Hanging vessel
Under a hanging vessel (also hanging basin - ( Danish Hængekar )) one understands in archeology a bowl-shaped vessel made of metal. Hanging vessels are among the most interesting utensils and finds from the end of the Nordic Bronze Age . The term came about because it was initially assumed that these containers were hung. What the bronze cymbals were originally used for is unknown.
Demarcation
The term is also used for kettle-like vessels such as those used for. B. in the grave 1762 in Krefeld - Gellep , a Celtic , i.e. Iron Age burial ground or in vessels of the Walternienburg culture and the Mondsee culture .
description
The pelvic floor is decorated on the outside of almost all specimens. The patterns were scratched and hallmarked . In the middle part of the hump they are often hardly recognizable due to wear and tear. At the edges there are two flat eyelets , more rarely holes or wall slots, which may have been used to attach a lid. In fact, bronze or leather lids were also found. Sometimes the eyelets do not show signs of wear on the inside, but on the outside, and some are even too small for such an attachment. Smaller versions with similar decorations are known from some older Danish tree coffins . They were perhaps part of clothing as a belt box. A bronze basin from Neu-Grebs in Mecklenburg , however, contained remains of a fatty substance mixed with flowers. Perhaps the large specimens continue the tradition of belt boxes as make-up containers. In Winzlar , a district of Rehburg-Loccum ( Lower Saxony ), a hanging basin that also contained a gold pin served as a container for the ashes of a 40 to 50 year old man. The basin has a diameter of 31.6 cm and a height of 18.7 cm, making it the largest specimen found so far. Inside it is equipped with a sieve-like openwork collar. Remains of a glass-like mass remained in the holes in the basin. The cast hanging basin was heated again to melt the glassy substance.
More than half of the traditional vessels show an ornament such as the vessel from Waylife. It is provided with a meander-like punch decoration. The outer circular teeth are designed as a wide, endlessly interlocking, S-shaped wavy band. In the Wegeleben copy, the motif of the inner circle picks up on this rhythm. Individual, serpentine ornaments end in opposing hooks. These are sometimes surrounded by incised decorations in such a way that the impression of a horse's head riding on waves is created. Possibly it is an abstraction of ships, the stems of which end in animal heads. Such depictions of ships, also known from other artifacts and rock carvings, play a major role in the Nordic world of images of the Bronze Age. The wear and tear on the surface suggest that the vessels were in regular use. Damaged areas were repaired in prehistoric times.
distribution
Most of these 360 known vessels were found as depot containers, some as individual finds in the earth. Since the middle parts of the arched floor are sometimes missing (damage from plowing the site), it is likely that these vessels were not understood as containers, but were deposited with the opening facing down. Most of the finds come from Denmark (e.g. Budsene , Vaseholm) and southern Sweden . Their distribution ranges from Norway to France and Switzerland . The most valuable finds from period V after Oscar Montelius (around 800 BC) include three cast hanging basins, which were found in Gittrup ( Münster / Westphalia), Rheda ( Gütersloh district ) and in the vicinity of Bad Driburg ( Höxter district ) were found. The finds from Rheda, Gittrup and Gleesen all came to light in the vicinity of the Ems . It can be assumed that a workshop province of its own has formed on the Ems; it can be described as the "Emswerkstatt". Under the influence of Schleswig-Holstein , a separate group of bronze basins has been formed in Lower Saxony along the Elbe, which can be technically differentiated from real "Nordic" pieces. Their southernmost finds are in the Elbe-Weser triangle and near Uelzen .
Finds
In Saxony-Anhalt , where 16 such bronzes or remains of them were previously known, two new finds were made in the Altmark in 2005 ; one in the district of Stendal . The exceptionally well-preserved second piece came to light during an excavation, the exact location of which is kept secret. The last basin in Saxony-Anhalt was found in Wegeleben in the district of Halberstadt in 1820 . A hanging basin was recovered in an area near Stendal, which was put over a bronze arm spiral . Another was nearby, level with the mouth of the vessel. The wall of the vessel was torn and improperly repaired; it was originally made from one piece. First, the vessel was probably cast as a flat disk and then driven cold . The ability to drive thin walls in bronze, as well as the decoration, which was done with hallmarks, testifies to great craftsmanship. The decorations consist of a pattern of dot-lined lines, which is based on the hump shape. The inner frieze is decorated with uniformly coiled spirals. The outer frieze shows a wide, interlocking S-band. Two decorative plates from Günserode in Thuringia , which were made from the remains of a vessel, bear identical patterns . In the vicinity of the finds lay animal bones and pottery that could have come from the same period. The pit that had been dug for the after-school care center was only partially visible in the planum.
See also
literature
- Kurt Tackenberg : Westphalia in the prehistory of Northwest Germany: Find maps from the Paleolithic to the time around the birth of Christ (Münster 1996).
Individual evidence
- ↑ The vessel from Wegeleben, which has been repaired several times, is provided with a meander-like punch decoration. The outer circular zone is designed as an endless wavy band pattern in the form of a wide, interlocking, S-shaped band. This is an extremely typical ornament for these basins, which show more than half of all traditional vessels.