Long hill

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Long hills ( Danish Langhøjene ; Swedish Långhögar ) are clear signs of the Neolithization of Denmark , of the entire north German lowlands and southern Scandinavia after the transition from the Middle to the Neolithic . Until about 3,800 BC. The dead were buried in round earth graves. The man's grave at Dragsholm on Zealand is one of the oldest from the Danish Neolithic. The construction of the mostly 80–90 m (in individual cases up to about 200 m) long hills, under which a small part of the resident population was buried, shows a change in burial practice that began around 4000 BC. Chr. Based Funnel Beaker Culture (TBK), the first peasant population Nordmittel- and Northern Europe.

description

The mounds were found in a number of variations in terms of design and size (literature: Kjærum 1977, Stürup 1965). But they also have a number of things in common. The hill could be framed by a rectangular or trapezoidal palisade, and the floor plan was often divided into chambers. There was often a hardwood facade at the east end of the hill. Today around 40 of these long hills are known in Denmark. They are mainly found in the western parts of the country, but are also known from eastern Denmark, where, however, due to the density of the population, they were more prone to destruction.

Type Konens Høj

Known as the “Konens Høj type” (women's hill - after a site at Stubbe Sö in Djursland ) with a wooden terminal chamber, they were found on Jutland , Funen and in Gauteng and Lindebjerg on Zealand. Other examples are Barkjr on Djursland with a rectangular shape, Bygholm Nørremark near Horsens with rounded ends, one of the Thorsø Høje , the two Givehøje and the 70 and 50 m long Langhøjene i Østervoer in Central Jutland and the Hov Dås in Thy . A little later, the construction of megalithic systems began , including the chamberless megalithic beds , the predecessors of which are the long hills. From the Elbe to the upper reaches of the Vistula, there are installations of the Niedźwiedź type (NTT) , which are often provided with long hills .

Troelstrup type

Another type of burial mound was found at Skive (Skibshøj). The hill was 70 m long and also contained a ruined barrow from later times. The hill contained a rectangular chamber that was open at one end. The closed sides were built from stacked stones. The ceiling was made of wood planks. A paved forecourt lay in front of the chamber. In the burial chamber five people rested on a bed made of branches and twigs. They lay shoulder to shoulder with their feet facing the entrance. The oldest was between 20 and 30 years old. The children were about eleven and a half and two years old, one was a newborn. The few additions consisted of pieces of a flint ax that was lying on the chest of one of the children and a few small pieces of amber . There was a room where other grave goods may have been. However, they have not been preserved because the chamber was deliberately burned down after the burial.

In addition to these two types, graves are also known, which may have consisted of a plank coffin. During excavations, a stone camp is sometimes found. Probably a stone frame that supported the completely old wooden coffin. The type of is known from Langhügel on Bygholm Nørremark and Ravning Mark in Jutland and from Stengade on Langeland.

context

In Schleswig-Holstein ( long hill of Tinnum ) at least 3,000 overgrown grave structures are said to have existed, but most of them have been destroyed. Jürgen Hoika counted 207 long beds in 1990, for which he determined an average length of 40 m. Nine of them are longer than 100 m. In the Borgdorf district of Rendsburg-Eckernförde , a 199 m long long bed was excavated without the overall findings being recorded. The enormous lengths find correspondences in the enclosures of the Passy type in France, where lengths of over 300 m have been observed.

U. Veit and Ch. Kümmel speak of "early monumental graves" that first appeared in western France. However, some kind of influence, as postulated by Colin Renfrew for the entire complex, has been refuted. The contemporary similar forms in England, although also unmegalithic, are attributed to the culture that built megalithic structures in parallel. This applies to the systems of the funnel-beaker cultures that existed between 3500 and 2800 BC. Both forms (stone and earth-wood constructions), built or used for reasons of resources, but mostly in separate regions. In Poland and in the Elbe-Saale region, the post structures (including long mounds) built under the name Niedźwiedź type (NTT) systems are widespread.

There were long hills in Sweden too. The Jättegraven east of Trelleborg and Örnkulladösen east of Oxie in Skåne were examined. The oldest long hill phase could be recognized in both.

Theories about the importance of the long hills come from Colin Renfrew 1984, Ian Hodder 1990 and Christopher Tilley 1994. They all failed to prevail.

See also

literature

  • L. Brandstätter & D. Mischka: In search of neolithic long beds In: Archäologische Nachrichten aus Schleswig-Holstein 2011 pp. 36–38
  • Lars Larsson: Långhögar I Sydsverige. Monumentala gravformer i det äldsta bondesamhället Lund 2002
  • Lars Larsson: En tidigneolitisk samlingsplats - fyndrika gropar, pargropar och långhögar på Almhov Malmö 2013
  • Seweryn Rzepecki: The roots of megalitism in the TRB culture . Instytut Archeologii Uniwersytetu Łódźkiego 2011 ISBN 978-83-933586-1-8
  • Jürgen E. Walkowitz: The megalithic syndrome. European cult sites of the Stone Age (= contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe. Vol. 36). Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 2003, ISBN 3-930036-70-3 .

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