Schönebeck district moat

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Photo-request.svg
 Image wanted 
BW

The district moat system Schönebeck is a circular moat system of the Early Bronze Age Aunjetitz culture near Schönebeck (Elbe) in the Salzland district , Saxony-Anhalt .

location

The circular moat is located in the Elbe lowlands near Schönebeck on a flat hill. It is located 1.3 km northwest of the Pommelte district moat .

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 an area of ​​35 × 13 m in the northwest. In May 2011 a large-scale excavation began by the State Office and the Martin Luther University, during which the circular moat and its surroundings were examined. As in Pommelte, a reconstruction of the facility is to take place after the excavation is complete.

Findings

The facility consists of a double trench with a diameter of about 80 m. It has two openings to the northwest and to the north, the latter only being discovered during a geomagnetic investigation prior to the excavation. Half of the outer trench has been destroyed by agricultural activity and erosion. Both trenches were dug as bottom trenches . The inner one was only 0.2 m deep and between 1.8 m and 2.3 m wide. It was filled with a mixture of humus and gravel . The outer trench had a preserved depth of 0.8 m and a width between 1.5 m and 2.5 m. A multi-layer backfill made of humus and humus-gravel mixture was found here. Bands of humus and a mixture of sand and gravel were found in the lower quarter and at the trench heads. Between the trench heads ran a four meter wide entrance to the interior of the facility, in the middle of which an empty pit was found. Within the trenches, a wooden palisade ran along at least part of the inner trench .

An extensive necropolis from the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages extends around the complex . Immediately in front of the outer trench and partially cutting it, a small oval trench with a diameter of 13 m and a narrow opening was uncovered during the excavation. Inside, a space was found that was delimited on three sides by oval pits.

Finds

Bones and pottery shards came to light in the circular trench. A cup, mug and bowl could be reconstructed from the broken pieces. In the center of the small oval trench, a Late Bronze / Early Iron Age ceramic shard was found, directly south of the trench, the lower part of an urn filled with corpse fire .

Dating

Using radiocarbon dating, some of the bones could be dated to 2150–1740 cal. BC. The circular moat therefore belongs to the early and developed stages of the Aunjetitz culture. The dating would have been much more uncertain on the basis of the ceramics alone, as the reconstructed vessels are typical forms of the early Aunjetitz culture or the early Bronze Age in general, but they also appear in the end-Neolithic bell -beaker culture .

literature

  • Dovydas Jurkènas , André Spatzier : Settlements from the end of the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age near the roundels of Pommelte and Schönebeck, Salzlandkreis. Insights into the settlement of a sacred landscape of the 3rd and early 2nd millennium BC Chr. In: Harald Meller et al. (Ed.): Settlement Archeology of the End Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age. 11th Central German Archaeological Day from October 18 to 20, 2018 in Halle (Saale) - Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Settlement Archeology. 11th Archaeological Conference of Central Germany, October 18-20, 2018 in Halle (Saale) (= conferences of the State Museum for Prehistory Halle. Volume 20 / I). State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt, Halle (Saale) 2019, ISBN 978-3-944507-94-1 , pp. 289-317 ( 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 ).
  • André Spatzier: The enclosure complex Pommelte – Schönebeck: The dialectic of two circular monuments of the late 3rd to early 2nd millennium BC in Central Germany. In: Harald Meller, François Bertemes (ed.): The departure to new horizons. New perspectives on the European Early Bronze Age. Final conference of the research group FOR550 from November 26th to 29th 2010 in Halle (Saale) (= conference of the State Museum for Prehistory Halle. Volume 19). State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt, Halle (Saale) 2020, ISBN 978-3-948618-03-2 , pp. 421–444.
  • Harald Meller , Kai Michel : The Nebra Sky Disc The key to a lost culture in the heart of Europe , Propylaea, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-549-07646-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ State Office for the Preservation of Monuments and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt: Current information on the Schönebeck district moat. July 15, 2011. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
  2. ↑ Thomas Schöne: Archeology. People of the sky disk may have lived in Pommelte. In: mz-web.de. December 27, 2019. Retrieved December 27, 2019.

Coordinates: 52 ° 0 ′ 22.2 "  N , 11 ° 47 ′ 12.8"  E