Goseck district moat

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Reconstruction of Goseck's circular moat
Top view of the circular moat. The lighter areas mark the excavations. In 2002 the narrow west-east strip was examined, in 2003 an approximately square area, which included most of the first investigation.
The yellow lines represent the direction of sunrise on the right and that of sunset at the winter solstice on the left. The vertical line marks the astronomical meridian.
Information boards at the entrance to the solar observatory

The district moat of Goseck (also Goseck solar observatory ) is a Neolithic circular moat on the northwestern outskirts of Goseck ( Burgenlandkreis ) in Saxony-Anhalt . The ring-shaped soil discolouration was discovered in 1991 during a reconnaissance flight by the aerial archaeologist Otto Braasch and reported as a new soil monument . The facility was completely excavated between 2002 and 2004 as part of an interdisciplinary research project. The complex, which was built during the Middle Neolithic around 6,900 years ago, is assigned to the culture of stitch band ceramics . The Goseck circular moat has been called the oldest solar observatory in the world by some archaeologists .

Together with the place where the Nebra Sky Disc was found , the Langeneichstädt large stone grave , the Pommelte district ditch and the State Museum for Prehistory in Halle, it is a stop on the tourist route “ Himmelswege ”.

Excavations

After the discovery in 1991, aerial photographs of the area were taken again from 1999 and geomagnetic investigations were carried out, which enabled a complete mapping of the ground plan.

The complete uncovering and excavation of the facility took place within the framework of the interdisciplinary research project "Goseck District Ditch - Multimedia Archeology". The financial means for the excavation were made available as part of a multimedia decree by the Ministry of Culture of Saxony-Anhalt.

Under the direction of François Bertemes from the Institute for Prehistoric Archeology at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg , the southeast gate and part of the outer ring, which consisted of a moat, a wall and two palisades , were first excavated in 2002 . During the first excavation on an area of ​​10 mx 50 m, in addition to the traces of the ring system with fragments of the stitched ceramics , those of a long house with plastered wattle walls and a children's grave with two vessels from the time of the previous linear ceramics were found.

In 2003, a large part of the first excavation area was examined again and an area of ​​30 m × 40 m to the south of it was examined for the first time and the entire south-east gate was exposed. It was found that the inner palisade gate was narrower than the outer one and that this again narrower than the access route over the moat.

Further excavations revealed numerous cattle bones, especially skulls, and human bones in three earth pits. They had been carefully worked, the flesh scraped off the bones. That could speak for human sacrifice - or for special funeral rituals.

From June to October 2005, the system was reconstructed on the now completely exposed area. The opening took place on December 21, 2005, the day of the winter solstice .

description

The tour between the outer and inner palisade ring

The circular moat is located on a plateau above the Saale valley and consists of a clearly recognizable, approximately circular moat with a diameter of about 71 m. A flat earth wall around the ditch could be detected. The facility has three trench-lined access routes that face north, south-west, and south-east. Inside there are traces of two concentric palisades (about 56 and 49 m in diameter) with identically aligned gates that narrow towards the center. No further buildings could be found on the inner surface.

According to studies by the astroarchaeologist Wolfhard Schlosser from the Astronomical Institute of the Ruhr University in Bochum , who previously interpreted the Nebra sky disk , the two southern gates and access routes (viewed from the center of the facility) are accurate to within three to four days Sunrise and sunset at the winter solstice around 4800 BC Aligned. The northern gate points almost exactly to the astronomical meridian, namely to the north. It is therefore likely that it is an observatory to determine the winter solstice.

Detail of a palisade connection

In 2004 another sighting device was found in the palisade, which also made it possible to determine the summer solstice . Wolfhard Schlosser's evaluations were supported by a GPS satellite-based measurement system. In contrast to other poorly preserved Middle Neolithic circular moats, the sight lines in Goseck are extremely precise and enable the calculation and observation of the solstices over several days in all four points.

After evaluating 40 radiocarbon dates , the construction of the plant will be in the 49th century BC. Dated. Due to the data and the typology of the stiched ceramic finds, it can also be considered likely that the complex dates back to the 47th century BC. Was in use.

Another Neolithic settlement has been discovered about one kilometer from this complex. An exploration group from the University of Halle came across the remains of a 7,000-year-old village of linear ceramics in the village of Goseck while digging a 50 meter long and one meter deep search trench .

Documentation and evaluation of the excavations have been part of a joint project to explore the microregion around Goseck since 2002, which is carried out by the Halle institutes in cooperation with the University of California at Berkeley.

and display information about the image
360 ° panorama in the center of the circular moat a good hour before sunset on February 3, 2015

meaning

Ring moat on the southwest side
Opening of the system on the southwest side

In Central Germany, several circular moats from the Middle Neolithic relate to the sunrises and sunsets of the summer ( Schalkenburg near Quenstedt , Quedlinburg : north-west gate) or winter solstice (Goseck: south-east gate). References between the Middle Neolithic rondels and solstice points have already been established since the 1980s on some other systems of stitching ceramics or the East Central European Lengyel culture (e.g. Těšetice -Kyjovice in Moravia, Künzing -Unternberg in Bavaria or Svodín , Slovakia).

The circular ditch phenomenon came to the Central German area downstream from the area of ​​the western Lengyel culture . All previously dated circular moats were erected in a very short period of time in the early stage of the Lengyel culture or "Culture with Moravian Painted Ceramics" (IA) and at the beginning of stage IV (= stage II according to Dieter Kaufmann) of stitched ceramics. A stylization of Goseck in the press as the "oldest observatory in the world" is therefore irrelevant. As a wooden henge monument, the Goseck facility is around 2000 years older than Stonehenge .

There is no archaeological connection to the Nebra Sky Disc, which is about 3000 years younger, and to aspects of archaeoastronomy in the Bronze Age .

literature

  • François Bertemes : The Goseck circular moat: An example of early observations of the sky. In: Wilfried Menghin (Ed.): Astronomical orientation and calendar in prehistory (= Acta Praehistorica et Archaeologica. Vol. 40). International Colloquium from November 9th - 11.11.2006 in the Museum of Prehistory and Early History. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Prussian Cultural Heritage, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-88609-622-0 , pp. 7-14.
  • François Bertemes: The sun and its meaning in the religious-mythological context of the prehistory of Central Europe. In: Andrea Bärnreuther (Ed.): The sun. Focal point of the world's cultures. Minerva, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-938832-49-3 , pp. 94-126.
  • François Bertemes, Andreas Northe: Neolithic sanctuary in a prehistoric cultural landscape - the final examinations in the Goseck circular moat and further excavations in the vicinity. In: Archeology in Saxony-Anhalt. NF Vol. 4, No. 2, 2006, ISSN  1610-6148 , pp. 269-281.
  • François Bertemes, Andreas Northe: The district ditch of Goseck. A contribution to the understanding of early monumental cult buildings in Central Europe. In: Karl Schmotz (Hrsg.): Lectures of the 25th Lower Bavarian Archaeological Day. Leidorf, Rahden / Westf. 2007, ISBN 978-3-89646-236-7 , pp. 137-168.
  • Norma Literski-Henkel: The Middle Neolithic moat of Goseck, district of Burgenland. Dissertation, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale) 2016.
  • Katja Schmidt: Ceramic earthworks - defense systems? In: Hans-Jürgen Beier (Ed.): Varia neolithica IV (= contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe. Vol. 43). Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 2006, ISBN 3-937517-43-X , pp. 83-93.
  • Ralf Schwarz : Goseck, Weissenfels District. In: Siegfried Fröhlich (Ed.): From the prehistory of Saxony-Anhalt. State Museum for Prehistory Halle (Saale), Halle (Saale) 1995, ISBN 3-910010-13-X , No. 7.
  • Helmut Spatz: Hinkelstein: A sect as the initiator of the Middle Neolithic? In: Jörg Eckert, Ursula Eisenhauer, Andreas Zimmermann (Hrsg.): Archäologische Perspektiven. Analyzes and interpretations in transition. Festschrift for Jens Lüning on his 65th birthday (= International Archeology. Studia honoraria. Vol. 20). Leidorf, Rahden / Westf. 2003, ISBN 3-89646-400-0 , 575-587.

See also

Web links

Commons : Kreisgrabenanlage von Goseck  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ François Bertemes, Peter F. Biehl, Andreas Northe, Olaf Schröder: The neolithic circular moat of Goseck, district of Weißenfels. In: Archeology in Saxony-Anhalt. NF Vol. 2, 2004, pp. 137-145.
  2. ↑ himmelswege.de
  3. ^ Bertemes, Northe: Der Kreisgraben von Goseck. 2007, p. 139.
  4. ↑ Human sacrifice in Europe's oldest solar observatory. In: FAZ , August 8, 2003.
  5. ↑ a b Bertemes, Northe: Der Kreisgraben von Goseck. 2007, p. 150.
  6. ^ Zdenek Weber: Astronomical orientation of the roundabout of Těšetice -Kyjovice, Bez. Znojmo. In: Bohuslav Chropovský, Herwig Friesinger (ed.): International symposium on the Lengyel culture. Nové Vozokany November 5-9, 1984. sn, Nitra et al. 1986, pp. 313-322.
  7. ^ Vladimír Podborský: Těšetice-Kyjovice. 4: Rondel osady lidu s moravskou malovanou keramikou (= Spisy Univerzity JE Purkyne v Brne, Filozofická Faculty. Vol. 227, ZDB -ID 1053550-0 ). Univerzita JE Purkyně, Brno 1988, pp. 297-309 (German summary).
  8. ^ Viera Němejcová-Pavúková : Svodín. Volume 1: Two circular moats of the Lengyel culture (= Studia Archaeologica et Medievalia. T. 2). Katedra Archeológie Filozofickej Fak. UK, Bratislava 1995, ISBN 80-88780-05-5 .
  9. ↑ Summary of the workshop: Function and interpretation of the Middle Neolithic circular moat systems from Central Europe. of the Institute for Prehistoric Archeology at the University of Halle (PDF; 258 kB).

Coordinates: 51 ° 11 ′ 54 ″  N , 11 ° 51 ′ 52.5 ″  E