Wooden object from Scharfling
The wooden object from Scharfling in St. Lorenz am Mondsee in Upper Austria was salvaged in 1972 by Johann Offenberger from the Scharfling settlement on the edge of the river . According to the C14 dating of piles, the settlement dates from the final phase of ribbon ceramics in the Neolithic .
(Data from Offenberger 1981): VRI 311: BP 4980 ± 120 VRI 313: BP 4660 ± 90 The find object is to be classified long before the Mondsee culture , to which the Scharflinger pile dwelling settlement still belongs.
description
The object consists of a fork wood (roughly the shape of a tuning fork) with one spar broken off. It is made from a fork of a branch with two equally thick, dichotomously branching branches (a so-called Zwieselholz). Its overall length is now 87.5 cm. The bottom 15 cm of the side branch was worked off on the inside, so that an elliptical cross-section with half the diameter of the wood entered. The area between the forks facing the main branch was cut flat to a width of 10 cm. The machined surfaces of the fork branch and the intermediate surface were carefully smoothed. The length of the thick branch is limited by an inclined cut surface, the end surface of the thin branch consists of several planes at right angles to the axis, the edges of which are rounded. It cannot be decided whether it is a deliberately manufactured ending. There is a Y-shaped notch track about 15 cm from the end of the fork branch. The two deep, curved and converging notches could be cut marks. However, they are close to a fracture surface and mechanically weaken the side branch. A function cannot be recognized. Whether the notches belonged to the originally functional object or were created later cannot be decided.
interpretation
Thin sections show that the object is made of beech wood. If it is supplemented symmetrically, which is suggested by the same distances between the pith tubes of the two side branches and thus their same diameter, a device is created that has a recess of 10 × 15 / 22.5 cm between the forks. The processed fork branches could result in a resilient point so that an object could be clamped between the branches by bending. On the other hand, the smoothing of these zones suggests a handle. It is unlikely that it was used as a ram or ram due to the end face of the thick branch and the lack of corresponding traces of work.
Although the beech is a very tough wood, it breaks easily and is therefore not well suited for the interpretations mentioned in the present construction. This may have led to it becoming defective in the Neolithic period. The fact that the fracture surface is old is evident from its shape and depth, since fresh, degraded wood no longer breaks off with a flat surface. The interpretation as a loop contradicts the size and shape of the object as well as the lack of signs of use. It is most likely to suggest a tool (possibly a failed prototype) or a fastening element.
The object is exhibited in the Austrian pile dwelling museum in Mondsee . It was soaked in polyethylene glycol , a water-soluble wax, and hardened. The thick branch had broken into several parts when it was recovered and was reassembled with visible joints.
A similar object, described by H. Schlichtherle as the Reute bomb and interpreted as a rod loop, was recovered in 1982 in the Reute-Schorrenried moor near Reute .
See also
- Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps , UNESCO World Heritage Site (here Neolithic and Bronze Age)
literature
- Otto Ochocki: A wooden object by Scharfling at Mondsee (Upper Austria). In: J. Köninger, M. Mainberger, H. Schlichtherle , M. Vosteen: Loop, wheel and car. On the question of early means of transport north of the Alps. Hemmendorfer Skripte , pp. 81-82, Freiburg 2002 ISSN 1437-8620
- J. Offenberger: The "pile dwellings" of the Salzkammergut lakes . In: The Mondseeland exhibition catalog. Upper Austria. Landesregierung, pp. 295–357, Linz 1981