Burial mound with double circular moat

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Carved vessels from the Lower Rhine burial mound culture

The burial mound with double circular moat is a phenomenon of the Lower Rhine burial mound culture of the late Bronze or early Iron Age (900–700 BC) in Northern Germany . However, double or concentric circular trenches are rare in the circular trench burial fields. They enrich the image of Bronze Age and Iron Age representations and ritual acts associated with death. The encircling of the burial site is intended to demarcate the realm of the dead and that of the living, as shown by the much more common burial mounds with keyhole ditches, some of which have a double circular ditch ( burial mounds on the Radberg in Reken- Hülsten).

A burial mound with a double circular moat was excavated in 2000 on the western edge of Wildeshausen ( Oldenburg district ) in Lower Saxony . The inner diameter of the ring system of the burial mound is about 13.5 m, the outer one is 15.0 m. The system, which has already been leveled above ground, has a concentric circular ditch with a 1.6 m wide access opening in the southeast. Inside the opening there are two well-preserved post pits, about 0.8 m apart, with footprints from about 45 cm wide split planks, the function of which has not been clarified. There was no evidence of grave findings. Based on comparisons, the Wildeshausen complex could be dated to the late Bronze or early Iron Age.

In Großhöbing near Ingolstadt, a grave mound measuring around 16.0 m (No. "143") with a double circular ditch was built from the 6th – 10th centuries. Excavated in the 16th century. In the two-part chamber (5.0 × 3.1 m) were burials, consisting of five (two and three) people.

See also

literature

  • D. Kyritz: Entrance into the realm of the dead In: Archeology in Germany, 2/2001
  • H.-G. Peters: A burial mound with a double circular moat near Getelo, Grafschaft Bentheim district. In: News from Lower Saxony's Prehistory , Volume 38, Theiss-Verlag, 1969
  • H.-G. Peters: vessels of the funnel beaker culture from Getelo, County of Bentheim. In: News from Lower Saxony's Prehistory, Volume 39, Theiss-Verlag, 1970