Glauberg

Glauberg
	Glauberg seen from the south-southeast
height	276.5 m above sea level NHN
location	Glauburg , Wetteraukreis , Hesse ( Germany )
Mountains	Ronneburg hill country
Coordinates	50 ° 18 '30 " N , 9 ° 0' 30" E Coordinates: 50 ° 18 '30 " N , 9 ° 0' 30" E
particularities	- Ring walls ; - Glauburg Castle; - Celtic world on Glauberg

The Glauberg is a 276.5 m above sea level. NHN high mountain in the Ronneburg hill country near Glauberg in Hesse .

On its ridge and in its immediate vicinity there are ring walls and important excavation sites with finds from prehistory to the high Middle Ages . On the southern flank - above a reconstructed burial mound - there is a museum and the research center Keltenwelt am Glauberg , at the highest point in the northeast of the ridge the ruins of Glauburg Castle .

geography

location

The Glauberg is located as the southern basalt foothills of the Vogelsberg , which borders the Wetterau, east of the Glauberg of the same name, a district of the community of Glauburg in the Wetterau district in southern Hesse . It has the shape of a table mountain with steeply sloping flanks on three sides. Only in a north-easterly direction does the terrain slope relatively gently. It lies between the confluence of the Nidder and Seemenbach rivers and belongs to the community of Glauburg. In the southwest, the Enzheimer's head is in front of him. In the southeast, a structured plateau extends from the foot of the mountain to the Seemenbach, 2 km away.

Due to its natural conditions, the Glauberg has always been suitable for settlement and fortification: its plateau towers above the surrounding area by 150 m and forms an almost flat plateau over 800 m long and 80 m to almost 200 m wide. On the plateau there is a small pond that is filled with incoming surface water. Until the blasting work after the Second World War, it always carried water even in dry midsummer.

Settlement and fortification

Ruins of a medieval building of Glauburg Castle

The Glauberg plateau has been in existence since the Neolithic Age in the middle of the 5th millennium BC. Settled.
A second settlement phase took place during the Late Bronze Age urn field culture in the 10th and 9th centuries BC. Chr.
The first fortification was probably built in the early Celtic period in the 6th to 5th centuries BC. Apparently the pond on the plateau was no longer sufficient for the water supply and protective walls, so-called annex walls , had to be built down the slope to the source horizon , so that a huge water reservoir 150 m long and 60 m wide was enclosed.
In Roman times (1st to 3rd century AD) the Glauberg remained uninhabited, probably because of its proximity (5 km) to the Limes and Altenstadt Castle .
In the 4th to 5th centuries the Glauberg was again of central importance as a hilltop settlement of an Alemannic petty king.
In the 7th to 9th centuries it carried a large Franconian castle.
In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Glauberg was incorporated into the Hohenstaufen castle system, whereby a tower-like castle building was built on the edge of the wall fortifications, the basement of which with a Romanesque archway is still preserved. The remains of the foundations of medieval houses on the northern edge of the plateau, which is populated over the entire area , also date from this time . The Glauburg patrician family from Frankfurt had their headquarters here.
The destruction of the castle and thus the end of the settlement of the Glauberg probably took place in 1256.

and display information about the image

Panorama at the Celtic cult place

Celtic finds on Glauberg

The Celtic prince from Glauberg
(approx. 500 BC)

Reconstructed burial mound with a reconstructed statue of the Celtic prince

Celtic prince from Glauberg on a stamp from 2005

Research history

Archaeologists from the University of Mainz and the Roman-Germanic Commission on the Glauberg have been researching the settlement of the Glauberg and its surrounding area in the Celtic period ( Hallstatt and early La Tène times ) for decades . From 2004 to 2010 these excavations were funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in the priority program “Early Centralization and Urbanization Processes” (DFG-SPP 1171).

During a reconnaissance flight in 1988 local researchers recognized the traces of a huge burial mound in a grain field on the southern slope of the Glauberg. A second burial mound was discovered later, which could be localized by geophysical measurements. Both hills were leveled and couldn't be seen from the ground. Between 1994 and 1997 the State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen, Wiesbaden, carried out excavations. The grave complex was then reconstructed and has been available for inspection ever since. The richly decorated graves of three Celtic warriors from the 5th century BC BC prove the elevated position of the deceased. The graves are counted among the Celtic princely graves and are among the most magnificent that are known from this period.

Stone figure of a Celtic prince

In addition to the actual grave complex, the discovery of a (presumably larger) life-size stone figure of a warrior was another sensation. The statue , completely preserved except for the feet, is provided with a hood-like headgear , which is interpreted as a ( mistletoe ) leaf crown and was found as a grave object in grave 1. Since mistletoe had an important cultic significance among the Celts, according to ancient authors , this may indicate the role of the buried as a priest. This figure of the "Celtic Prince of Glauberg" is the most important find of the Latène culture in Hesse to date. The original stele was recovered on June 24, 1996 and can be seen in the Museum on Glauberg, which opened in 2011. Original-size copies of the statue can be viewed in the Heimatmuseum in Glauburg and in the Wetteraumuseum in Friedberg. Fragments of three other statues, similar in detail to the first but with different proportions, were also found.

Post holes

At the foot of the large burial mound, post holes made of 16 wooden posts were found, the exact function of which is not known. According to a theory put forward by Bruno Deiss, a Frankfurt professor for astrophysics, it is a Celtic calendar structure that was used for the astronomical determination of public holidays. The thesis that the calendar structure is the basis of the supraregional importance of the Glauberg in early Celtic times is just as controversial as the thesis that an allegedly favorable location of the Glauberg was decisive for this. A possible reconstruction of the presumed calendar structure was inaugurated on September 1, 2007.

Since the wooden piles were erected at longer intervals, however, the opinion has recently arisen that these did not have the function of a calendar structure and also did not serve astronomical purposes, but were probably intended for various architectural purposes. According to the former Hessian state archaeologist Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann , these could have been granaries, bridges or a temple.

Archaeological finds

Choker

The most important finds from the graves themselves are a gold choker and a Celtic jug . The finds were exhibited in the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt until it was closed due to renovation work. In autumn 2007, the construction of a museum with a research center near the burial mound on Glauberg began. The construction costs borne by the state of Hesse amounted to around 9 million euros. The museum opened on May 5, 2011. All original finds including the stele of the Celtic warrior can be seen there.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )

^ Heinrich Richter: The Glauberg. Report on the excavations 1933–1934 (= special print from Volk und Scholle, 12/10). Darmstadt 1934; Holger Baitinger : 75 years of archaeological excavations on the Glauberg. The investigations by Heinrich Richter 1933–1939. Monument Preservation & Cultural History 3, 2008, pp. 10–15.

↑ Apparently not a calendar structure after all. Guesswork around Celtic posts on the Glauberg . Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . Retrieved January 28, 2011.

↑ Calendar structure on Glauberg is to be designed differently ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Circle scoreboard . Retrieved January 28, 2011.@1@ 2

↑ Mysterious stakes . Frankfurter Rundschau . Retrieved January 28, 2011.

↑ A home for the Wetterau Celts . FAZ.NET . Retrieved May 5, 2011.

literature

The riddle of the Celts from Glauberg. Belief - Myth - Reality . An exhibition by the State of Hesse in the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, May 24 to September 1, 2002. Theiss-Verlag Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8062-1592-8 .

Holger Baitinger: The Glauberg - a princely seat of the late Hallstatt / early La Tène period in Hesse. Glauberg Studies 1. Wiesbaden 2010 (= materials on prehistory and early history in Hessen 26).

Leif Hansen, Christopher FE Pare: Investigations in the area around the Glauberg. On the genesis and development of a prince's seat from the early La Tène period in the eastern Wetterau. Glauberg Studies 2. Wiesbaden 2016 (= materials on prehistory and early history in Hessen 28), ISBN 978-3-7749-4039-0 .

Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann , Otto-Herman Frey : An early Celtic princely grave mound on Glauberg in the Wetterau district. Research report 1994–1996 . Edited by the Archaeological Society in Hessen e. V. Wiesbaden 1998, ISBN 3-8982-2129-6 .

also published as: Der Keltenfürst vom Glauberg. An early Celtic princely grave mound on the slope of the Glauberg near Glauburg-Glauberg, Wetteraukreis . In: Archaeological monuments in Hessen. No. 128/129. State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen, Wiesbaden 1996 and Germania 75, 1997, pp. 459–522.

Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann: Glauberg. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 12, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1998, ISBN 3-11-016227-X , pp. 188-195.

Jörg Lindenthal: Cultural Discoveries. Archaeological monuments in Hessen. Jenior, Kassel 2004, pp. 85-90, ISBN 3-934377-73-4 .

Axel Posluschny: Celtic “princely seats ” - places of rule? In: Felix Arnold, Alexandra W. Busch, Rudolf Haensch, Ulrike Wulf-Rheidt (eds.): Places of rule - characteristics of ancient centers of power. People - cultures - traditions. Rahden / Westfalen 2012, pp. 19–31 (= Research Cluster 3: Political Spaces 3).