Barrows in the Illertal near Tannheim
The barrows in Illertal near Tannheim are a group of over 40 barrows from the younger Hallstatt period (650–475 BC) located at four sites near Tannheim in the Biberach district in Upper Swabia .
Burial ground
The grave field is located about 500 meters south of the Tannheim train station , east of Landstrasse 260 and west of the Iller, which also forms the border between Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Between 1904 and 1909 excavations were carried out on twenty-three barrows in the Härdtle forest area . The excavations were initiated by the Count's House of Schaesberg , on the bottom of which the barrows still lie today. Max Geyr von Schweppenburg and Peter Goessler carried out the excavation and evaluation . Parts of the finds are in the town hall of Tannheim, the majority of the collection is exhibited in the Landesmuseum Württemberg in Stuttgart .
The orientation and location of the Iron Age hill each other is vague and does not follow a cosmic or whatsoever religious , cultic scheme. An astronomical use could not be proven. Individual groups of graves belong together because of their spatial proximity. There is no relationship between the size of the grave and the number of grave goods. Five barrows are chariot graves . The wagons found cannot be assigned to chariots or any other military use. They were pure utensils, just now used as a cart grave. In the well-preserved car from Hill VIII , it is doubtful whether it had an iron axle or whether other fittings were used. The damp ground near the oxbow lakes and the old main bed of the Iller did the rest for the decomposition process on the iron parts. The objects are above all everyday objects that were given to the dead on their journey to the afterlife. The bronze vessels found and the bronze bridle show considerable signs of wear. In hill IX there is an iron found ploughshare . Two heads were missing. A seat burial was carried out in Hill XII . This can already be seen from the outside, since the grave is higher. The found skeletons were not consistently positioned in the necropolis , for example in a north-south direction .
The find area is in the area of the Westhallstatt culture. It can be assumed that the burial ground belongs to the Celtic culture without writing . At the time of the Roman Empire , the area between the Alps and the Danube was part of the Roman province of Raetia . Some of the subjugated peoples there were named by the Romans as Vindelici , others as Raeter . The Vindeliker were a Celtic people who were subjugated by the Romans. Their traces are lost later during the migration period during the Alemannic settlement.
funeral
The burial of the dead took place unburned and in full clothing. No skeletons of children were found. There is no evidence of a place of worship where human or animal sacrifices were made. Multiple burials were carried out in hills X and XX . In the remaining twenty-three hills examined, sole occupations with the dead took place. In preparation, the floor of the grave was covered with clay and stamped hard (proven in eight graves) or burned (proven in five graves). The dead person was not buried underground, but buried at the level of the level surrounding the hill. After positioning, the dead were covered by loose embankments up to a maximum of forty centimeters. The corpse was oriented five times in a southeast-northwest direction, once from west to east, once from southwest to northeast. In Hill XII the dead sat looking from north-northeast to south-southwest. No clear direction of the sky could be determined for the other graves. The body lay throughout the hill on the west side, the grave goods were in the east side of the grave. In eight cases the dead person lay on a board . In Hill II , XIII and XI a broken stone vault was found for the deceased. In Hill V the dead lay in a wooden coffin .
The embankment was then covered with a layer of clay, under which the deceased lay with his objects of daily use and cult objects. A fire was lit on this layer that burned the clay. This burnt clay layer is missing in six graves. In hill VII , VIII and XIV stones formed the embankment, in hill XXIII a layer of charcoal. These layers were missing on two hills. A layer of gravel was piled on the clay in eight graves.
Cult and other things
Some of the grave goods found were smashed for cultic reasons before the burial. There are almost always three stones under the urns, whose cultic and religious significance is beyond our knowledge today. Remains of cereal grains were found in most of the urns . The ceramic urns were entrusted to the earth without protection. Bronze vessels stood wrapped in a mesh and covered with a board. The grave mounds are characterized by a rarity of weapons. It is the period of the iron long sword and polychrome ceramics. Needles and filbles as jewelry are almost completely missing. The horse jewelry and other utility ceramics are numerous. A jug with a bull's head stands out. It is proven in a similar form in the burial mounds in Salem and in Hallstatt itself.
Over the past hundred years, more and more discoveries from older or more recent times have been made. In 1913, Roman coins were found near the Viereckschanze. From 1917 to 1927, during the construction of the Illerkanal and the Tannheim reservoir , finds from the Stone and Bronze Ages were found . One of quartzite rock crafted stylus , various hatchets and needles of were Middle Stone Age are assigned. In the years 1885, 1910 and 1937, while construction in the center of Tannheim in the Hindenburg and the parallel Alemannenstraße and in the last 1997 designated development area Lech Memminger Straße younger the Alemanni associated row graves discovered. While the finds made in the Am Egelseer Weg construction area (a knife, a short sword, a shield hump , etc.) could be dated to around AD 600, a grave uncovered in Hindenburgstrasse came from a woman with various gifts ( pearls , bronze rings , bow fibula , Armspange, leg comb , iron key and hooks, crystal, etc.) from the time 680 up to 700 n. Chr.
Of the three graves discovered in 1937 in the area of Alemannenstrasse, the male buried subject was given numerous weapons and a fully fenced horse into the grave.
Find table
| Objects | I. | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | Hill X | XI | XII | XIII | XIV | XV | XVI | XVII | XVIII | XIX | XX | XXI | XXII | XXIII | total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bronze vessels | 5 | 2 | 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Clay pots | 4th | 8th | 2 | 5 | 2 | 4th | 14th | 2 | 7th | 6th | 1 | 2 | 12 | 17th | 86 | |||||||||
| Swords | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Ortband | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Daggers | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| knife | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Lances | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| belt | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6th | ||||||||||||||||||
| Belt buckles | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Belt rings | 1 | 2 | 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Neck rings | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Earrings | 4th | 4th | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hair rings | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bronze bracelet | 4th | 2 | 9 | 4th | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 30th | |||||||||||||||
| Iron arm rings | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lignite rings | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6th | |||||||||||||||||||
| Bronze finger rings | 2 | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Iron finger rings | 2 | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Foot rings | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Needles | 1 | 2 | 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Amber beads | 5 | 5 | 27 | 5 | 42 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Iron snaffles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bronze snaffles | 2 | 2 | 4th | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Crockery buttons | 7th | 31 | 5 | 6th | 1 | 50 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Harness rings | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bronze ornamental rods | 4th | 4th | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| dare | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Ploughshare | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| total | 6th |
literature
- Karl Heinz Henning: Excavations in the group of burial mounds between Volkratshofen and Brunnen near Memmingen: In: Memminger Geschichtsblätter Jahresheft 1973
- Hilde Freifrau von Lupine: Marginal notes on the Hallstatt tombs of Volkratshofen and Brunnen. In: Memminger Geschichtsblätter annual issue 1973
- Wocher-Nestler: The Tannheim burial ground and its position in the Hallstatt culture of southwest Germany. unprinted dissertation Tübingen 1966
- Max Geyr von Schweppenburg, Peter Goessler: Barrows in the Illertal near Tannheim. Neff, Esslingen a. N. (1910)
Web links
- State Museum Württemberg
- Theological faculty of the University of Leipzig: Celtic religion and religiosity
Coordinates: 47 ° 59 ′ 16 ″ N , 10 ° 5 ′ 36 ″ E