Egeln district ditch
The Egeln district moat is a Neolithic- Early Bronze Age circular moat near Egeln in the Salzland district , Saxony-Anhalt . It is located immediately west of the Bode .
Research history
The facility was discovered during an aerial survey by the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology of Saxony-Anhalt . In 2005 a test excavation was carried out by the Institute for Art History and Archeology of Europe at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg under the direction of André Spatzier . The excavation was carried out on two areas: one of 21 × 10 m in the southwest and one of 15 × 5.5 m in the southeast.
Findings
The facility consists of a simple trench with a diameter of about 65 m. It has at least two openings to the west-northwest and to the southeast, only the latter has been excavated so far. The northern half of the complex was apparently destroyed by agricultural activity and erosion shortly after the aerial photo prospecting. During a geomagnetic investigation prior to the excavation, no more findings could be found in this area. The question of a further opening, which can possibly be seen in the aerial photo, therefore remains unanswered. The trench was created as a bottom trench. It has a preserved depth between 0.7 m and 0.8 m and a width between 2.0 m and 2.5 m. It was filled with dark brown humus , which showed deposits of gravel and a gravel-humus mixture in the bottom 10–30 cm.
Numerous pits were found inside the circular trench and in its southwestern apron. Furthermore, two leveled burial mounds were already clearly visible in the aerial photo: one to the south and a slightly smaller east-southeast of the complex.
Finds
Bones, flint artifacts and ceramic shards came to light in the circular trench . The latter, however, were not very meaningful and could only be generally identified as prehistoric. The finds from the pits were far more numerous. These were bones, including a large mammal skeleton and a complete skeleton of a canid . Ceramics, clay , flint artifacts and fragments of loom weights were also discovered.
Dating
Using the radiocarbon method, some of the boils could be dated to 2350–2030 cal. BC. The circular moat therefore belongs to the transition period from the end of the Neolithic to the early Bronze Age. A similar period is assumed for the burial mounds that have not been excavated. The pits can be dated to the late Bronze Age based on the typical finds .
literature
- 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 ).
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