Large stone grave in the Ahlen-Falkenberger Moor
| Large stone grave in the Ahlen-Falkenberger Moor | |||
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 Aerial photo of the excavation of the large stone grave, 2019 |
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| Coordinates | 53 ° 41 '36.3 " N , 8 ° 45' 57.6" E | ||
| place | Wanna , OT Ahlen-Falkenberg , Lower Saxony , Germany | ||
| Emergence | approx. 3200 BC Chr. | ||
The large stone grave in the Ahlen-Falkenberger Moor was a megalithic burial complex of the Neolithic funnel cup culture in Ahlen-Falkenberg, a part of the municipality of Wanna within the Elbe-Weser triangle in Lower Saxony . The large stone grave was built around 3200 BC. Created.
location
The grave complex lies in the lowlands of the Ahlenmoors on the northern bank of the Dahlemer See and on the edge of a geest summit . About 450 meters west of the site there is another large stone grave called Sprockhoff No. 643.
The area is rich in prehistoric sites. North on the Wannaer Geest are the megalithic complexes near Westerwanna and south of the Ahlenmoors on a Geest island was the Flögeln settlement chamber with megalithic graves like the Flögeln stone box . The facilities are now accessible through the Flögeln Prehistory Trail .
description
The large stone grave was a passage grave with once five cap stones, of which two stones and the gap of a third stone were superficially visible. The passage to the burial chamber was in the middle of the long side at a depth of 1.2 meters. It was probably filled with sand as early as the Neolithic Age and the entrance was closed off with small stones. After the construction, the grave appeared as a large pile of stones through its covering with rubble stones.
After the construction of the large stone grave , a high moor formed in the lowland in which it was located, which overgrown and preserved the grave. The overmoor ( pedogenesis ) of the grave complex was around 800 BC in the Iron Age . Completed. As a result of the drainage during peat extraction and the subsequent cultivation of the peat, which began at the beginning of the 20th century , the bog became drier and sagged, so that the large capstones in the bog began to emerge around the 1930s.
Research history
In the summer of 2019, the Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research (NIhK) carried out an excavation at the large rock grave after prospecting the area in spring 2019 using geomagnetics and drilling . During the excavation, the two capstones of the grave that were visible above ground and protruding from the bog soil were exposed. Masses of smaller field stones were found in the layers of soil covering the grave. They enclosed the large capstones and formed a stone pack as a cover around the grave. Finds from the excavation were two broken vessels and three amber pearls . The vessels were a funnel beaker with a fringed belly ornament and a bowl.
Excavation work on the large stone grave, 2019
Stone pack made from rubble stones in the bog soil
The exposed capstones and the surrounding stone packing
The capstones in the middle of the dark ground after the excavation work, 2019
Research project
The investigations on the large stone grave are part of the project started in 2019 by the Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research with the title "Preserved in the moor - relics of prehistoric settlement landscapes in the Elbe-Weser triangle". The Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture is funding it with around 250,000 euros as part of the “PRO Niedersachsen” research funding program. The overmoor region around Klein Ahlen, Groß Ahlen and Flögeln is to be explored in more detail with methods from archeology, geology and botany by 2021 . The aim is to research the extent of the moorland during the Neolithic Age and the settlement of northwest Germany by the first arable farmers. " Time capsules " are suspected in the study area, as the moor has overgrown relics and thus preserved them.
Stones protruding from the bog soil point to other large stone graves in the area. They are largely unexplored to this day, while some of the graves on Geest Islands have already been investigated. In the moor near the excavation site of the large stone grave, the archaeologists examined a stone collection in the form of a circular hill made of rubble in 2019. It has a diameter of about 4.50 meters and a height of 50 centimeters. Presumably it is a more recent burial site from the time of the individual grave culture around 2500 BC. A further investigation will take place in 2020. The geomagnetic investigations begun in 2019 as part of the project to find traces of Neolithic settlement will be continued in 2020.
meaning
The grave complex is considered to be of great scientific importance because, like the surrounding archaeological landscape, it has been preserved almost unchanged by the over thousands of years of the moorland. This preservation under the moor creates an archive that offers insights into life in the Neolithic Age. According to archaeologists, such sites are rare in Europe, but they are more common with 11 previously known sites in the Ahlenmoor.
The almost unchanged grave complex offers the opportunity to research its construction. The site can also contain information on how the beginning of the peatland growth affected the construction and use of large stone graves and the extent to which the peatland spread changed the settlement area of the funnel cup culture.
See also
literature
- Anja Behrens, Moritz Mennenga, Steffen Wolters, Martina Karle: “Relicts in the Moor” - a new project to research the Middle Neolithic landscape development in the Ahlen-Falkenberger Moor, district of Cuxhaven. In: Settlement and coastal research in the southern North Sea area. Volume 42, 2019, pp. 9-22.
Web links
- Blog “Relicts in the Moor” to examine the large stone grave
- Wiebke Kramp: In the video: On the trail of the first farmers in Cuxland in Cuxhavener Nachrichten of July 17, 2019
- Photo of the excavation site in Cuxhavener Nachrichten from July 25, 2019
- Sonja Klanke: Researchers make the first find in a thousand-year-old burial chamber near Buten un Binnen on July 30, 2019
- Patrick Florenkowsky: Archaeologists make the first find in the burial chamber near Bremen Zwei on July 31, 2019 (audio, 03:39 minutes)
- Susanne Brahms, Rainer Krause: A treasure for archaeologists: burial mounds sunk in the moor near Buten un Binnen from September 26, 2019 (video, 03:43 minutes)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archaeologists make the first find in the burial chamber near Bremen Zwei on July 31, 2019
- ↑ The Megalithic Portal: Wanna Grab XIII, Sprockhoff 643
- ^ Archaeological Lectures: Relicts in the Moor at ahlenmoor.de
- ^ Excavation in the moor at the Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research on July 18, 2019
- ↑ Preserved in the moor - relics of prehistoric settlement landscapes in the Elbe-Weser triangle at the Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research
- ^ PRO Lower Saxony: Funded research projects in the 2017/2018 application round , pdf
- ↑ Flyer for the project "Relicts in the Moor" of the Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research (pdf)
- ↑ Wiebke Kramp: Stone Age research from Wanna now in the blog in Cuxhavener Nachrichten of February 24, 2019
- ↑ Anja Behrens: A pile of stones in the moor poses a riddle in Relicts in the moor from July 26, 2019
- ↑ Helene Hinrichsen: About funnel cups and the early Saxons in the daily newspaper from August 10, 2019
- ↑ Anja Behrens: The work continues at Relicts in the Moor from January 27, 2020
- ^ Wiebke Kramp: Greetings from the Neolithic in Niederelbe-Zeitung of November 9, 2019
- ↑ Daniel Nösler, Annette Kramer, Hauke Jöns , Klaus Gerken, Felix Bittmann: Current research on settlement and land use at the time of the funnel cup and single grave culture in Northwest Germany - a preliminary report on the DFG-SPP “Monumentality” in: Nachrichten aus Niedersachsens Urgeschichte 80, p 23-45 online