Hearth pits in Bloherfelder Anger
The hearth pits discovered from 2008 in Bloherfelder Anger , an approximately 10 hectare new building area in Oldenburg in Lower Saxony , date from the Middle Stone Age ( Mesolithic ). They are among the oldest discovered in the Oldenburger Land and their size is unique for the Weser-Ems region.
Demarcation
The Gargruben (also known as cult fire or fireplace sites), which were first recognized in 1906 , are a phenomenon of the younger Bronze and Iron Ages in Great Britain, Northern Germany and Scandinavia. In contrast to the Mesolithic sites, they are usually arranged in rows and provided with fired stones on the periphery.
description
In 2008, as part of a preliminary investigation in the northern part, the first 40 fireplaces were discovered in which flint artifacts were also found. In 2009 the excavations began under the direction of the archaeologist Bettina Petrik. Well over 400 hearth pits have now been discovered that contain charcoal and were probably used by hunters and gatherers to roast food. This is the largest collection of hearth pits in Germany to date. The finds, to which 2100 tools and chips made of flint are added, are over 9,000 years old. The large number suggests that the Bloherfelder Anger was visited over a longer period of time.
Findings of changes in the soil due to human activity are the great exception at this early stage. In Bloherfelde, the fireplaces were apparently protected by the ash pad. Their location near the hairline on a small, dry sand ridge is typical of the genus. In the Weser-Ems region, 17 other sites with Mesolithic fireplaces are known. However, these are much smaller with one to ten fireplaces. There is a comparable find spot in the province of Groningen Netherlands with a good 500 fire places.