Warrior burial Putensen's grave 150

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The grave inventory in the exhibition of the Archaeological Museum Hamburg

The warrior burial of Putensen grave 150 is the burial of an extremely wealthy prince from the 1st century, which was found in 1956 on the cemetery of Putensen in the Lower Saxony community of Salzhausen . The grave inventory is shown in the permanent exhibition of the Archaeological Museum Hamburg in Hamburg-Harburg .

Find

The grave was uncovered in 1956 on the cremation cemetery of the Putensen cemetery at a depth of about 100 cm. Above the burial, which was laid out in a large Roman bronze cauldron, were two more simpler subsequent burials No. 149 and 151. On the south-western side of the cauldron were several large stones weighing up to 50 kg. After being recovered in the Roman-Germanic Central Museum in Mainz , the finds were x-rayed , exposed and preserved .

Findings

The bronze cauldron used as a burial urn was filled with corpse fire and grave goods up to 10 cm below the opening . Remnants of weathered wood on the edge of the mouth and the contents of the kettle indicate that this was covered with an old wooden lid. On top of the corpse burn lay the sword, broken in two, facing east-west on the boiler wall, the rusted lance tip on the shield boss , a knife with a bronze handle and both casseroles ( Latin paterae ) with the bottom up and the handle facing Boiler center. All other additions were clumped together with parts of the corpse fire , textiles , wood and leather objects to form a rust-soaked compact mass.

Anthropological Findings

From the deceased only the corpse burn weighing 1860 g has survived. From the skeleton there were still some larger bone fragments that Günter Bräuer could use for an anthropological study. The results can only be derived with certainty to a limited extent due to the fragmentary, severely charred bone fragments. After the overall diagnosis of all available, usable bone fragments, the buried person is a young, most likely male adult between 20 and 30 years of age . Excess bones were not identified, which would speak against a double burial, for example an adult together with a child.

Additions

Roman bronze cauldron used as urn

The additions consisted of a Roman bronze cauldron, two Roman saucepans, a double-edged sword with remains of the iron scabbard , a lance tip, the remains of a shield, a knife with a bronze handle, three pairs of riding spurs , eight fibulae , a silver needle , and an iron belt buckle , the bronze fittings of two drinking horns of different sizes , four bronze straps and numerous textile and leather objects. All metal objects are more or less heavily oxidized and patinated .

  • The bronze kettle of the Eggers 8 type has a bulbous body about 50 cm in diameter, a retracted neck with a mouth diameter of about 43 cm. The height of the kettle is about 33 cm. The mouth rim was reinforced by an attached rhombic iron ring. Two large iron rings served as a carrying device, these were hung in tubular iron sheets riveted to the boiler wall. Below the suspension two riveted to the vessel neck iron prevented lugs striking the iron rings on the boiler wall. The boiler itself was of a ring- and a bowl-shaped sprouted bronze plate assembled, connected below the neck with numerous rivets. For these rivets, strips of thin bronze sheet were cut, rolled up and bent into a bag. These were inserted from the inside into the rivet hole of the two bronze sheets and riveted. The thin wall of the boiler has several patches that were closed by riveted bronze sheets. A material-scientific analysis of the boiler bottom at the Württemberg State Museum showed that a bronze with 9.3% tin was used for the bottom , which was rather unsuitable for driving work.
  • The iron double-edged sword had been broken in two before the burial. The upper fragment measures 380 mm, the lower 210 mm. The point with the chape is no longer preserved, the rectangular tang has a length of 108 mm and is offset at right angles from the blade. Textile residues are rusted on the surfaces of the blade fragments.
  • The tip of the lance has a narrow blade with a central ridge and a length of 350 mm. There are some pieces of tissue attached to the tip of the lance.
  • The shield consisted of an iron rod shield boss with a diameter of 140 mm and a height of 112 mm. Two iron rivets with bronze-coated heads have been preserved on the edge . Here too, larger pieces of textile are rusty. The shield shackle has been largely destroyed by rust, it was attached to the shield with two rivets with heads covered with bronze sheet metal, the diamond-shaped grip was decorated with point eyes. An iron fragment with a round rivet plate has been preserved from the shield edge fitting.
  • The knife has a length of 265 mm and has a blade that tapers almost straight to the tip . The completely existing wooden handle disintegrated during the rescue. The handle was encompassed by a four-armed, profiled bronze fitting, the arms of which ended in graceful animal heads. Each arm is riveted to the handle wood in three places with hemispherical rivets. During a historical repair , an additional bronze band was fastened around the handle above the animal heads in order to possibly reinforce the grip clamp located under the animal heads .
Underside of one of the silver roller cap brooches
  • The grave contained the comparatively unusually large number of eight fibulae . Below there are four silver brooches with a roller cap , two each of the type Almgren II, 24 and two II, 37, two strongly profiled silver brooches of the type Almgren IV, 69, one strongly profiled bronze brooch of the type Almgren IV, 67 and an iron roller cap brooch of the type Almgren II, 28. As a rule, the deceased were given one or two primers, but larger numbers are extremely rare. The silver fibulae of the type Almgren II, 37 were to the needle apparatus of twisting produced eyelets and obtained at a primer debris from plant material, but disintegrated in the preservation. Remnants of the fold of a woolen cloth still stuck to the needle of the iron fibula Almgren II.28 . In contrast to the other fibulae, the strongly profiled bronze fibula of the type Almgren IV, 67 showed the effects of fire .
  • The silver needle is 132 mm long, the eye is slightly thickened and has been driven into the shaft. It has a fine punch decoration on both sides .
The iron belt buckle
  • The belt buckle is made of iron, the bracket has an eight-shaped contour and is mounted together with the pin on a profiled iron fitting plate. The total length of the belt buckle is 166 mm. The fitting plate tapers towards the end. Behind the bracket hinge, the plate was riveted to the previous belt leather with three iron rivets, at the end with a bronze rivet with hemispherical heads.
  • Just as unusual as the large number of fibulae is the addition of three pairs of riding spurs. These consist of a pair of head spurs with bronze heel bars. The triangular iron spikes are mounted on a bead on the bracket, the brackets end in simple buttons and have a punched groove decoration on the top. The other two pairs of spurs are chair spurs. One of the pairs is made of iron, it has trapezoidal plates and is badly damaged by rust. The second pair of chair prone is made of bronze. Its trapezoidal plates are slightly arched, decorated with punched stripes on the sides and have slightly curved spikes. These were riveted to 23 mm wide leather strips with square fitting plates.
  • In total, four trapezoidal belt tongues originally 44 mm long were carved out of a larger lump of rust. The fittings have a rivet pin at their broad ends and the edges are bordered with punched grooves. Only one tongue of the belt is completely preserved, the rest are fragmented.
  • The bronze fitting sets of the two drinking horns consist of cup-shaped end fittings of about 39 mm length and 11 or 13 mm spout diameter, remnants of the channel-shaped edge fittings, two rings with a diameter of 35 mm each with one hooked-in clamp and two rings with the remains of two hooked-in clamps each .
Saucepan with swan head handle
  • The two saucepans are made of sheet bronze and come from Roman production. The saucepan with the semicircular hole in the handle has a diameter at the base of 86 mm and a height of 90 mm with a weight of 290 g and 940 ml content. The free surface of the handle is decorated with a seven-pointed fan-shaped ornament. A pine rod motif runs along the middle of the handle, the edges of the handle are framed by a raised strip of square points. Under the rim the vessel has three turned grooves and on the bottom three turned out concentric circles. The inside of the vessel is decorated with two concentric circles. The second saucepan has a swan head handle with an almost round hole. Below the hole there are four circles in a cartridge-like border as a decoration. This saucepan has a diameter of 98 mm at the base, a height of 74 mm, a weight of 160 g and a content of 560 ml. The vessel wall is slightly curved with a rounded bottom, which is set off by two screwed-in grooves. The bottom is decorated with two concentric circles.
  • In addition, numerous textile remnants that were firmly corroded on metal objects were recovered, which are now available as metal corrosion products , as well as other small metal fragments, which, however, cannot be clearly assigned to other devices.

Dating

The dating of the burial place was typologically based on the characteristic weapons, the saucepans and fibulas in the period around 50 AD. Scientific dating using dendrochronology or radiocarbon dating was previously not possible due to the poor preservation of organic materials in the grave.

interpretation

The warrior burial at Putensen's grave 150 is one of the earliest graves on the cremation cemetery. The noticeably extensive accessory equipment with in some cases several identical items, such as eight fibulae or three pairs of spores, is unusual in comparison to simultaneous burials. Missing traces of fire on numerous fibulae show that the deceased only wore the bronze fibulae during the cremation ; the other fibulae ended up in the grave unburned. Similar richly equipped graves with multiple pieces of equipment are rarely found. Male burials with several fibulae are known, for example, from the princely graves of Marwedel , Hoby near Maribo on the Danish island of Lolland or Prague-Bubeneč . There are no reliable indications as to the function of the surplus primers; in any case, they were not part of the usual costume in this number. The valuable imported vessels such as the bronze kettle or the casseroles could be an indication that the buried person was in Roman service or had close contacts in the Roman sphere of influence. It seems certain, however, that he had a higher social status in his community and possibly held the rank of prince ; he certainly belonged to the higher nobility in his environment. The weight of the received corpse burn of 1860 g is relatively high for a single adult person, if this contains only one individual, it would be an almost complete corpse burn of a man. The sex determination as male was primarily based on the accessories and especially the weapons equipment, but this is also supported by the anthropological findings.

literature

  • Torsten Capelle :  Putensen. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 23, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-017535-5 , pp. 608-609. ( online ), (introductory technical article).
  • Friedrich Laux : warrior grave 150 in the bronze cauldron . In: Ralf Busch (Ed.): Rome on the Lower Elbe . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1995, ISBN 3-529-01836-8 , pp. 166-169 .
  • Petra Roggenbuck: The grave 150 of Putensen, Kr. Harburg, from the older Roman Empire . In: Hammaburg NF . No. 6, 1981-1983 , ISSN  0173-0886 , pp. 133-141 .
  • Günter Bräuer: Anthropological investigation of the corpse burn (Putensen, district Harburg, grave 150) . In: Hammaburg NF . No. 6, 1981-1983 , ISSN  0173-0886 , pp. 141-143 .
  • Willi Wegewitz : The Lombard fire cemetery of Putensen, Harburg district . In: The urn cemeteries in Lower Saxony . tape 10 . Lax, Hildesheim 1972, p. 35-43, 82-85, panels 34-36 .
  • Christoph Eger : The younger pre-Roman iron and Roman imperial times in the Luhetal (Lüneburg Heath) . In: International Archeology . tape 56 . Leidorf, Rahden / Westf. 1999, ISBN 3-89646-328-4 , pp. 41-42, 56-57, 148, plate 133 .

Web links

Commons : Warrior Burial von Putensen Grab 150  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Rüdiger Articus, Jochen Brandt, Elke Först, Yvonne Krause, Michael Merkel, Kathrin Mertens, Rainer-Maria Weiss: Archaeological Museum Hamburg, Helms-Museum: A tour through the ages (=  publications of the Archaeological Museum Hamburg Helms-Museum . No. 101 ). Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-931429-20-1 , pp. 65 .
  2. ↑ Topic Violence, Showcase No. 42.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Willi Wegewitz : The Lombard burial cemetery of Putensen, Harburg district . In: The urn cemeteries in Lower Saxony . tape 10 . Lax, Hildesheim 1972, p. 35-43, 82-85 .
  4. ↑ Willi Wegewitz : The Lombard burial field of Putensen, Harburg district . In: The urn cemeteries in Lower Saxony . tape 10 . Lax, Hildesheim 1972, p. 31-34 .
  5. ^ A b Günter Bräuer: Anthropological investigation of the corpse burn (Putensen, district Harburg, grave 150) . In: Hammaburg NF . No. 6, 1981-1983 , ISSN  0173-0886 , pp. 141-143 .
  6. ↑ a b c d Petra Roggenbuck: The grave 150 von Putensen, district Harburg, from the older Roman Empire . In: Hammaburg NF . No. 6, 1981-1983 , ISSN  0173-0886 , pp. 133-141 .
  7. ↑ Willi Wegewitz : The Lombard burial field of Putensen, Harburg district . In: The urn cemeteries in Lower Saxony . tape 10 . Lax, Hildesheim 1972, p. 220-224 .
  8. ↑ Willi Wegewitz : The Lombard burial field of Putensen, Harburg district . In: The urn cemeteries in Lower Saxony . tape 10 . Lax, Hildesheim 1972, p. 212 .
  9. ^ Friedrich Laux : Warrior grave 150 in the bronze cauldron . In: Ralf Busch (Ed.): Rome on the Lower Elbe . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1995, ISBN 3-529-01836-8 , pp. 166-169 .

Coordinates: 53 ° 11 ′ 14.2 "  N , 10 ° 12 ′ 25.4"  E