Soest burial ground
Coordinates: 51 ° 34 ′ 0 ″ N , 8 ° 7 ′ 0 ″ E
| Soest burial ground | ||
|---|---|---|
| location | North Rhine-Westphalia , Germany | |
| Location | Soest | |
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| When | 6th to 8th centuries | |
| Where | Soest , District of Soest / North Rhine-Westphalia | |
The early medieval burial ground of Soest in Soest- Lübecker Ring is a Merovingian burial ground from the 6th to 8th centuries. It represents one of the largest and most important burial grounds in early medieval Westphalia. The most striking find is the magnificent disc brooch from Soest, which comes from a rich women's grave.
background
The area around Soest is characterized by fertile loess soil as well as fresh and salt water springs. It is also located on an old trade route, the Hellweg . So it is an extremely cheap settlement area. Metal processing, especially lead, has played an important role since the turn of the century at the latest.
location and size
The row grave field of Soest is located on the south-eastern outskirts on Lübecker Ring and was discovered in 1930 during construction work. A large number of graves were already destroyed at that time. A total of 215 burials were excavated, of which 202 were of humans and 13 of horses. Most of them were in tree coffins. In addition, 11 wooden chamber graves were found, one of which was a horse grave. These wooden chamber tombs had a basic knife of about 2 × 3 meters and are typical of the Germanic upper class of the 6th and 7th centuries.
The Soest Disc Brooch
The most famous find of the burial ground is a splendid disc fibula. It was taken from Holzkammergrab 106 - a rich women's grave - which is dated to the last third of the 6th century. The back of the fibula is adorned with rune incisions, which have not been deciphered beyond doubt to this day. The private researcher Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg wanted to read the name Atalo in these runes and postulated that grave 106 could have been that of Krimhild , who, according to his hypothesis, was historical and died in Soest. Today the primer is exhibited in the LWL Museum in the Kaiserpfalz .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b cf. Walter Melzer : Soest. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 29, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-018360-9 , pp. 215-219.
literature
- Daniel Peters: The early medieval cemetery of Soest. Studies on society in border areas and epochal changes. Publications of the Antiquities Commission for Westphalia, Vol. 19, Aschendorf – Münster 2011, ISBN 978-3402150061 .
- Klaus Düwel , Walter Melzer , Heinrich Tiefenbach : Soest. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 29, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-018360-9 , pp. 213-221.
- Walter Melzer : The early medieval burial ground Soest - Lübecker Ring. In: 799 - Art and Culture of the Carolingian Period. Part 3. 1999. pp. 263-267.
- Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg : The Nibelungs moved northwards. Paperback edition with register, 8th unchanged edition, Reichl, St. Goar 2002, ISBN 3-87667-129-9 .