Gladbeck cemetery

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location

The young Bronze Age burial ground of Gladbeck is located on a hill in the Gladbeck district of Ellinghorst , in North Rhine-Westphalia . The area was in agricultural use until 1936 when it was cleared for the construction of a miners' settlement. When a ditch was being built, shards and bone fragments were reported. In the same year the excavation began.

Two parts of a large burial ground were uncovered, which extends over a length of at least 300 m. The western part could be examined uniformly. Only a few unsystematically recovered burials are known from the area adjacent to the north and south. Isolated from the main field, about 80 m away, an area called the secondary field was excavated. It is unknown why the area in between was not examined. The excavations did not reach the limits of the burial ground. It remains to be seen whether the decrease in occupancy density in the north, west and south of the main field is an indication of the border there.

The excavation revealed 215 complexes:

  • 203 burials,
  • 7 vessel discovery sites,
  • 2 concentrations of charcoal,
  • 2 circular trenches ,
  • 1 keyhole-like system.

Based on the recorded graves, the number of those originally present can be estimated at over 400. The material and the records are so far preserved in the museum of the city of Gladbeck, in the water castle Wittringen .

The moat systems

A keyhole-like trench system (Annex I) was found on the main field and two circular trenches (Annex II and III) were found on the side field. The questions about the overhanging of all three plants and the structure of the trenches must remain open because of the poor documentation.

  • The keyhole-shaped system has a three-quarter circle. The part of the ditch missing in the southeast ended in two splayed legs that were not connected to one another. The extension of the enclosure was about six meters. In the center of the complex was a bed of bones.
  • The large circular ditch (Annex II) had a diameter of about 16 m. Its inner surface has not been excavated for unknown reasons. There were two urn graves in the moat area .
  • Annex III, south-east of Annex II, was a ring of ditches about 6.6 m in diameter with an urn grave in the center.

Graves

About 200 cremation burials were examined on the cemetery, which were between 0.4 and 0.8 m deep. The burials took place as individual burials. Double burials are not recorded in the excavation documents. 50 graves were destroyed or their state of preservation was so impaired that the form of burial could no longer be determined. The remainder are 132 urn graves, 16 bone stores and five incendiary graves.

Urn graves

87 of the 132 urn graves were found without an accessory vessel. The remaining 45 contained an accessory vessel. The urns stood upright in the grave pit. One was also covered with a bowl. In two cases the urn with the muzzle was placed on the corpse burn.

Bone Storage

The 16 bone beds are not described in detail in the excavation documents. At 10 a shaker was found. As far as information is available, it was on the corpse burn.

Fire graves

Five fire graves were found, one of which was destroyed. At one grave, shards, charcoal and corpse burn were scattered over a larger area. In one of the graves the urn stood in a layer of charcoal. Two of the fires contained an accessory vessel.

Charcoal Concentrations

Two charcoal concentrations could be determined selectively. In first place was a layer of charcoal with a diameter of about 0.6 m at a depth of 0.4 m. The second place initially had a layer of charcoal at a depth of 0.3 m, some broken pieces were about 0.4 m deeper. Corpse burn was not observed.

Vessel and cullet dumps

Six vessel and one shard depot were uncovered on the burial ground. Since no corpse burn was detected in any case, it can be assumed that there are no destroyed burials. The vessels or shards were deposited without any grave context. With the exception of one vessel, there are small bowls and cups.

Finds

Bronze and amber

Amber pearls or bronze razors and tweezers are known from eight graves . A perforated amber pearl comes from each of the two, and one also contained an amber residue. A grave contained a triangular bronze razor with a bent tip. A razor of rectangular shape with a rolled-back handle and bronze tweezers with a drawn-in bend come from another grave. In addition, a part of a bronze needle and bronze remnants were observed.

Ceramics

Ceramic groups

Statements on the total grave field are forbidden, as the spatial and content-related relationships between the main field (around 12,500 m²), the unsystematically recovered graves further south and the eastern side field (around 1,250 m²) have not been clarified.

Double-conical vessels as the largest group are evenly distributed on the main and secondary fields; only in the area of ​​the keyhole they are rarer. Cylindrical neck and funnel rim vessels are comparatively rare. They can be found in a loose distribution on the main and secondary fields. The equally rare conical neck vessels are primarily in the western part of the main field.

The use of the different vessel shapes as urns or additional vessels shows differences. Conical neck vessels were only used as urns. Double cones and cylinder neck vessels were clearly preferred as urns and only observed in small numbers as additional vessels. Pots with a funnel rim were used half as urns and half as accessory vessels. Additional vessels with a funnel rim were not observed in the central area of ​​the main field and in the secondary field. There you will find the pans, bowls and cups that are only sparsely represented in the other parts of the cemetery. Similar delimitations arise with the distribution of the decorations.

All ceramics in the field are hand-molded. It is characterized in part by excellent evenness and is noticeable for its surface-covering polish. This is particularly true of cut-carved vessels and some related shapes. In contrast to this, there are a number of mostly double-conical vessels, the shape and surface treatment of which are steep.

The ceramic inventory of the burial ground is incomplete. Complete inventories are available from 74 burials. Another seven graves come from the work of H. Aschemeyer. The inventory of a further 26 graves is only partially preserved. In eight cases this is supplemented by the material presented by Aschemeyer.

to form

Double cones are represented in different shapes. In addition to the slim ones with a medium break, there are somewhat wider, pressed copies, as well as round-bellied ones and those with a retracting top. Finally, wide, pressed, bowl-shaped double cones should be mentioned. Those with a raised shoulder can be attached to the bowl-shaped examples. The urns from six graves, referred to as double cones in the documents, have not survived.

In addition to the more frequent incised decorations, there are semi-arches and angles standing on a small number of vessels, deep finger-drawn grooves, four-fold ribbed bands, horizontally and vertically set bundles of grooves, triple garlands and angles filled with diagonal lines.

The cylinder neck vessels are bulging with an evenly drawn-in lower part. The marginal lip can be carefully drawn out or absent. An urn has a standing ring. Only four cylinder neck vessels are undecorated. The decoration of the other vessels is varied.

Find material and chronology

With the few circular ditches in relation to the number of graves, Gladbeck sets itself apart from the well-known Young Bronze Age (around 1700 to 1200 BC) grave fields in the north and north-east of Westphalia , where it was customary to keep the majority of burials. The peripheral location of Gladbeck in the south of a larger area with grave enclosures can be represented here. The Lippe , as the last major tributary on the right bank of the Rhine, always marked a border area for prehistoric cultures. The people of the La Hoguette culture did not cross it northwards, nor did the fixed Roman camps.

While the circular ditches show connections to the neighboring Münsterland , the ceramic inventory is further fanned out in relation to the reference material. The double-conical vessels can be connected with simultaneous cemetery fields in Westphalia. Cylinder and conical neck vessels are shapes that can be found in the burial fields on the northern edge of the urn field culture . In Gladbeck, five vessels were found which, in terms of shape, decoration or ornamentation technique, completely match the material of the urn field culture. The other cylindrical and conical neck vessels remain qualitatively inferior in shape and decoration and represent vessels that have been reworked from the models. The small vessels decorated with notches belong in the same regional context. Two to three small vessels belong to the vessel forms of the southern German urn field culture, as they were put together for the grave fields of East Westphalia and Hesse . There are two vessels that indicate relations with Central Germany. The high conical neck or cylinder neck are features that stand alone within the ceramic material of the burial ground. The wide grooved decoration also sets itself apart from the fluted decoration, as is known from the urn field culture.

Dating

The dating is a problem with Young Bronze Age finds from Westphalian burial grounds. The simultaneous use of the southern German chronology system according to P. Reinicke (1872–1958) and the scheme of Montelius (1843–1921) results in “chronological distortions”, which result in historical tracing Processes do not meet. A complicating factor is that dating metal additions are largely missing and so far only a few Young Bronze Age grave fields from Westphalia have been presented. When analyzing the Gladbeck cemetery, hardly more is possible than the recording of a few points about the occupancy process. The distribution of the vessel shapes does not allow a regional narrower delimitation of groups. There does not appear to be any chronological occupation of the burial ground. Rather, it can be assumed that the occupancy was carried out in groups. However, there are only few signs of this.

Regions with double-conical vessels seem to represent core areas around which the other vessel shapes are grouped. In the case of Gladbeck, it could be assumed that the regions with circular moats indicate burial places of groups that are still linked to the Bronze Age traditions of grave enclosure and hilltopping, as GJ Verwers found for the southern Netherlands. That would mean that some of the double-conical vessels belong to the older phase of the burial ground. Cylinder neck and conical neck vessels, lidded jars, as well as the chip carving technique and incised imitations of the chip carving decorations would then represent a phase of innovation. The undecorated double cones and funnel rim vessels can be at the same time as the first two phases, but can also represent the last period in which vessel ornamentation was no longer common. However, because of their peripheral location within the grave field, they do not allow any definitive statements. The chronological classification of Gladbeck ceramics was already done by H. Aschemeyer. After that, the cemetery was in use during Hallstatt B / Period V. Possible indications for an earlier occupancy are sparse.

literature

  • G. Wand-Seyer: The Young Bronze Age grave fields of Gladbeck, Herne and Recklinghausen. Soil antiquities of Westphalia 22, Aschendorff 1985, ISBN 3-402-05135-4
  • H. Aschemeyer: The graves of the younger Bronze Age in western Westphalia. BAW 9 1966
  • GJ Verwers: Non-circular Monuments in the southern Dutch Urnfields. Analecta Praehistorica Ledensia 2 1966
  • Jürgen E. Walkowitz: The megalithic syndrome. European cult sites of the Stone Age (= contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe. Vol. 36). Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 2003, ISBN 3-930036-70-3 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 33 ′ 32 "  N , 6 ° 57 ′ 40.1"  E