Belleben I circular moat

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Plan of the Belleben I district moat

The Belleben I district ditch is a district ditch of the early Neolithic Baalberg culture near Belleben , a district of Könnern in the Salzland district , Saxony-Anhalt .

location

The district moat is located east of the state road 151 halfway between Belleben and Gerbstedt and therefore also directly on the border of the Salzlandkreis and the Mansfeld-Südharz district . The Belleben II district moat is located about 500 m north-northwest, and the Lodderstedt district moat about 2 km west-southwest .

Research history

The facility was discovered during an aerial survey by the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology of Saxony-Anhalt . In 2005 the first test excavation was carried out by the Institute for Art History and Archeology of Europe at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg under the direction of André Spatzier . An excavation area of ​​25 × 12 m was dug in the south-west of the facility and the trench was examined over a length of 26 m. In 2009 the entire facility was geomagnetically examined. This was followed by an excavation carried out in three campaigns by the Institute for Art History and Archeologies of Europe at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg under the direction of Oliver Rück as part of a priority program of the German Research Foundation between 2009 and 2011 . In 2009 the entire eastern part of the facility was opened. In 2010 the investigations in this area continued and ended. In 2011, the south-western part of the ditch was explored, and after it was backfilled, the north-western part.

Findings

In addition to the actual circular ditch, 60 related findings were discovered. These include 17 post pits , seven post pits with a post stand track, 27 pits with a triangular profile and nine other pits, including three particularly large ones near the entrance to the circular moat system. There are also two rows of pits from the Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age .

The circular moat

The complex is not exactly circular, but has a slightly irregular oval shape with a northeast-southwest orientation. In addition, it was not dug exactly elliptically, but is made up of 14 relatively straight individual segments. Its maximum diameter in the northeast-southwest direction is 99.83 m, its minimum diameter in the northwest-southeast direction 86.81 m. The trench has a length of 292.80 m and encloses an area of ​​6050 m². It is laid out as a ditch, with a cross-section that varies greatly and ranges from funnel-shaped to trough-shaped. The trench is between 1.20 m and 3.36 m wide. Its depth is normally between 0.80 m and 1.60 m. In four places, however, it has troughs with a length of a few meters, which have a maximum depth of 1.70 m below the subgrade. In the western section of the trench, two thresholds were also found that are only 0.50 m below the subgrade. Exactly to the east the ditch is interrupted by a 5.80 m wide passage. A gate construction or similar could not be determined. The backfilling of the trench consists of humus soil. In the lower area there were loess falls caused by erosion. The stratigraphy of the backfill indicates a single-phase construction of the trench. In the transverse profile of the southern head of the trench, steps were found that probably made it possible to enter the trench.

The big pits

To the west of the entrance and to the side of an imaginary path to the center of the complex are three large pits, each of which has a rather noticeable gradation in size from large to medium to small. The largest of the three pits had steps between 10 and 15 cm high. It also had several artificial leveling layers that emerged as light-colored loess bands in the otherwise dark, humus-rich backfill. Around two-thirds of the total material found in the circular ditch comes from the three pits: 65% of the ceramics, 62% of the bones and 68% of the silices (see below). The finds prove that the pits were created at the same time as the circular moat. On the one hand, animal bones dated using the radiocarbon method fall from the ditch and from the pits in the same time window. In addition, shards from the circular trench and from the largest of the three pits could be assigned to the same vessel unit.

Findings with a triangular profile

A category of findings that is difficult to interpret is represented by a group of 27 pits, which are mostly elongated and narrow in the subgrade and triangular in profile. In the subgrade, they are between 0.50 m and 1.60 m long and between 0.45 m and 0.90 m wide. At least some of these pits seem to have originally been set in inclined posts. The distribution of these pits within the facility does not seem to be accidental. One of them is located exactly at the intersection of the two straight lines between the minima and the maxima of the oval circular trench. A second is exactly at the westernmost point on the outside of the circular ditch, a third at the southwest minimum and a fourth in the northwest of the circular ditch at 324 °. Possible astronomical references to these triangular pits have not yet been investigated in more detail.

The rows of pits

A straight line was already clearly visible in the aerial photo, which cuts the circular ditch in the south from east-northeast to west-southwest. During the first excavation in 2005 it was confirmed that it was a Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age series of pits ( pit alignment ), as is common in Saxony-Anhalt. Both in 2005 and during the larger-scale excavations in 2009–2011, very few unspecific ceramic shards were recovered from the pits. A geomagnetic prospecting immediately to the east of the excavation area revealed that a second row of pits branches off vertically in a north-northwest direction from this row of pits.

Finds

The find inventory of the Kreisgrabenanlage is comparatively manageable. The most important categories are ceramics with 2318 pieces (37.4 kg) and animal bones with 2192 pieces (17.7 kg). There are also 263 silices and around 70 to 90 kg of rock that does not come from the area around the facility. A very unusual find for the time of the circular moat is a small bronze tube .

The finds come from all areas of the complex; However, especially in the case of ceramics, animal bones and silices, there was a strong concentration in the east, especially in the three large pits and the two trench heads. If, on the other hand, the pits are disregarded, an opposing distribution of finds becomes apparent in the case of ceramics and bones. 68.5% of the ceramics are in the eastern and 31.5% in the western half of the trench, while the bones are 39.2% in the eastern and 60.8% in the western half of the trench.

Ceramics

The found ceramics are mainly well-documented forms of the Baalberg culture. Complete vessels were not found, the ceramics were badly shattered and the individual fragments of vessel units were partly widely scattered. Shards that fit directly to one another were sometimes found 72 m apart.

Animal bones

The state of preservation of the Neolithic animal bones found varies considerably. Most of the bones recovered from the circular trench were very brittle, whereas those from the pits were mostly better preserved. Almost the entire herd (98.85%) comes from domestic animals, especially cattle and sheep / goats , but also some pigs and dogs . Only 1.15% or eight bones and tooth fragments come from wild animals. These are the brown hare , the wild horse , the European beaver , the red deer and the roe deer . There are also some shells of the common river mussel .

A special find is an almost complete skeleton of a young dog found in the north of the circular trench, the only thing missing is the skull and which presumably included bone fragments that were found relocated 57 m away. The dog had a hook-shaped flint cut in the chest area , which was presumably used for evisceration , perhaps also to sever the skull. The dog's skeleton is probably a ritual laying down. Dog victims are also known from other circular ditch systems.

Some cattle bones also appear to be ritual deposits, such as a group of bones immediately above the dog or parts of a torso found elsewhere. Likewise, the distribution of the cattle skulls and horn cones does not seem to be random. Horn cones appeared in heaps in the trench heads and in the largest of the three large pits. But two horn cones were also found in the north-eastern and north-western part of the circular trench, which, conspicuously, were exactly on the same latitude and both at an angle of 32 ° to the findings in the center of the complex. The two cattle skulls found were also in special places. One was at the southwestern apex of the circular trench, the second on the northern of the two thresholds in the west of the trench.

The bronze tube

Exactly at the north-eastern apex of the circular ditch a small tube made of tin bronze was discovered, which is quite a specialty for a young Neolithic site. It has a length of 4.5 cm and a thickness of 0.55 cm. One end is compressed, the other broken off. A material analysis showed a composition of 86% copper and 12% tin with small amounts of iron , cobalt , nickel , zinc , arsenic , selenium , silver , antimony , tellurium , lead and bismuth .

Dating

Using the radiocarbon method, some boils could be dated to 3650–3360 cal. BC after the trial excavation. Further examinations of bone material from the excavations from 2009 onwards produced a result of 3630–3370 cal. BC. The complex can therefore be assigned to the late phase of the Baalberg culture. It seems to have been built and used at about the same time as the neighboring Belleben II moat . The row of pits that cut Belleben I can only generally be dated to the late Bronze or early Iron Age due to a lack of meaningful finds.

literature

  • François Bertemes , Oliver Rück : Monuments of the gathering: The Belleben I and II district ditches - cult sites, competition and mediation centers. In: Harald Meller (ed.): 3300 BC. Mysterious stone age dead and their world. Special exhibition from November 14, 2013 to May 18, 2014 in the State Museum for Prehistory in Halle. State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt / State Museum for Prehistory, Nünnerich-Asmus, Mainz 2013, ISBN 978-3-943904-33-8 , pp. 135-138 ( online ).
  • Oliver Rück: The Belleben I district ditch from the Baalberg era (Salzlandkreis, Saxony-Anhalt). The excavations from 2009 to 2011 - preliminary report and first results. In: Martin Hinz, Johannes Müller (eds.): Settlement, trench works, large stone grave. Studies on society, economy and the environment of the funnel cup groups in northern Central Europe (= early monumentality and social differentiation. Volume 2). Rudolf Habelt, Bonn 2012, ISBN 978-3-7749-3813-7 , pp. 389-409 ( online ).
  • Oliver Rück: Cult and competition - considerations on the function of a circular moat from the Baalberg era in the light of the nomadic way of life and economy of the Baalberg group. In: François Bertemes, Oliver Rück (Ed.): New research and aspects of Baalberg culture (= Old European research. New series. Volume 9). Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 2016, ISBN 978-3-95741-061-0 , pp. 169–190 ( online ).
  • Ralf Schwarz: Pilot studies - Twelve years of aerial archeology in Saxony-Anhalt. State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt, Halle (Saale) 2003, ISBN 3-910010-72-5 .
  • André Spatzier: Circular moats of the 4th – 1st centuries Millennium BC In Central Germany. Preliminary report on the 2005 excavations in Saxony-Anhalt. In: Archeology in Saxony-Anhalt. NF Volume 6, 2012, pp. 71-89 ( online ).
  • André Spatzier: After Bandkeramik and Lengyel - circular moats in Saxony-Anhalt and Central Europe from the early Neolithic to the early Iron Age. In: François Bertemes , Harald Meller (ed.): Neolithic circular moats in Europe. International workshop in Goseck (Saxony-Anhalt) 7. – 9. May 2004 (= conferences of the State Museum for Prehistory Halle. Volume 8) State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt - State Museum for Prehistory, Halle (Saale) 2012, ISBN 978-3-939414-33-9 , pp. 363–388 ( Online ).
  • Melanie Weber: The ceramics from the Baalberg period from the Belleben I ditch complex, Salzlandkreis. In: François Bertemes, Oliver Rück (Ed.): New research and aspects of Baalberg culture (= Old European research. New series. Volume 9). Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 2016, ISBN 978-3-95741-061-0 , pp. 157-168.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ralf Schwarz: Pilot studies - Twelve years of aerial archeology in Saxony-Anhalt. 2003, pp. 105-108.
  2. ^ André Walks: Circular moats of the 4th – 1st centuries Millennium BC In Central Germany. Preliminary report on the 2005 excavations in Saxony-Anhalt. P. 71.
  3. ↑ Oliver Rück: The Belleben I district ditch from the Baalberg era (Salzlandkreis, Saxony-Anhalt). The excavations from 2009 to 2011 - preliminary report and first results. 2012, p. 390.
  4. ↑ Oliver Rück: The Belleben I district ditch from the Baalberg era (Salzlandkreis, Saxony-Anhalt). The excavations from 2009 to 2011 - preliminary report and first results. 2012, p. 398, Tab. 1.
  5. ↑ a b Oliver Rück: The Belleben I district ditch from the Baalberg era (Salzlandkreis, Saxony-Anhalt). The excavations from 2009 to 2011 - preliminary report and first results. 2012, p. 398.
  6. ↑ Oliver Rück: The Belleben I district ditch from the Baalberg era (Salzlandkreis, Saxony-Anhalt). The excavations from 2009 to 2011 - preliminary report and first results. 2012, pp. 393-398.
  7. ↑ Oliver Rück: The Belleben I district ditch from the Baalberg era (Salzlandkreis, Saxony-Anhalt). The excavations from 2009 to 2011 - preliminary report and first results. 2012, pp. 394-396.
  8. ↑ Oliver Rück: The Belleben I district ditch from the Baalberg era (Salzlandkreis, Saxony-Anhalt). The excavations from 2009 to 2011 - preliminary report and first results. 2012, pp. 398-399.
  9. ↑ Oliver Rück: The Belleben I district ditch from the Baalberg era (Salzlandkreis, Saxony-Anhalt). The excavations from 2009 to 2011 - preliminary report and first results. 2012, p. 393.
  10. ↑ Oliver Rück: The Belleben I district ditch from the Baalberg era (Salzlandkreis, Saxony-Anhalt). The excavations from 2009 to 2011 - preliminary report and first results. 2012, pp. 407-408.
  11. ↑ Oliver Rück: The Belleben I district ditch from the Baalberg era (Salzlandkreis, Saxony-Anhalt). The excavations from 2009 to 2011 - preliminary report and first results. 2012, p. 401.
  12. ↑ Oliver Rück: The Belleben I district ditch from the Baalberg era (Salzlandkreis, Saxony-Anhalt). The excavations from 2009 to 2011 - preliminary report and first results. 2012, pp. 401-404.
  13. ↑ a b c Oliver Rück: The Belleben I district ditch from the Baalberg era (Salzlandkreis, Saxony-Anhalt). The excavations from 2009 to 2011 - preliminary report and first results. 2012, p. 404.
  14. ↑ Oliver Rück: The Belleben I district ditch from the Baalberg era (Salzlandkreis, Saxony-Anhalt). The excavations from 2009 to 2011 - preliminary report and first results. 2012, pp. 398-399.
  15. ^ André Walks: Circular moats of the 4th – 1st centuries Millennium BC In Central Germany. Preliminary report on the 2005 excavations in Saxony-Anhalt. P. 74.
  16. ↑ Oliver Rück: The Belleben I district ditch from the Baalberg era (Salzlandkreis, Saxony-Anhalt). The excavations from 2009 to 2011 - preliminary report and first results. 2012, p. 407.

Coordinates: 51 ° 39 ′ 22.7 "  N , 11 ° 37 ′ 39"  E