a large opening in the skull was noticed as a result of a blow injury, which, according to the archaeologist Immo Heske, came from a sword . Anthropological research revealed that the front part of his frontal bone had been severed by a blow. His skeleton was also injured by an arrow in the rib area. Due to the strong build and the signs of wear and tear in the lower body area, the researchers suspect that it was a cavalry warrior who was shot from a horse with an arrow and then fell victim to a sword blow.

anthropology

According to the anthropological studies carried out after the excavation, the 63 people buried were 21 women, 17 men, one indeterminate person, four adolescents and 20 children. The youngest individual to be buried was a child aged one to one and a half years. Most of the buried were 40 to 60 years old. The majority of those over 50 were in good constitution.

Statements about life expectancy in Gevensleben can be derived from the results of the anthropological investigations on 236 individuals, which were found on the early medieval burial ground of Werlaburgdorf about 20 km away . There the average life expectancy was 29 years for women and 31 years for men. 6% of those buried reached a relatively old age at over 60.

Skeleton of a woman about 25 years old, 1.64 meters tall

In Gevensleben, only in a few cases could violence or accidents be detected on the basis of the bones. Degenerative changes were more common from the 4th decade on, especially in the knee and hip joints. From the age of 40, there were signs of wear and tear on the spine, especially on the lumbar spine. Signs of malnutrition and malnutrition as a result of periodic food shortages were shown by a weakened immune system , which among other things led to chronic middle ear infections and irritation of the meninges . Previous otitis media were recognizable through the perforated wall of the temporal bone and irritation of the meninges on the inner skull wall .

In seven well-preserved burials, dating was done on the bone material using the radiocarbon method . They gave a burial period between the years 695 and 864.

meaning

The cemetery of Gevensleben, along with the cemetery of Werlaburgdorf and the cemetery of Remlingen, is one of the best-researched early medieval cemeteries in the Braunschweig region .

According to tradition, in Ohrum , about 20 km from Gevensleben , in 775 the East Westphalian tribal leader Hessi submitted to Charlemagne , who had a mass baptism there in 780. The burial ground indicates that Christianization in the Braunschweiger Land did not start with the Saxon Wars of Charlemagne at the end of the 8th century. The grave field with a person who died in 695 indicates that the new Christian-Franconian burial custom had been practiced in the area almost 100 years earlier. The deceased were buried in body graves without graves, while they were previously cremated and buried in urns .

Today the burial ground is in the center of the village. Since there used to be a distance of around 300 to 500 meters between the settlement and the burial site, the village is likely to have been located elsewhere at that time. This phenomenon of the wandering village is known from the early Middle Ages. The cemetery dates Gevensleben to the 8th century and makes the place over 200 years older than its first documented mention of 1018, which is based on a forged document. Regardless of the knowledge gained from 2016, Gevensleben celebrated its 1000th anniversary in 2018.

presentation

Exhibition on the cemetery

An exhibition conceived by the archaeologist Immo Heske from the University of Göttingen, the Helmstedt district archaeologist Monika Bernatzky and the Braunschweig district archaeologist Michael Geschwinde entitled “1018? People experience history ”, which has been shown in Gevensleben (2018) and Göttingen (2019) so far . Another presentation took place in Schöningen in 2019, offering an accompanying program for primary school students. It was then to be included in the permanent exhibition of the Heeseberg Museum in Watenstedt .

literature

  • Sergej Most: Older than expected in: Archeology in Lower Saxony , 2017, pp. 72–76.
  • Immo Heske , Agatha Palka, Anna Wesemann: Cat.No. 160. Gevensleben. Tax no. 10, Ldkr. Helmstedt in News from Lower Saxony's Prehistory , Find Chronicle 2016. Supplement 21, Darmstadt, 2018, pp. 137-139.
  • Monika Bernatzky, Michael Geschwinde , Silke Grefen-Peters, Immo Heske, Manuel Müller, Agatha Palka, Norms Posselt, Hedwig Röckelein: The Gevensleben burial ground. People in the Braunschweiger Land between 750 and 1150 AD , (Guide to the prehistory and early history of Lower Saxony; Vol. 31), Isensee Verlag , 2018
  • Agatha Palka, Immo Heske, Silke Grefen-Peters: From the place of discovery to the museum. The early medieval burial ground of Gevensleben. in: Archeology in Lower Saxony 2019, pp. 164–168
  • Silke Grefen-Peters: The skeletons from the early medieval burial ground of Gevensleben. Reconstruction of living environments in: Archeology in Lower Saxony , 2020, pp. 118–123.

Web links

Commons : Gräberfeld von Gevensleben  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tino Nowitzki: Grave find makes Gevensleben 200 years older at NDR.de on March 13, 2016
  2. ↑ Sergej Most, Immo Heske: Fascination Archeology in Four Quarter Cult from Spring 2019, pp. 34–35
  3. ↑ Sergej Most: Older than expected in: Archäologie in Niedersachsen , 2017, pp. 72–76.
  4. ↑ Bernd Schlegel: Göttingen archaeologists have uncovered the early medieval cemetery near Helmstedt in Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine from March 20, 2016
  5. ↑ a b Melanie Specht: Gevensleben - a great village with a rich history in Helmstedter Nachrichten from April 8, 2018 (pdf, 1.7 MB), online with payment barrier
  6. ↑ Silke Grefen-Peters: Dangerous times! in: The cemetery of Gevensleben. People in the Braunschweig region between AD 750 and 1150 , pp. 19-20
  7. ↑ Silke Grefen-Peters: The people of Gevensleben and Werlaburgdorf in: The grave field of Gevensleben. People in the Braunschweig region between 750 and 1150 AD , pp. 31–36
  8. ↑ Immo Heske: The Christianization and the age of the grave fields in: The grave field of Gevensleben. People in the Braunschweig region between 750 and 1150 AD , pp. 37–44
  9. ↑ Norbert Rogoll: 53 old graves accidentally discovered during earthworks in Braunschweiger Zeitung of March 11, 2016 (pdf, 8.4 MB), online (with payment barrier)
  10. ↑ Bernd-Uwe Meyer: A whole village in the ground near Gevensleben in Helmstedter Nachrichten of March 18, 2020
  11. ↑ Melanie Specht: Great interest in the special exhibition in the Braunschweiger Zeitung from August 20, 2018
  12. ↑ Christiane Böhm: Finds from Gräberfeld lead to surprising results in Göttinger Tageblatt of March 19, 2019 (pdf)
  13. ↑ Markus Brich: Schöninger exhibition shows graves that tell of life in Helmstedter Nachrichten from 23 August 2019
  14. ↑ Markus Brich: In Schöningen, primary school students and archaeologists do research in Helmstedter Nachrichten of August 6, 2019

Coordinates: 52 ° 4 ′ 34.9 "  N , 10 ° 49 ′ 31.5"  E