Royal tomb of Seddin
The so-called royal tomb of Seddin is a 63.8 m in diameter and 10 m high burial mound from the younger Bronze Age around 800 BC. Chr. (Stage HA C / period V). It is located southwest of Seddin , a district of the municipality of Groß Pankow (Prignitz) in the Prignitz district in Brandenburg , and there on the edge of the Stepenitz valley, which drains towards the Elbe . The size of the burial mound and the inventory of finds are of national importance. An excavation protection area of 5661 hectares was set up around the burial mound in 2016, the first in Brandenburg.
Research history
The intact burial chamber was broken into in 1899 by two workers to extract stone. On September 20, 1899, Ernst Friedel , director of the Märkisches Museum in Berlin , accompanied by Berlin caretakers of the museum, district caretaker Friedrich-Wilhelm Heinemann from Perleberg and W. Pütz, technician from the Prussian Geological Institute in Berlin, and other people explored the tumulus . After the long-time carer Hermann Maurer had entered the burial chamber, those involved secured the finds and carried out an initial investigation. The finds reached the Märkisches Museum Berlin in 1899. Parts of the metal finds were lost in World War II . The preserved originals, supplemented by copies, have been on view again in the permanent exhibition since 2002. Replicas of the complex can be seen in the Perleberg City and Regional Museum , the Prignitz Museum in Havelberg and the Brandenburg State Archaeological Museum in the Paulikloster .
Fund inventory
The decentralized burial chamber consists of nine large boulders , originally with clay plaster and red painting on the walls and a false vault as the top. It was a total of three cremations. The main burial was in a pot with a lid, which was attached to the vessel with clay pens, in it was an amphora made of sheet bronze , in which was the corpse burn, which was probably wrapped in a marten skin. The grave goods included a sword, a spout hatchet and chisel, spiral rings , razor with stylized representations, sheet metal crockery, bar button, lancet tip, comb, knife with ring handle, curly rings made of spiral wire and two iron needles.
The grave mound , which stands out due to its size, belongs to the so-called Seddiner group of other large mounds in the area, which, however, fell victim to road construction in the 19th century. They dated to the period III – VI and are characterized by the addition of swords, metal vessels, parts of chariots and bridles. The closest parallels to such richly furnished burial mounds can be found on Fyn and in Dithmarschen . Parts of the grave equipment indicate connections to the south, especially to central Italy. The rich grave equipment shows a socially high personality. Recently, a calendar symbolism of the decoration of the bronze amphora has been discussed, which would assign a sacred function, in the sense of sacred royalty, to the main person buried.
During follow-up examinations at the grave mound in 2003, a 15–20 cm thick layer of sand with charcoal tinsel was found under the grave mound. The sand layer appears to be the in-situ soil from which the topsoil had been removed. The pieces of charcoal from poplar, willow and oak are believed to have come from a consecration ceremony or a pyre . A first C-14 date of the charcoal indicated an age of 829 BC. Chr.
In further investigations in 2003 a series of fire pits running several hundred meters east-west could be detected about 50 m north of the burial mound. These belong to a presumably older cult fire place, as they have become known from other places in northern Germany and southern Scandinavia. First C-14 dates of the fire pits showed an age of 904 and 1001 BC. Chr., The great time difference between the two values is irritating.
literature
- Torsten Foelsch: The royal grave near Seddin in Westprignitz , catalog for the exhibition in the church in Seddin on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the burial chamber of the Bronze Age tumulus in 1899, Perleberg 2002
- Jürgen Kunow (Ed.): The "royal grave" of Seddin in the Prignitz . In: Work reports on the preservation of soil monuments in Brandenburg 9 , Wünstorf 2003
- Jens May and Thomas Hauptmann: “King Hinz” is getting on in years. News from the royal grave Seddin, district Prignitz , in Archeology in Berlin and Brandenburg 2003 , Stuttgart 2004, pp. 54–56.
- Jens May and Thomas Hauptmann: The "royal grave" of Seddin and its immediate surroundings as reflected in recent field research . Soil antiquities of Westphalia Volume 51, Mainz 2012, pp. 105-135
- Jens May and Thomas Hauptmann: Why is the "royal grave" of Seddin located on the middle reaches of the Stepenitz? . Waterways and archeological material culture of the younger Bronze Age in the Prignitz. Settlement and coastal research in the southern North Sea area 34, 2011, p. 129 ff.
See also
Web links
- Jens May: "King's Grave" by Seddin . In: Historical Lexicon of Brandenburg . May 6, 2019.
- Illustrated representation of the grave
- The royal grave Seddin on Grosssteingraeber.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archeology in Germany 04/2016, p. 7.
Coordinates: 53 ° 8 ′ 6.8 ″ N , 11 ° 58 ′ 29 ″ E