Neutz-Lettewitz district moat
The Neutz-Lettewitz district moat is a Late Bronze Age- Early Iron Age circular moat near Neutz-Lettewitz , a town in Wettin-Löbejün in the Saale district , Saxony-Anhalt . It is located about 3 km west of the Saale on slightly elevated terrain.
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 38 × 11 m in the east and one of 20 × 10 m in the west.
Findings
The facility consists of a double trench with a diameter of 110 m or 80 m. The outer ditch has a passage in the north, the inner one, slightly offset from this, one to the north-northeast. Both trenches were dug as bottom trenches, but the bottom was not very wide and in some places the trench profile was even V-shaped. The outer trench has a preserved depth between 1.0 m and 1.6 mm and a width between 3.2 m and 4.0 m. The interior is 1.3 m deep and 3.6 m to 4.0 m wide. Both rondels are connected in the southern part by a land ditch that cuts the outer ditch when coming from the east-northeast, then ends at the inner ditch, to start again in the south-western area of the inner ditch and follow in a slight arc, again cutting the outer ditch Continue west. The sections of the land ditch outside of the circular moat are significantly larger than those between the two circular moats. In the examined eastern part, the double trough-shaped outer piece had a depth between 0.6 and 0.9 m or 0.7 m and 1.1 m and a width of at least 3.5 m; the inner piece, however, was only 0.7 to 0.8 m deep and 1.6 m to 2.0 m wide. The backfilling of the two circular trenches and the land trench was largely uniform. It consisted of dark brown humus , which only contained deposits of clay in the lower area .
The excavation showed that the circular moat system had been built on a significantly older necropolis , which can be assigned to the end-Neolithic cord ceramic culture. Six graves were recorded in the excavation area, but there are probably many more. The graves were north-east-south-west oriented earth pits, in each of which one individual lay. The dead were also orientated northeast-southwest and lay as left or right stools with a view to the south or southeast. There were three adults and three children. There were also beakers, bowls, amphorae and clay beads from a necklace. One of the graves had a cover made of three stone slabs arranged in a circle.
In addition, numerous pits were found in the entire area of the circular moat, which can be assigned to the late Bronze Age. Another finding in the immediate vicinity of the complex is a rectangular trench, which is perhaps a young Neolithic trapezoidal trench .
Finds
Very few finds come from the trenches. Bones, flint fragments , smelting clay , half of a grater and ceramic shards came to light. The latter, however, can only be generally defined as prehistoric. The finds from the pits were somewhat more numerous. Here too, flint fragments and smelter clay were found. Among the animal bones was the trunk of a large mammal. Several double-conical vessels and pots could be reconstructed from the ceramic shards, which made an assignment to the Late Bronze Age Saale estuary group possible. Other finds were a rubbing stone and another lower part of a rubbing mill, a weaving weight and slag .
Dating
Using the radiocarbon method, two boils from the lower part of the trench could be dated to 1130–920 cal. BC and 800–540 cal. BC. The first value matches the finds from the pits, the second suggests the possibility that the facility was still in use in the early Iron Age. A third bone, however, was dated to 2580-2340 cal. BC. However, it could have been relocated from the ceramic tombs as a secondary measure, since otherwise Neolithic finds were not made either in the pits or in the trenches. Two further bones from the upper backfilling of the trenches date from the late imperial and early migration periods .
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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