Cult car
Cult cars are vehicles of various sizes and types that were used in religious ceremonies. The oldest representations and replicas of the 4th and 3rd millennium BC BC come from Mesopotamia . Cult carriages are probably also depicted on Bronze Age rock carvings in Sweden .
In model form, cult carriages have been preserved as grave goods from the Bronze Age, e.g. B. two drawbar wagons in the castle (Spreewald) in Brandenburg , the sun car from Trundholm in Denmark and the cult car from Mérida (Spain).
A special form of the cult car are the tank cars ( Acholshausen (Bavaria), Milavče (Bohemia)), whose chassis carries a vessel. Tank wagons are known in only a few specimens, but are widely distributed archaeological finds from the Bronze Age . The most common is the ornamental design, mostly by birds in connection with the symbolic four-spoke - wheels .
- Cult car
Cult car from Skallerup
Cult car from Peckatel
Cult car from Burg (Spreewald)
Late Cypriot car from Kition
.jpg)
The best known are the cult cars from Acholshausen in Bavaria , Kition in Cyprus , Peckatel in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , Skallerup on Zealand in Denmark and Strettweg in Austria .
Examples
The 40 cm high bronze cult chariot found in a stone chamber grave near Acholshausen ( Würzburg district ) in 1970 is a very well-preserved specimen of the Urnfield culture from around 1000 BC. The cult car with bird figures and four-spoke wheels is in the "Museum für Franken" in Würzburg .
In the Eastern Mediterranean we know the Cypriot tank wagon (from Kition) from the Late Bronze Age 11–12. Century with extremely rich figurative decorations (bird figures).
Unique is a cauldron with a diameter of 40 cm on the tank wagon with four-spoke bronze wheels from the grave of a warrior in Milavče in Bohemia on a four-wheeled chassis, now in the collections of the National Museum.
A special feature is the 33.5 cm high tank car from Peckatel ( Ludwigslust-Parchim district ), which has become a symbol of the state archeology of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . What is less well known is that a gold arm ring was found together with this cult object. The tank car has four four-spoke wheels 10.6 cm high.
A similar vehicle was found in a burial mound in Skallerup on Zealand in Denmark in 1895 . It contained the burnt bones of someone buried and stood in a wooden coffin. From the edge of the kettle hang down from four short chains bronze rattles .
The cult wagon made of clay from Dupljaja, Banat ( Dupljajska kolica , the wagons from Dupljaja) is equipped with three four-spoke wheels, the two rear wheels carrying the roughly hemispherical car body and the third wheel in front between two duck birds, which represent the team is. Another water bird sits on the front part of the car body, the surface of which is carved with a four-spoke wheel. In the car there is a male clay idol, which is covered with rich incised decorations, which are apparently supposed to represent the costume.
In 1851, during leveling work in Strettweg in Austria, a royal grave from the Hallstatt period was found. The rich figurative decoration makes the Strettweg carriage found in this grave stand out from the crowd of rather unadorned late Bronze Age specimens. According to experts, the figure decorations on the wagon represent a sacrificial procession.
purpose
Some prehistorians believe that tank cars were filled with water during religious ceremonies and driven around with a clatter to conjure up rain. The tank car is associated with magical and cultic acts.
See also
literature
- Markus Vosteen: Prehistoric cars in Central Europe. An archaeological and religious history investigation from Neolithic to Hallstatt period findings . Rahden / Westf. 1998, ISBN 978-3-89646-791-1 .