Central German Chamber of Liebenburg
The Central German Chamber of Liebenburg (also called the megalithic complex on the Hillah) is a severely disturbed grave complex on the Hillah, a prominent hill south of Klein Mahner , a district of Liebenburg , in the Goslar district in Lower Saxony .
It is located a few kilometers northeast of the Bredelem gallery grave . It is the only "chamber of the central German type" (gallery with antechamber - often sunk) in Lower Saxony, which, according to Hans-Jürgen Beier, is represented with 14 systems in central Germany (four of them in Bebertal in the Börde district in Saxony-Anhalt ). The facility was examined by Alfred Tode in 1963 .
description
The east-west oriented chamber had a length of about 6.5 m with an inner width of 1.4 m. The chamber was built on a pavement of fist-sized to head-sized rolling stones and limestone , which extended beyond the chamber (width about 3.0, length about 10 meters). Of the sandstone bearing stones , three were still in situ on each long side . The gable stones could not be detected at either end of the chamber. The clear height of the chamber between the pavement and the upper edge of the wall stones was between 0.6 and 0.7 m.
Six burials were found, as far as recognizable in a crouched position, as well as remains of four children's skeletons. In the west of the chamber there was a skeleton on the right with the head in the west with a hammer ax as an addition, and above it another burial with the head to the north and a view to the east. About two meters to the east was another skeleton with a head to the east, with a flint ax as an addition. A fourth burial above was so disturbed by a young Bronze Age urn burial that the exact location could not be clarified. Further to the east, the remains of two further adult skeletons were found, one of which was completely disturbed, the other with its head buried in the east, and the remains of four children's skeletons were also found here.
According to Alfred Tode, the three skeleton pairs are each male and female. In other grave goods, von Tode found several blades and knives, two chisels, a small asymmetrical hatchet, all made of flint, a small bone ring, a pierced rabbit tooth , a pig tooth , a cattle horn cone, and a large number of shards of vessels, including pieces from the Walternienburg-Bernburger Culture and the sphere amphora culture (KAK).
criticism
- Hans-Jürgen Beier counts two buried persons (skeleton 3 + 4) using a broad-edged flint rectangle ax and a flint chisel to the culture of spherical amphorae. He assigns the deeply engraved shards to the Walternienburg culture. Which of the other burials are to be included in the Walternienburger or the KAK cannot be decided on the basis of the published material.
- Friedrich Lüth, on the other hand, counts the deep-engraved shards of deep-engraved ceramics (not Walternienburg).
- According to R. Maier, skeleton 1 is a burial of the individual grave culture ( cord ceramics ) due to the hammer ax included .
- Based on the material presented by Tode, Wolfgang Pape concludes that fragments of the spherical amphora culture and burials of the individual grave culture were socialized, but later also sees a socialization of Walternienburger and KAK. He also explains that Bernburg shards also come from the grave.
- O. Thielemann also speaks of ceramic remains from the Bernburger and KAK.
- The revision of the Liebenburg finds as part of the overall survey of the Bernburg culture in Lower Saxony did not reveal any evidence of classical Bernburg material. It turned out, however, that so far only a small part of the decorated ceramic material has been presented and some of the depicted finds have been misaligned or misleadingly. Therefore, a complete re-presentation of the Liebenburg finds, carried out by U. Dirks, made sense.
Re-submission of the finds
Of the 866 ceramic fragments, around 76% show mineral grit depletion . The remainder have a sedimentation of rock gravel, both occur in the deep-engraving ceramic as well as in the finds of the KAK, so that a cultural classification based on the clay admixtures is impossible. Through decoration or formal criteria, 21 sherds can be assigned to the younger deep engraving ceramics (Walternienburg culture). The KAK is represented by five characteristic sherds and eight vascular units. In addition, most of the undecorated ceramic material is assigned to the KAK. The cultural affiliations of the skeletons were determined on the basis of the attributable lithic and ceramic finds.
Conclusion
U. Dirks notes that there are references to the burials of at least seven adults and four to five children in the megalithic complex on Hillah near Liebenburg. Before the chamber was occupied by members of the KAK, to which skeletons 3, 4 and 7 and probably also 5 and 6 must be counted, the chamber seems to have been cleared out. This is indicated by the small-format, deeply engraved shards and human bone fragments that can also be found outside the complex. Information on the number of individuals who could be assigned to the primary occupancy phase cannot be given. Skeletons 1 and 2, one on top of the other, belong to the third occupancy phase, presumably subsequent burials by members of the Central German Cord Ceramics, which also disrupted the occupancy horizon (paving) Allocation or subsequent allocation phase enabled.
See also
literature
- Hans-Jürgen Beier : The grave and burial customs of the Walternienburg and Bernburg culture. Scientific articles 1984/30 (L19) of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, ISSN 0440-1298 , pp. 156–157.
- U. Dirks: The Neolithic finds from the megalithic grave on the "Hillah" near Liebenburg, Ldkr. Goslar - a supplement. In: The customer. New episode, 48, 1997, p. 29 ff.
- Reinhard Meier: The early Neolithic stone boxes or gallery graves in southern Lower Saxony. In: H. Schirnig (Ed.): Großsteingräber in Niedersachsen 1979. ISBN 3-7848-1224-4 , pp. 59–82
- Alfred Tode : Grave of the Walternienburg-Bernburg culture near Liebenburg, district of Goslar. In: News from Lower Saxony's prehistory. Volume 32, 1963, pp. 116-117 ( online ).
Coordinates: 52 ° 2 ′ 15 ″ N , 10 ° 26 ′ 40.8 ″ E
