Cherry tree cave
| Cherry tree cave
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|---|---|
| Location: | Forchheim district , Bavaria , Germany |
| Type: | Shaft cave |
| Discovery: | November 2010 |
| Lighting: | no |
| Overall length: | 17 m |
The cherry cave is in the Bavarian district of Forchheim on the Franconian Alb preferred vertical cave . It is of particular archaeological importance as it contains found layers with skeletal remains dating back to at least the end of the Neolithic , which were not displaced by human intervention. By means of anthropological and archaeozoological investigations, the attempt is made to gain new insights into which motifs and rites are related to the prehistoric deposits of human and animal bodies in shaft caves.
Discovery and geographic location
The cherry tree cave was discovered in November 2010 by the speleologists Steffen Hoffmann and Berthold Hofmann during a site inspection . They had examined a depression in a dead cherry tree for holes and crevices and came across the cave entrance, which was closed with boulders and sediment. The cherry tree cave is located on a hillside with mixed forest on the northern Franconian Alb, approx. 15 km northeast of Forchheim. Their exact location is known only to a small group of people, it is kept secret to protect against robbery graves . During the first visit, the discoverers found exposed human skulls and long bones in the back of the cave , left them in situ and informed the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation about the find. After a prospecting by employees of the state office, the cave access was secured with a lockable hatch.
topography
The entrance shaft with a diameter of almost 1 meter initially leads 2 meters vertically downwards and bends there as a silt in a northeastern direction. This is followed by a sloping tube that leads to a depth of around 6 meters, from which a shaft about 2 meters long, the so-called cathedral , branches vertically upwards. At the end point of the descending tube, the cave passage divides the one located in the north-west, accessible through a very narrow passage bone chamber , the other in the east-oriented sintering chamber . This 2.5 x 3.5 meter cavity with a maximum ceiling height of 1.5 meters contains numerous sinter basins and flags . The bone chamber, which is laid out in fissures, has a base area of 3 x 3.5 meters and a height of up to 2 meters. On the floor in the chambers there is dolomite rubble and sediment .
Research history
Due to the limited space available in the cherry tree cave, the usual method of measuring finds using a total station is not possible. In a research project in 2013, a method was developed with which the spatial structure of the cave as well as the location of boulders , rocks and found objects can be three-dimensionally recorded, documented and processed for analysis. Using a terrestrial laser scanner and special software, the surfaces of the cave were first recorded and then all visible, superficial, unsintered skeletal parts were measured and recovered. This inventory includes 188 bones with a total weight of 10 kg. 49 bones - including 6 skulls - come from 9 human individuals . Most of the animal bones could be assigned to domestic animals such as sheep , goats , cattle , pigs and a peat dog , while a small part comes from wild animals or rodents or cannot be determined .
The human skeletal remains come from three epochs. Two skulls were dated to the end of the Neolithic (approx. 2820–2660 BC), and the bones of a dog also date from this period. A woman's skull belongs to the Early Bronze Age (approx. 1900–1750 BC). Three other human skulls, that of a man and two adolescents, were dated to the Iron Age (approx. 760–410 BC).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Timo Seregély: Pilot project Kirschbaumhöhle: new collection methodology in a shaft cave of the Northern Franconian Alb In: The archaeological year in Bavaria 2013 . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Darmstadt 2014, p. 42-45 .
- ↑ Timo Seregély, Phil Burgdorf, Gerhard Gresik, Magdalena S. Müller, Angelika Wilk: Dead people and animals in dark rock shafts ... "- new documentation methodology and first research results on the cherry tree cave in Upper Franconia. In: Praehistorische Zeitschrift Volume 90, Issue 1– 2, December 2015, pp. 214–244 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
- ↑ Timo Seregély: Human and animal bones from three epochs - new recording method of a shaft cave in the Northern Franconian Alb and its find inventory. October 27, 2016, accessed July 3, 2019 .