Kugelstein
| Kugelstein | ||
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 The ball stone from the station in Peggau seen from |
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| height | 633 m above sea level A. | |
| location | Styria , Austria | |
| Mountains | Grazer Bergland , Lavanttal Alps | |
| Coordinates | 47 ° 12 '37 " N , 15 ° 19' 53" E | |
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| rock | Schöcklkalk | |
| particularities | Traces of settlement from the Latène and Roman times as well as 24 recorded caves. | |
The Kugelstein is an elevation with a height of 633 m above sea level. A. between the market town of Deutschfeistritz and the town of Frohnleiten in the Graz-Umgebung district . It has numerous caves and traces of settlement from the Latène and Roman times , including the remains of a Roman cult site, have been found on it.
Geography and geology
The Kugelstein is part of a region known as Central Styria or “Land vor dem Gebirge”. It consists of Schöcklkalk , which is arranged both in a compact and in a slate structure . The Schöcklkalk strikes in an approximate north-south direction and slopes down towards the west. This stratification can also be read from the 24 recorded caves, for which it is directional.
The mountain is located in the Middle Murtal on the right bank of the Mur and forces it, together with the Badlwand on the left bank , into a stream. The eastern mountain slopes reach as far as the Mur, while the mountain in the southwest is connected to the Deutschfeistritzer Kirchberg by a saddle . To the west, the Parmaseggkogel connects to the Kugelstein.
History and development
Some finds from the Latène period suggest an early settlement of the mountain or the surrounding area. During Roman times , the caves were used as storage rooms and, in the case of the five-window grotto, also as a place of worship. There was also a Roman settlement on the Kugelstein surrounded by a wall section , which was connected by a path to the Roman road running along the Mur . The first verifiable excavations on the Kugelstein were carried out between 1885 and 1887 by M. Heider. In the following years, Heider and his colleagues Cuntz and Schmid researched the Roman past of the globular stone, and they also found the remains of the Roman settlement.
The first excavation in the Kugelstein caves was directed by Walter Schmid in 1918. In 1948/49 and 1951/52 the Landesmuseum Joanneum had further excavations carried out in the caves under the direction of M. Mottl and K. Murban. During these excavations, numerous mammalian bones from the Pleistocene as well as Latène and Roman period finds were discovered. Further excavations took place in 1962/63. The State Association for Speleology began in 1963 with the systematic inventory of the cave systems, which was completed in 1967 with the work of H. Petr, V. Weißensteiner and H. Kusch. A total of 24 caves were recorded.
caves
At Kugelstein, 24 caves were systematically recorded. Traces of settlement from the Latène and Roman times as well as numerous bones of mammals such as bison , woolly rhinoceros , brown and cave bears and ibex have been found in some of the caves .
| Surname | Cat.No. | length | particularities |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ladder cave | 2784/1 | 24 meters | Sinter and stalactite jewelry |
| Kugelsteinhöhle III or tunnel cave | 2784/2 | 36 meters | Latène and Roman finds |
| Kugelsteinhöhle II , Bärenhöhle or stalactite cave | 2784/3 | 80 meters | Sinter and stalactite jewelry as well as numerous mammal bones |
| Joint cavity | 2784/4 | 6 meters | |
| Kugelsteinhöhle I , grave cave, passage cave or human cave | 2784/5 | 60 meters | Skeleton find of a buried child |
| Step grotto | 2784/6 | 35 meters | |
| Layer joint cavity | 2784/7 | 10 meters | |
| Overhang cave | 2784/8 | 7 meters | |
| Sintered tube cavity | 2784/9 | 15 meters | Sintered tubes and pure white stalactites |
| Blood gap | 2784/10 | 29 meters | |
| Layer boundary cavity | 2784/11 | 8 meters | |
| Niche cave | 2784/12 | 8 meters | |
| Flagstone cave | 2784/13 | 16 meters | some stalactites |
| Fall Cave | 2784/14 | 32 meters | |
| Ivy den | 2784/15 | 6 meters | |
| Foxhole | 2784/16 | 4 meters | |
| Silt cave | 2784/17 | 6 meters | |
| Five-window grotto | 2784/18 | 76 meters | Roman Age finds as well as Ice Age bone finds |
| keyhole | 2784/19 | 6 meters | |
| Armor cavity | 2784/24 | 10 meters | |
| Roman hole | 2784/25 | 18 meters | |
| Buchenhöhle or Buchenloch | 2784/26 | 3 meter | |
| Big overhang | 2784/27 | 32 meters | Half-cave |
| Saddle cave | 2784/28 | 10 meters |
swell
- Heinrich Kusch : The caves in Kugelstein near Peggau (Styria) . In: The cave . tape 023 , 1972, p. 145–157 ( PDF (4.3 MB) on ZOBODAT ).
