Leubing Hills
| Leubing Hills | ||
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 The Leubing Hill contained the largest preserved Early Bronze Age elite grave of the Aunjetitz culture . |
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| height | 8.5 m | |
| location | Leubingen in Thuringia , Germany | |
| Coordinates | 51 ° 11 '25 " N , 11 ° 10' 11" E | |
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| Type | Bronze Age hill fill, burial mounds of the Aunjetitz culture | |
| particularities | Mound contained graves from the Early Bronze Age (elite grave mound) and the Early Middle Ages (Slavic subsequent burials) | |
The Leubinger Hügel rises near Leubingen , a district of Sömmerda ( Thuringia ), as a monumental monument and contained the princely grave of Leubingen , a tumulus of the Early Bronze Age Aunjetitz culture as well as subsequent burials in the upper area of the Bronze Age hill cover - 70 Slavic graves from the period between 700 and 700 1100
Description and dating
The burial mound had a height of approx. 8.5 m and a diameter of approx. 34 m, a circumference of 145 m and a construction volume of 3270 m³. The wooden burial chamber could be dendrochronologically to 1942 ± 10 BC. To be dated. The small uncertainty of the dating results from the fact that the edge of the forest of the trunks was not preserved and therefore the exact date of felling cannot be determined.
Research history
The burial mound was excavated in 1877 under the direction of Jena university professor Friedrich Klopfleisch . First, 70 Slavic graves from the period between 700 and 1100 were uncovered in the upper area of the Bronze Age mound . Such subsequent burials in older mounds are not uncommon. At ground level, the excavators came across an intact, tent-shaped grave chamber made of oak, which, like the entire burial, dates back to the Aunjetitz culture . The chamber was covered with reeds, grouted with lime mortar and covered with stones. The stone cover consisted of white and red sandstone, which was brought in from a distance of up to 30 km.
Replicas of the burial chamber can be found in the Museum of Prehistory and Early History of Thuringia in Weimar and in the Leubing Heimatstube .
In 2011, the remains of the floor (discoloration of the former walls) of a princely nave were discovered near the burial mound . The building had an area of 462 m², making it one of the largest in Central German prehistory. Ceramic finds make the temporal proximity to the barrow likely. In addition, an extensive hoard of bronze axes was made in front of the front of the nave , which suggests that the residents of the house were in an outstanding position.
Interpretation of the main burial
The burial chamber contained a double burial , whereby the main burial - a male adult - must have been an outstanding personality (such as a tribal chief or priest, warlord or metallurgist). The tools contained in the grave goods could indicate that wealth and power resulted from control of the regional metal industry. Some researchers therefore see a late metallurgy grave in the grave mound of Leubingen . However, the otherwise typical clay nozzles were not found here.
The skeleton of a ten-year-old child was found across the hips of the dead man lying on his back. Since the time of the grave opening any anthropological held investigation, it is unclear whether it is following the dead is or a dead child at the same time.
The rich grave goods - consisting of gold jewelry (a golden Bangle, two golden Ösenkopfnadeln, a golden spiral rolls, two golden studded rings), bronze weapons (a staff dagger blade , three daggers, two flanged axes ) and tools (two carinated chisels, two rims chisels, a shoe last wedge from Serpentine , a whetstone ), a large grave vessel as well as other ceramic additions - and last but not least, the enormous effort for the entire burial site testify to the burial of a mighty man from the early Bronze Age.
Comparable tombs
The grave mound of Leubingen is by far the largest of its kind. Similar grave mounds of the Aunjetitz culture exist near Helmsdorf (Gerbstedt) , also 34 m in diameter, and near Dieskau , a further 13 are archaeologically verifiable in Central Germany. At Leki Male (Klein Lenka) in Poland, about 70 km south of Posen , there is a group with eleven burial mounds belonging to the Aunjetitz culture.
gallery
F. Klopfleisch's excavation documents
Scoreboard at Leubinger Hügel
View from the Leubing Hill
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bernd Becker, Rüdiger Krause , Bernd Kromer: On the absolute chronology of the early Bronze Age. In: Germania. Darmstadt 67.1989,2, pp. 421-442. ISSN 0016-8874
- ↑ Ilona Knapp: Prince or Chief? An analysis of the outstanding burials of the early Bronze Age . In: Archeology Digital. T. 1. Freiburg 2001, p. 53. ISBN 3-935846-00-2
- ↑ Katharina Bolle: Princely residential building from the Bronze Age discovered. In: EPOC. Heidelberg 2011.4. ISSN 1865-5718
- ↑ Wolfram Euler , Konrad Badenheuer: Language and Origin of the Germanic Peoples - Outline of Proto-Germanic before the first sound shift. London / Hamburg 2009, p. 50. ISBN 3-9812110-1-4
literature
- Sigrid Dušek : Prehistory and early history of Thuringia. Theiss, Stuttgart 1999, p. 74. ISBN 3-8062-1504-9
- M. Schwarz: Got rich through copper and salt? In: Harald Meller (ed.): Beauty, Power and Death. 120 finds from 120 years of the State Museum for Prehistory in Halle. Volume accompanying the special exhibition , Halle (Saale), 2001, p. 62f.
- Bernd Zich: The princely graves of Leubingen and Helmsdorf . In: Harald Meller (ed.), The forged sky. The wide world in the heart of Europe 3600 years ago. Accompanying volume for the special exhibition , Halle (Saale), 2004, p. 156f.
- Harlad Meller, Kai Michel: with Kai Michel: The Nebra Sky Disc - The key to a lost world in the heart of Europe , Propylaea, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-549-07646-0 .