Zarrenthin burial mound
The grave mound Zarrenthin was a mound near Zarrenthin in the municipality of Bentzin in the district of Vorpommern-Greifswald . It was located on the site of the Zarrenthiner gravel mine until the excavation in 2005. In terms of structure and complexity, the findings recorded during the archaeological excavation are unique for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . The reconstructed replica has been at the entrance to the bathing establishment on the Zarrenthiner Kiessee since 2006 .
excavation
The barrow has been kept in the files of the State Office for Ground Monument Preservation since 1976 as the Zarrenthin barrow, Fpl. 1 . In 1997, a strong overprinting of the archaeological monument was determined by reading stones from the neighboring fields. The hill also had traces of previous excavations. A large-scale prospecting of the surrounding area was carried out in 2001 and 2002. With the exception of a few fireplaces, the exploratory excavations carried out did not reveal any evidence of further soil monuments in the vicinity of the barrow.
The burial mound north of the Zarrenthiner Kiessee impeded the intensified use of the local gravel deposits since the 1990s. Due to the poor state of preservation of the object and the no longer authentic surroundings, a full excavation was decided in 2005. The excavation was carried out from April to July of the same year. The approximately 6,000 stones in the facility were completely removed and deposited.
In November 2006, the reconstruction of the facility at the entrance to the bathing establishment east of the Zarenthiner Kiessee was inaugurated. On the one hand, the interior of the complex is shown, on the other hand the heaped hill covered with stones.
investment
The burial mound was originally about 1.5 meters high and 17.5 meters in diameter. The megalithic grave equipment inside was in the late New Stone Age ( Final Neolithic applied). The builders belonged to the individual grave culture . Four subsequent burials took place in the Bronze Age .
Main burial
In the bottom of the hill there was a north-south facing stone box measuring 2 by 1 meters, around which a stone trapezoid was placed, the stone box being in the eastern third of the trapezoid. The approximately 1.2 meter long and 0.7 meter wide limestone capstone was found fallen into the chamber during the excavation. Limestone objects of this size are extremely rare in the find region. The top contains several pecked bowls. The capstone rested on four differently sized support stones of approximately rectangular shape. Flat stone slabs formed the bottom of the stone box.
In the box, a complete, largely preserved human skeleton was found in stool burial . This was determined using the radiocarbon method (C14 dating) to around 2460 BC. Dated. Based on the anthropological features, it was determined to be a man over forty years of age. Above the skull, near the southern wall plate, a trapezoidal flint dagger was found that had broken in the middle. This was dated to the so-called dagger time and was probably a grave gift for stool burial.
The skull of a second individual was found at the northwest end of the stone box. Dating with the radiocarbon method showed age values around 2800 BC. Chr. Elevated δ13C values are an indication of fish as the main food. The person over 40 years old suffered from tooth decay .
The stone trapezoid surrounding the stone box, with its longitudinal axis facing east-west, was 11.5 meters long. The width was 2.5 meters in the west and 5.5 meters in the east. In the southeast corner of the trapezoid, a 35 centimeter deep pit was discovered, on the bottom of which was a 5 centimeter long flint arrowhead with serrated long sides. This is interpreted as an external burial object. A rectangular limestone slab framed by field stones covered the pit.
Stone wreath
The trapezoid was surrounded by an outer stone wreath with an almost perfect circular arc and a height between 0.4 and 0.6 meters. This wreath consists partly of large, juxtaposed boulders, partly of sections using drywall technology . Gaps around 0.7 meters in length interrupted the wreath in the southeast and northwest sectors. They are interpreted as symbolic grave entrances. A large boulder ( guard stone ) was in front of a gap-like, approximately one meter wide depression west of the narrow side of the trapezoid and another north of the extension of the capstone. They emphasized the orientation of the complex according to the cardinal points.
At the south-eastern foot of the hill, about two meters outside the stone wreath, there was an oval stone setting one meter long and 0.8 meters wide made of field stones the size of a fist. The closely spaced ceramic shards and animal bones found on it are interpreted as the remains of a food offering. The fragments do not allow an exact dating.
Hill cover
The stone box and the stone trapezoid were completely covered by a mound, which was limited by the outer stone wreath and secured by a stone cover. This stone packing consisted of field stones about 30 centimeters long and was covered by another yellowish layer. A layer of pebbles covered the entire hill including the outer stone ring and thus formed the end of the upper backfill layer.
Because of the two main backfill layers, two main construction phases are assumed. In the first phase the grave structures would have been built and in the second phase the mound would have been heaped up.
There were several smaller stone settings on the mound stone, including two oval stone layers 2.2 meters and 1.8 meters in length at medium height on the southern side of the hill. These were probably related to the cult of the dead or ancestor worship. The urn, which is only preserved in fragments, and the missing capstone point to a grave robbery in more recent times. In addition to the remains of ceramics and corpses , a miniature vessel dated to the younger Bronze Age was found.
In the area of the hilltop, the stone packing was disturbed, which is partly due to building clearing. In addition, two modern earth encroachments were found. In the middle of the hill was the remainder of a robbery excavation shaft, probably built in the 19th century, with a diameter of 2.5 meters and a depth of at least 1.3 meters. Since the main burial was not in the center of the complex, the intervention was unsuccessful. In the upper third of the backfill, a layer of sharp-edged stone fragments was found, which is probably waste produced in the stone cutting . The second intervention involved garbage disposal that took place between 1960 and 1970.
Reburials
Four additional burials were found during the excavations . The first was a stone box measuring 1.12 × 0.95 × 0.3 meters. The second subsequent burial was an urn grave, for which a field stone had been removed from the mound stone in the lower third of the hill. Half of the preserved urn was a bulbous, conical neck vessel with a smooth outside and probably originally had two loop handles at the base of the neck. It contained, among other things, several bronze fragments. The diameter of a pair of bronze arm rings suggests a child's grave. Only fragments of the stone box and a single Bronze Age shard, probably the rest of the urn, were preserved from the third subsequent burial.
The stone wreath had been opened for the fourth subsequent burial in the southeast of the burial mound. There were no additions or bone fragments, only a dark brown to black humic discoloration. The dimensions of 2.1 × 0.8 meters indicate a body buried in a tree coffin during the older Bronze Age. When it was closed again, the original settlement of the boulders was ignored, which is why the gaps were filled with smaller field stones.
Fire pits
Three hearths were found on the hill, another two meters west of the outer rim. Charcoal samples could be dated to the second half of the 6th century, the migration period . There were no indications for use as a hearth fire or the like, so a cultic function can be assumed.
literature
- Dominik Forler, Jens-Peter Schmidt: Report on the archaeological investigations in the area of the gravel sand mine Zarrenthin, Lkr. Demmin. State Office for Culture and Monument Preservation (Ed.), Schwerin 2007.
Web links
- Literature on grave mounds Zarrenthin in the state bibliography MV
- The Zarrenthin grave mound on Grosssteingraeber.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jens-Peter Schmidt: replica grave mound inaugurated in Zarrenthin. Jarmen information sheet, January 2007.
Coordinates: 53 ° 55 ′ 43.5 ″ N , 13 ° 19 ′ 3.7 ″ E