Neolithic settlement near Arnoldsweiler

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The well-preserved teeth of the "Lilith"
"Lilith", the skeleton of a young woman from the Neolithic Age, today in the Landesmuseum Bonn

The settlement from the Neolithic near Düren-Arnoldsweiler is an important find for the archeology of the ceramic culture and prehistory far beyond the Rhineland . It dates from the late 6th millennium BC. BC and belongs to the earliest phase of peasant cultures in the region. It is located near Arnoldsweiler , on the left bank of the Rhine on the route of the Autobahn 4 between Cologne and Aachen.

excavation

The excavations were carried out from 2009 to 2010. The archaeologists involved include Erwin Cziesla, Horst Husmann, Thomas Ibeling and Oliver Ungerath. More than 40 house floor plans of the band ceramic culture of the Neolithic Age could be exposed. “There were probably hardly more than 15 houses at the same time in Arnoldsweiler,” the period in which the settlement existed could span two to three centuries. House 1 was seen as a kind of "foundation building", to which a smaller house (house 2) probably belonged. House 1 was 32.5 m long and 9.3 m wide. It was assigned to the Mohelnice type , with design features of the oldest as well as the developed band ceramics. This is also indicated by ceramic finds of the "older Flomborn " level. It is possible that after the settlement had grown, one entered the cemetery through this large building, which was 75 m to the west and has dimensions of 130 by 90 m.

Burial ground

222 body graves were uncovered, plus three safe and four possible cremation graves. The latter were higher and so it can be assumed that further cremation graves fell victim to the plow over time. In Morschenich , only four kilometers away , a large number of graves, namely 280 (even if no human remains were found here), so that a total of over 500 dead is assumed. This makes Arnoldsweiler the third largest known burial place in Germany. It is 7200 years old. After the two Neanderthal burials from the Feldhofer Grotto in the Neandertal and the two burials from the double grave near Bonn-Oberkassel, the large burial site also contained the oldest body graves in the Rhineland.

In September 2010, the completely preserved skeleton of a woman around 20 to 35 years old was uncovered and named Lilith . It was recovered in a 1.9 ton block and brought to the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn . The woman had been placed on her side with her legs slightly bent and her hands in front of her face. Your skeleton consists only of small amounts of bone substance; predominantly made of a calcium phosphate layer that is only a few millimeters thick and filled with clay and water .

An adult woman was discovered in grave 4925 with a newborn baby buried by her side . In burials 5840 and 3359, a head was attached to one of the burials, a heavy block of wood lay on his back. A hematite piece was found in grave 3669 , whereby the find situation shows that the grave was colored with this powder by rubbing it with another mineral piece. Other graves were burnt wood, probably also an expression of burial rituals. This means that the rituals and gifts differ greatly from other finds of the band ceramics, which gives an indication of how individual the customs were. The "typical" ceramic belt jewelry with spondylus shells , which came from the Black Sea area, apparently did not reach the Rhineland.

Findings of the Michelsberg culture and two graves from the end of the Neolithic , the so-called ' Rhenish Beaker Cultures ', come from later periods of the Neolithic . In addition, settlement remains from the Bronze Age and the Iron Age were discovered at the same location . Relics of a Roman villa rustica with several associated graves complete the overall archaeological picture.

Fountain

During the excavation, the lower section of a timbered well box was also uncovered. It was built from beams of oak, alder and ash. The state of preservation of the wood made it possible to date the fountain dendrochronologically to around 5100 BC. With the wells of Erkelenz- Kückhoven and Merzenich- Morschenich it belongs to the oldest known wells of the Rhineland.

literature

  • Erwin Cziesla, Thomas Ibeling (Hrsg.): Autobahn 4. Top- class site. Archeology under the new federal motorway near Arnoldsweiler . Langenweissbach 2014. ISBN 978-3-95741-012-2

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stone Age buildings on the Rhine: Archaeologists discover a 7,200 year old settlement , in: Der Spiegel , September 2, 2010.
  2. ↑ Horst Husmann and Erwin Cziesla: Bandkeramische houses, wells and an earthwork . In: Erwin Cziesla, Thomas Ibeling (Hrsg.): Autobahn 4. Top- class site. Archeology under the new federal motorway near Arnoldsweiler , Langenweissbach 2014, pp. 71–118.
  3. ↑ Erwin Cziesla: Die Bandkeramik - some concluding remarks . In: Erwin Cziesla, Thomas Ibeling (Hrsg.): Autobahn 4. Top- class site. Archeology under the new federal motorway near Arnoldsweiler , Langenweissbach 2014, pp. 201–214, here: p. 206.
  4. ↑ Oliver Ungerath: The grave field for the band ceramic settlement . In: Erwin Cziesla, Thomas Ibeling (Hrsg.): Autobahn 4. Top- class site. Archeology under the new federal motorway near Arnoldsweiler , Langenweissbach 2014, pp. 125–150.
  5. ↑ Jörg Abels: Lillith starts her last journey , in: Aachener Zeitung , September 29, 2010.
  6. ↑ "Lilith" a band ceramist from the Düren-Arnoldsweiler site , in: GeschiMag. Online history magazine, November 3, 2013 (with ill.).
  7. ↑ Lilith comes under the hood ( Memento of the original from May 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Archeology Online, December 2, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.archaeologie-online.de
  8. ↑ Erwin Cziesla: Die Bandkeramik - some concluding remarks . In: Erwin Cziesla, Thomas Ibeling (Hrsg.): Autobahn 4. Top- class site. Archeology under the new federal motorway near Arnoldsweiler , Langenweißbach 2014, pp. 201–214, here: p. 211.
  9. ↑ Sabine Jürgens, Horst Husmann and Lothar Giels: Finds from the Young and End Neolithic . In: Erwin Cziesla, Thomas Ibeling (Hrsg.): Autobahn 4. Top- class site. Archeology under the new federal motorway near Arnoldsweiler , Langenweissbach 2014, pp. 215–223.
  10. ^ Sabine Jürgens: Metal Age Finds and Findings . In: Erwin Cziesla, Thomas Ibeling (Hrsg.): Autobahn 4. Top- class site. Archeology under the new federal motorway near Arnoldsweiler . Langenweissbach 2014, pp. 225-271.
  11. ↑ Thomas Ibeling and Antonia Glaub: The Roman Age Settlement Remains . In: Erwin Cziesla, Thomas Ibeling (Hrsg.): Autobahn 4. Top- class site. Archeology under the new federal motorway near Arnoldsweiler . Langenweissbach 2014, pp. 273–294.
  12. ↑ Thomas Frank: The dendrochronological examination of the wooden well box. In: Erwin Cziesla, Thomas Ibeling (Hrsg.): Autobahn 4. Top- class site. Archeology under the new federal motorway near Arnoldsweiler . Langenweissbach 2014. pp. 119–124

Coordinates: 50 ° 50 ′ 57.5 ″  N , 6 ° 30 ′ 8.5 ″  E