Hans Piesker

Hans Piesker

Piesker's former home in Hermannsburg, Südheide municipality

Hans Piesker (born January 1, 1894 in Szittkehmen in the Goldap district in East Prussia ; † May 12, 1977 in Hermannsburg ) was a German prehistorian and archaeologist .

Career

Large stone grave near Dohnsen / Siddernhausen

Model of the death house in Hermannsburg (in the local history museum Römstedthaus Bergen)

Hans Piesker, son of a civil servant, first attended elementary school in Zielenzig district of Oststernberg and the grammar school in Hameln . In 1913 he began to study, he chose to major in history . 1914 outbreak of the First World War, he completed his studies and served until 1918 voluntarily in a volunteer corps . After the war he resumed his studies. For financial reasons he left the university . Piesker moved to Hermannsburg in the Lüneburg Heath to take over the grandparents' farm here . He later resumed his studies. He attended the universities in Freiburg , Göttingen , Halle and Marburg .

Research work

On February 4, 1931 , Piesker received his doctorate with a dissertation on " Late Paleolithic finds of the southern Lüneburg Heath ". Piesker received employment as a scientific advisor in Dresden , Stralsund and Hanover . During that time he began his first excavations in East Prussia and Lower Saxony . In 1932 he excavated the Hermannsburg death house . The additions date the remains of the house to the middle of the Bronze Age . The occurrence of such houses of the dead is rare in northern Germany. When the Bergen military training area was established, he was given the task of securing and excavating prehistoric findings in this area. In the period from 1935 to 1941, and again later in 1944, he carried out a large number of surveys and excavations here. He found and examined a total of 277 barrows , 108 of them alone on the military training area. Most of the excavation finds from this found their way into the Lower Saxony State Museum in Hanover . Several archaeological monuments (remains of earlier fortifications) and a large stone grave , the stone chamber near Dohnsen , were discovered by him. With the convening of the military service during World War II, he broke off this work. In 1944 he was transferred to Bergen-Hohne as a soldier . Until the end of the war in 1945, he was the “district administrator for cultural and historical soil antiquities” for the sub-district Lüneburg-Süd. He also registered the archaeological monuments and excavations on behalf of the district of Celle .

Particularly noteworthy are his publications on the Paleolithic . Perhaps his most important discovery was that of a settlement of the funnel beaker culture (approx. 4200–2800 BC). About 800 meters east of Dohnsen on which Lührsberg , a 77 m above mean sea level high and about 500 m wide collection, was discovered in 1936 by Hans Piesker the settlement. From the originally 30,000 m² settlement, numerous post holes and settlement pits , but also several house floor plans, were uncovered.

After 1945 he first ran his farm in Hermannsburg again. Later he also worked as a volunteer conservationist for the district of Celle. He exhibited finds from the district in the Celle Castle . He campaigned for a prehistoric permanent exhibition or museum department to be set up in Celle or in the district of Celle. He didn't succeed. In the Bomann Museum in Celle there are some finds from Piesker's former collection, some of which were published in his dissertation. Archaeological finds from the settlement of the funnel beaker culture on the Lührsberg are also in the holdings of this museum.

Publications (selection)

• Pre-Neolithic cultures of the southern Lüneburg Heath. - Publications of the prehistoric collection of the Provincial Museum in Hanover, Volume 3, 1932. (The director of the Provincial Museum Hanover as editor considered it appropriate to change the title from “Late Paleolithic Cultures ...” to “Pre-Neolithic Cultures”.)
• The older Bronze Age house of the dead in Baven , Celle district. - The customer 1, 1933, pp. 1 to 4.
• The prehistoric house of the dead in Baven. - Celler Heimatkalender 1934, pp. 29 to 32.
• The house of the dead in the tumulus at Baven. - Prehistoric Journal, 25, 1934.
• Finds from the oldest Bronze Age in the Südheide. - News from Lower Saxony's prehistory , 11. 1937 120 ff.
• Investigations on the Hünenburg near Borg, Kr. Fallingbostel. - Message a. Lower. Urgesch. 11, 1937, 144-163.
• House and hut floor plans from the Stone and Old Bronze Ages in Lower Saxony. - research and Progress 13, 1937, 401 f.
• Mesolithic hut layout from Bockum, Ldkr. Lüneburg. - news sheet f. German prehistory 13, 1937, 47 ff.
• The Stone Age village near Dohnsen, Celle district. In: Kunde 5, 1937, 129-136.
• Original rune find from Lower Saxony. The ancient Bronze Age grave find from Quarrendorf. - Lower Saxony. Volume 43, September 1938.
• The village of the megalithic burial culture near Dohnsen. - German heritage 1938. 296–299.
• Bronze Age examinations at the Bergen military training area, Kr. Celle. - News sheet for German prehistory 15, 1939, 187ff
• Old paleolitic finds from the Südheide. In: J. ANDREE. Ice Age man in Germany and its cultures. 1939, 114-139
• Original Germanic women's jewelry from the Lüneburg Heath. - Germanenerbe 4, 1939, 242 ff
• Stone graves in the Südheide. A new find at Bleckmar. In: Der Sachsenspiegel (supplement to the Cellesche Zeitung) 1941, No. 1
• A find from the time of the reindeer hunters. Excavation report from a Paleolithic resting place near Dohnen. In: Der Sachsenspiegel (supplement to the Celleschen Zeitung) 1950, No. 5
• The multi-ribbed bracelets of the older Bronze Age. A contribution to the problems of the Bronze Age circle of shapes in Lüneburg with an excursus on the wheel needle question. - Lüneburg sheet 5, 1954
• Investigations on the older Lüneburg Bronze Age. - Publication of the Northwest German Association for Antiquity Research and the prehistoric collection of the Landesmuseum Hannover in 1958.
• In the footsteps of Alt-Hermannsburg. In: The Church of St. Peter and Paul in Hermannsburg No. 4
• The district of Celle in prehistory and early history. - In: Home chronicle of the city and the district of Celle. 1959
• In the footsteps of Old Hermannsburg. - The customer NF 12, 1961, 75-84.
• The heel axes of the East Hanoverian and Nordic type in Lüneburg. In: Studies from Old Europe I. 1964, 176 ff.
• A prehistoric cult device from the Südheide. - The customer NF 26/27, 1975/76, 87 f.

Web links

Commons : Hans Piesker  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files