Great stone graves near Caldenhof

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Great stone graves near Caldenhof
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Great stone graves near Caldenhof (Lower Saxony)
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Coordinates 52 ° 19 '58.5 "  N , 8 ° 15' 3.7"  E Coordinates: 52 ° 19 '58.5 "  N , 8 ° 15' 3.7"  E
place Ostercappeln OT Hitzhausen (Gut Caldenhof), Lower Saxony , Germany
Emergence 3500 to 2800 BC Chr.

The megalithic graves near Caldenhof were originally three megalithic graves from the Neolithic funnel cup culture near Hitzhausen , a district of Ostercappeln in the Osnabrück district , Lower Saxony . Only one of these still exists today.

location

The preserved grave 1 is located northwest of Hitzhausen in the bend of the Caldenhofer Weg. The destroyed grave 2 was further north, about 350 m north of Hitzhauser Strasse in a field on the parcel “Auf der Horst”. The destroyed grave 3 was northwest of the Caldenhof on Hitzhauser Strasse.

Research history

The destroyed grave 3 was first mentioned in 1883 by Ludwig Gramon . It was probably destroyed a little later. Grave 2 was destroyed in 1974 with an excavator. During a field inspection in 1993, several smaller stones were found. Grave 1 was discovered in 1976 and the site was documented by Wolfgang Schlueter . In 2009 an archaeological excavation was carried out under the direction of Sebastian Möllers . The found material was scientifically processed by Aylin Polzer in 2014 as part of a master's thesis .

description

The preserved grave 1

architecture

From the heavily damaged complex, 17 larger stones have survived, one of which was only discovered during the excavation in 2009. The stones are spread over an area of ​​about 20 × 30 m. The excavation could not provide any reliable information about the original number of stones or the original appearance of the complex. Remnants of a chamber pavement made of granite gravel and sandy discoloration, which were interpreted as scuff marks from wall stones, gave an idea of ​​the approximate orientation and size of the burial chamber. According to a reconstruction attempt by Sebastian Möllers, it was a north-west-south-east oriented chamber with a length of 13 m, which originally consisted of ten pairs of wall stones and ten cap stones. With this size it was likely either a large dolmen or a passage grave. The excavation could not clarify whether the complex originally had a pile of mounds and a stone enclosure.

Burials

The 81 bones found are all severely fragmented and calcined . Whether it is human or animal bones has not yet been investigated.

Additions

When the facility was first documented in 1976, 71 ceramic shards of the funnel beaker culture, some of which were decorated with deep engravings, were found. A further 873 broken fragments were found during the 2009 excavation. Because of the severe fragmentation, only a collar bottle and a flat bowl could be safely reconstructed. In addition to the ceramics, a flint ax and 31 other flint artefacts (blades, blade scrapers, scrapers, chips and possibly drills) were discovered.

Dating

The poor state of preservation of the pottery did not allow any more precise statements about the typochronology of the vessels. The decorations were more revealing. According to this, most of the pottery belongs to horizons 4 and 5 according to the typological system of Anna L. Brindley , which dates from 3250–3075 BC. Corresponds to. However, this period only indicates the main usage phase of the system. Some of the seldom found ornamental patterns show both an earlier date of origin and a later, less intensive use of the grave.

The destroyed grave 2

According to local residents, grave 2 was almost completely sunk into the ground and was destroyed in 1974. A field inspection carried out in 1987 provided no further evidence. During a further inspection in 1993, however, numerous head-sized granite boulders, flint lumps and stones from Keuperton were discovered, as well as a ceramic shard, a flint cut and a possible obsidian cut. Information on the orientation and dimensions of the facility as well as the exact type of grave are not available.

The destroyed grave 3

Grave 3 was already described by Gramon as "dilapidated". Information on orientation, dimensions and the exact type of grave are not available.

literature

  • Axel Friederichs , Uwe Märtens: Fundchronik 1993. In: Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Nordwestdeutschland. Volume 17, 1994, p. 133.
  • Ludwig Gramon: Ostercappeln and its romantic surroundings. Nolte, Osnabrück 1883, pp. 15, 25.
  • Sebastian Möllers: Ostercappeln-Hitz-Jöstinghausen: Great stone grave? Great stone grave! In: Heimat-Jahrbuch Osnabrücker Land. 2011 (2010) pp. 45-49.
  • Gerd-Ulrich Piesch: Large stone graves that have disappeared in the Osnabrück region. In: Archaeological Communications from Northwest Germany. Volume 20, 1997, pp. 19-20.
  • Aylin Polzer: Processing of the archaeological material from the late and end Neolithic discovery site Hitz-Jöstinghausen, Ostercappeln community, Osnabrück district. Master's thesis, Münster 2014 ( PDF; 23.1 MB ).
  • Friedrich-Wilhelm Wulf , Axel Friederichs: Archaeological monuments and sites in the district of Osnabrück. Part 2 (= material booklets on the prehistory and early history of Lower Saxony. Volume 43). Leidorf, Rahden / Westf. 2011, ISBN 978-3-89646-976-2 , 510-511.
  • Friedrich-Wilhelm Wulf, Wolfgang Schlüter : Archaeological monuments in the independent city and in the district of Osnabrück (= material booklets on the prehistory and early history of Lower Saxony. Series B, inventories. Volume 2). Hahn, Hannover 2000 ISBN 978-3-7752-5661-2 , pp. 462, 464-465.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anna L. Brindley : The typochronology of TRB West Group pottery. In: Palaeohistoria. Volume 28, 1986, pp. 93-132 ( online ). Annual figures corrected according to Moritz Mennenga : Between Elbe and Ems. The settlements of the funnel beaker culture in northwest Germany (= early monumentality and social differentiation. Volume 13). Habelt, Bonn 2017, ISBN 978-3-7749-4118-2 , p. 93 ( online ).