Girl from Dröbnitz

The girl from Dröbnitz was a Hallstatt bog body , which in 1939 Dröbnitz (now Drwęck), district Osterode in East Prussia was found. It was one of the few documented bog body finds in the area of East Prussia and Eastern Europe . The find was lost at the end of World War II .

Find

The girl from Dröbnitz was discovered on July 15, 1939 by Erich Redmann, a worker of the Reich Labor Service while working in the Dröbnitzer Moor . First they came across a piece of fur and tried to pull it out of the ground, tearing both legs of the wrapped corpse from the hip joints. The report was received on July 19 at the State Office for Prehistory, and on July 20 the remains that had been relocated from their original location were recovered. Both legs of the body were largely lost and only one femur was recovered during the dig . The finder Redmann was asked about the exact circumstances of the find and a protocol was made. The remains were then taken to the Prussia Museum in Königsberg , where the find was scientifically examined and preserved.

Approximate location: 53 ° 33 ′ 33 "  N , 20 ° 12 ′ 26"  E Coordinates: 53 ° 33 ′ 33 "  N , 20 ° 12 ′ 26"  E

Findings

Face of the girl shortly after the excavation

The girl lay sprawled on her back and was wrapped in a fur cloak. Both the body and the fur cloak were in very good condition . Her arms were crossed across her chest and her head turned to the right. The more precise circumstances, such as their geographical orientation, the depth or the layer of the find, could no longer be determined precisely because the find had been removed from the berth without documentation and the site had already been excavated further. The biologist Dr. Groß examined the site on July 24th and took some samples for pollen analysis . Eight meters away, he had a 260 cm deep borehole carried out in the moor. Comparisons of the peat residues adhering to the corpse with samples from the Dröbnitz moor showed that the corpse must have been lying in strongly decomposed sphagnum peat at a depth of 160 to 205 centimeters . The only additions found were the remains of a comb .

Anthropological Findings

The bog body from Dröbnitz was about a 12 to 14 year old girl. Her body was completely intact except for the legs that were lost during the recovery. The skin was still spongy and soft when it was found. An autopsy by the Königsberg physicians Krause and Zeiger showed that all internal organs were clearly visible and the structure of the tissues had been preserved. Likewise, were bone , teeth and fingernails get. The cause of death could not be determined either from the autopsy or from Dr. Loepp determine the X- rays made . A total of eleven Harris lines were found on the bones , which, like the bog corpse of Windeby I, are signs of recurring phases of malnutrition in the girl's life.

The stomach and intestinal contents were examined by Walter von Stokar and H. Gross. Numerous food residues could still be identified, consisting mainly of leaves, flowers and flower buds of dock , coltsfoot and lungwort . Remains of peas , wheat and a few meat fibers and animal fats were also found. In addition, the pollen from lungwort as well as from various grasses , cruciferous and buttercups could be detected. This suggests that the girl had eaten porridge before his death. The presence of pollen from alder , birch and hazelnut led to the belief that the girl died in the spring.

The girl's intestine was examined by Lothar Szidat (1892–1973), who found the eggs of two parasites in very good condition . The intestines were heavily burdened with whipworms and less with roundworms . According to Szidat, the severity of the infestation corresponded to the results of investigations of such infections in the East Prussian rural population of his time. Szidat estimated the age of death of the girl on the basis of infestation statistics of the East Prussian rural population at that time at 15 to 19 years and thus somewhat higher than the anthropological investigation had shown.

Additional finds

The girl was completely in a cloak of sheepskin wrapped. This was sewn together from four pieces and was 80 cm high and 150 cm wide. The seams were made with fine, about 1 to 1.2 mm wide, twisted leather cords in an overlock stitch. The edges in the neck area were turned over. A leather strap was sewn onto one corner of the neck area and a leather loop was sewn onto the opposite one as a clasp. For a better fit on the shoulders, two darts were attached in the shoulder areas of the coat. At the lower edge the coat had been extended by a sewn-on strip of fur. On the inside, numerous darning areas had been mended with patches of leather that were sewn on with a fine lock stitch. All of these seams were done very carefully. In contrast, the tear that ran straight through the entire cloak was sewn with twisted sinews a little more negligently . There are several surviving comparative finds for this cloak, such as those of the boy from Kayhausen , the wife of Elling , the wife of Haraldskær or the man from Jürdenerfeld .

The only grave goods found on the girl were the remains of a single-row wooden comb with a wide grip plate. This was made relatively roughly from a piece of wood about three millimeters thick. The comb, preserved in two parts, was originally about ten centimeters long. The grip plate was curved, the grip surface was decorated with circular eyes and had eyelets at both ends. A twine made of twisted wool was pulled through the eyelet , which showed clear signs of wear and was probably part of a carrying device.

Dating

A moor geological dating based on the peat layers or depth was not possible, as these had not been taken into account during the excavation. The pollen analysis of the peat residues adhering to the corpse in comparison with the samples taken 8 meters away showed that the corpse had entered the moor around 500 BC. Typological comparisons of the comb, especially with comb representations on early Iron Age ceramic vessels and face urns from Central and Eastern Europe, confirm this dating to the early Iron Age, more precisely to the Hallstatt period, stage Ha D according to Eggers between 650 and 475 BC. Chr.

interpretation

The cause of death of the girl from Dröbnitz could not be determined, nor could any evidence of a killing be found. The fact that the girl was wrapped in a fur cloak and rested on her back, as well as the accompanying comb, make a burial appear likely. Possibly, for unknown reasons, this was carried out outside of a burial site or burial field and as a body burial in times when the cremation custom prevailed. The interpretation of the find ensemble makes a sacrifice , often observed in bog corpses, seem rather unlikely. Samples of peat from the back of the bog body with the remains of aquatic animals embedded in it indicate that the body had been deposited in a shallow pool that quickly silted up.

literature

• Wijnand van der Sanden : Mummies from the moor. The prehistoric and protohistoric bog bodies from northwestern Europe . Batavian Lion International, Amsterdam 1996, ISBN 90-6707-416-0 , pp. 89, 96, 111, 123, 144 (Dutch, original title: Vereeuwigd in het veen . Translated by Henning Stilke).
• Marija Gimbutas : The Balts: History of a people in the Baltic Sea region . Herbig, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-7766-1266-5 , pp. 79–80, 234 (English: The Balts . Translated by Georg Auerbach).
• Helmut Wurm: Constitution and Nutrition III. For the constitution and nutrition of the prehistoric Germans . In: Gegenbaur's morphological yearbook . No. 132 . Geest & Portig, 1986, ISSN  0016-5840 , p. 899-951 .
• Marija Gimbutas: The Balts . Thames and Hudson, London 1963, p. 79–80, 234 (English, vaidilute.com [PDF; 714 kB ; accessed on December 5, 2011]).
• Wolfgang La Baume : The prehistoric bog body from Dröbnitz, Kr. Osterode Ostpr . In: Researches and Advances . tape 16 , no. 34 , 1940, p. 387-389 .
• Wolfgang La Baume: The bog body find of Dröbnitz Kr. Osterode Ostpr . In: Old Prussia: quarterly for prehistory and folklore . tape 5 , issue 3, 1940, p. 17-22 (first publication).

Notes and individual references

1. ↑ van der Sanden, p. 89.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Wolfgang La Baume : The bog body find from Dröbnitz Kr. Osterode Ostpr . In: Old Prussia: quarterly for prehistory and folklore . 5, issue 3, 1940, p. 17-22 .
3. ↑ Location in literature not precisely specified. Data obtained from: TK25 Blatt 2487 Hohenstein - Edition 1933. Retrieved on December 5, 2011 (North of the main road in the direction of Hohenstein, just east of the two farmsteads, a marshy bank along a nameless stream begins about three kilometers, in which a dozen peat cuttings are entered to the north there is a regular peat cutting pit with around 80 peat extraction sites, which however no longer belonged to Dröbnitz.). 
4. ↑ Wurm, Section 4.
5. ↑ van der Sanden, p. 111.
6. ↑ Lothar Szidat: About the preservation ability of helminth eggs in prehistoric bog corpses . In: Parasitology Research . tape 4 , no. October 13 , 1944, p. 265-274 , doi : 10.1007 / BF03177148 .
7. ↑ van der Sanden, p. 144
8. ↑ van der Sanden, p. 123.
9. ↑ van der Sanden, p. 96.

Web links

• Marija Gimbutas: Two photos of the cape. In: The Balts. P. 234 , accessed on December 5, 2011 . 
• Marija Gimbutas: Drawing of the comb. In: The Balts. P. 80 , accessed on December 5, 2011 (English).