Ole Hai burial mound field
The Ole Hai burial mound is located in the Elm between Räbke and Lelm in the Helmstedt district . There are burial mounds with urns from the 3rd to 6th century on the cremation grave field .
description
The grave mound field is located in a larger forest area on the eastern slope of the Elm in the Alter Hain parcel (in dialect: Ole Hai ). It is about 260 meters long and 160 meters wide. The diameter of the hills varies between 2.5 and 9.5 meters. Because of their low height of 15 to 30 cm, sometimes 60 cm, the burial mounds can hardly be seen in the area. The larger diameter mounds were collective burial sites because there were several burials in them. Since there is no overlap in the graves despite the dense occupancy, it can be assumed that the grave markings were earlier, which were permanent or were repeatedly renewed. A survey in 1947 revealed around 150, other figures according to 117 burial mounds. The mounds have been heaped up from the existing loamy soil. They have no hill borders with stones or circular trenches .
Research history
The burial mound field was discovered by Johann Christian Dünnhaupt , who was pastor in Lelm from 1763 to 1786 and is considered the first prehistoric in the Braunschweig region . He undertook the first excavations on the burial mounds, where he found burial urns. In a progressive manner, he wrapped them with cloths for protection, made observations and examined the stratification of the urn contents. He published his research results in 1778 in the book Contributions to German History of Lower Saxony and its antiquities . He observed urn burials in the burial mounds, at the foot of the hill and in the area between the burial mounds. How many urns he dug up can no longer be reconstructed. Further excavations are said to have taken place around 1817, of which no documents have survived.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, an unknown number of burial mounds were destroyed by robbery graves . Archaeologist Franz Niquet carried out planned archaeological excavations in 1969 and 1970. He examined 11 burial mounds and 60 urn graves on six areas. He also found cremation nests , which indicated that some of the burials were carried out without urns. In the Prehistory and Early History department of the Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum in Wolfenbüttel there are around 200 urns from the burial ground.
literature
- Johann Christian Dünnhaupt: The tenth chapter of the urns or death pots dug in the Elm in: Contributions to German history of Lower Saxony and its antiquities , Helmstedt, 1778, pp. 203-256 ( online )
- Franz Niquet: Investigations on the barrows of the post-Christian Iron Age in the "Ole Hai" in the Elm, districts Lelm and Räbke, Kr. Helmstedt in Nachrichten aus Lower Saxony's Prehistory , 1970, pp. 305-307
- Babette Ludowici : Lelm-Räbke, the burial mound field in "Ole Hai" . In: The Braunschweiger Land . Guide to archaeological monuments in Germany 34 , 1997, pp. 256-259.
- Babette Ludowici: Ole Hai. In: Early historical grave finds between Harz and Aller. The development of burial customs in southeastern Lower Saxony from the younger Roman Empire to the Carolingian period in: Material booklets on the prehistory and early history of Lower Saxony. Volume 35, Rahden, 2005, pp. 175-196
Web links
- Brief description at braunschweig-touren.de