Wittmar burial ground

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The Wittmar cemetery is located in the municipality of Wittmar in the Wolfenbüttel district in Lower Saxony near the border with Saxony-Anhalt . It is the furthest north to date and at the same time the only known cemetery for linear ceramic ceramics in Lower Saxony.

Research history

During ground work on Buchenweg, an excavator came across skeletal remains at the end of May 1976. This was the prelude to extensive excavations which revealed a Neolithic burial ground from the 4th millennium BC. BC brought to light. The burial ground covers an area of ​​about 2000 m² and is located on a hillside on a loess island twice as large, surrounded by clay, marl, floating earth and sandy soils.

Finds and Findings

Through the rescue excavations, which lasted until 1978, a total of 51 Neolithic graves were uncovered. Of these (located in the center) at least 14 are definitely linear ceramic, one is stiched ceramic. The dead were buried in a strict, left-hand east-west or right-hand west-east oriented crouch position. Typical grave goods are so-called shoe last wedges made of rock, ceramics and jewelry from the spondylus. 34 others belong to the Rössen culture . Since the area could not be fully exposed, a significantly higher number of graves can be assumed. The burial of a 30-year-old woman from the Rössen culture was recovered first. She was about 1.64 m tall. Her teeth were weakly worn. Other skeletons showed higher levels of wear. Caries could also be found here. Deformations of the lower leg bones indicated that the woman was primarily in a squatting position during her lifetime. The spine had a 13th vertebra as an anomaly. Two characteristically decorated clay vessels of the Rössen culture were found as grave goods. Below the chin there were four tooth snails that belonged to a necklace. A cattle skull was found between the legs of the dead. The Rössen dead were buried uniformly in a south-north orientation, with the head in the south, predominantly in a stretched supine position and very different arm postures.

By means of the ceramics, the use of the burial ground can be dated to the older and middle stages of ribbon ceramics. The many ceramic additions cannot be differentiated according to age or gender. Men and women wore jewelry made from shells, snails and animal bones. Necklaces made of deer knuckle and bone arm rings were reserved for men. Utensils such as axes, hatchets and adzes as well as flint blades and arrowheads are found in numerous grave goods, possibly also in women's graves.

literature

  • Hans-Jürgen Häßler (Ed.): Prehistory and early history in Lower Saxony. Theiss, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-8062-0495-0 . P. 551
  • Hartmut Rötting : The old and middle Neolithic burial ground of Wittmar, Ldkr. Wolfenbüttel. An overview of the excavation results. In: Early farming cultures in Lower Saxony. 135 ff. Oldenburg 1983.
  • Chr. Rinne, B. Krause-Kyora: Genetic analysis on the multi-period grave field of Wittmar, Ldkr. Wolfenbüttel. Archaeological Information 37, 2014, 33-41. doi : 10.11588 / ai.2014.0.18189 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 8 ′ 1 ″  N , 10 ° 38 ′ 30.1 ″  E