Kreisgraben near Schkölen

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The ring system near Schkölen , a district of Markranstädt in Saxony , is a Young Bronze Age circular moat system from the 10th – 9th centuries. Century BC Chr.

description

Four concentric rings form an oval complex about 100 m in diameter. The two outer rings consist of trenches. The two inner ones are narrow palisade trenches made of closely spaced posts. The center surrounded by the inner ring is only about 200 m². The site was discovered on the route of the JAGAL natural gas pipeline .

The outer ring moat is two meters wide and about one meter deep. It is very regular and could have been created in one go. The second trench is wider and varies more in depth, so that successive excavation of pits up to 1.65 m deep, which at the end appear as a ring, as has been observed on various occasions, appears possible. This pit complex was accompanied by rows of posts about three meters apart on both sides, which, however, could only be covered in fragments.

Finds

In addition to the dating ceramic and various animal bones (horse, cattle and small mammals), bronze arrowheads , a needle fragment, bronze wire and a bronze bracelet were found in the trench filling . While the shattered pottery and animal bones were found in the lower area of ​​the trench and pit, the bronzes and a single human skull were discovered in the upper area.

Involvement

Systems of this type (e.g. ceramics with stitching tape ) were previously from the 5th millennium BC. Known. Overall, the phase of the ring systems in Central Europe ended around 3500 BC. BC This plant is much younger. There is no continuity of the function over such a long period of time, so that an independent development took place here, in which older ideas were taken up again. The excavator Christoph Steinmann assumes a cultic function of the complex and refers to simultaneous developments in the British Isles . However, the profane use of the moat systems (e.g. as a cattle kraal) is also discussed.

literature

  • Christoph Steinmann: Always in a circle - a ring system as a ritual center. In: Brandenburg State Office for Monument Preservation: Archeology at JAGAL. 1999, pp. 32-34 ISBN 978-3-910010-48-2
  • Christoph Steinmann: The next cut - excavations at the JAGAL. In: Archäologie aktuell Free State of Saxony, Volume 6, 1998/1999 (2000), pp. 48–57
  • Christoph Steinmann: Natural Gas and the Bronze Age In: Archeology in Germany, Issue 2 1999, p. 52

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Ingmar Balfanz: The prehistoric and early historical settlement of the Riesa-Großenhain district (Reg.-Bez. Dresden). Dissertation of the Philosophical Faculty of the Martin Luther University Halle - Wittenberg, 2003, p. 201 ( Library Uni Halle: Dissertation-Online full text, PDF)

Coordinates: 51 ° 15 ′ 56.9 ″  N , 12 ° 11 ′ 37.2 ″  E