Magdalenenberg

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Magdalenenberg near Villingen, view from the southwest

The Magdalenenberg is a large Iron Age burial mound and is about 740  m above sea level. NN on the southwestern edge of the Laible forest area in the urban area of Villingen-Schwenningen , about two kilometers southwest of the city center of Villingen. The area is largely part of the eastern roofing of the Black Forest . With a volume of 33,000 cubic meters, the Magdalenenberg is one of the largest Hallstatt-era burial mounds in Central Europe.

history

Engraving: Siege of the / City of Villingen. / A ° 1704. , above the Magdalenenberg with the Lorraine cross

According to dendrochronological investigations of the central burial chamber, the hill, which formerly had a diameter of 104 meters and a height of 10-12 meters, was rebuilt around 616 BC. Piled up. Little is known about the prince buried here and his people. A fortified complex on a mountain tongue at the confluence of the Kirnach and Brigach rivers , today called Kapf ( Celtic settlement Kapf ), was often assumed to be an associated settlement , but this must be considered unsafe according to recent research. In the decades after the first burial, at least 126 other graves were dug in and around the hill, all of which date from the Iron Age Hallstatt culture (Ha D1). Around 500 BC The princely grave was plundered , as can be traced back to the surviving grave robber spades. Allocation had probably already ended by this time.

The hill in the Salemer Rodel from 1320, handed down in a copy from 1465, was first mentioned under the name Kreuzbühl. On a map from 1610 a "Maria magdalenen creitz" is drawn on the hill, a siege sketch from 1704 shows a Lorraine cross at this point . In 1633, under embarrassing interrogation , the citizen Barbara Schwinger confessed to having danced with the devil under the name "Cäsperlin" on the hill.

exploration

The Magdalenenberg during the first excavation in autumn 1890
The prince's burial chamber in the Franciscan Museum

In 1887, the former Villingen magistrate Heinrich Koenige pointed out to the director of the Grand Ducal Antiquities Hall in Karlsruhe, Ernst Wagner , that there was “a burial mound on the Magdalenenhügel at Läuble on the heights [...]”. Wagner then traveled to Villingen and dug an excavation cut that convinced him of the artificial nature of the hill. Three years later, in 1890, the excavation began under the direction of the Villingen chief forester Hubert Ganter. The excavators encircled the hill, i. that is, they dug down from the top to examine only the center of the hill. In doing so, they came across the remains of the prince's grave, which provided information about the formerly rich furnishings (including the remains of a four-wheeled wagon). However, due to the historical looting, there were no remarkable finds. 1970 to 1973, under the direction of the archaeologist Konrad Spindler , who later became famous through his research into Ötzi , the entire hill and its immediate surroundings were exposed as part of a project by the German Research Foundation . In addition to 126 subsequent burials from the Hallstatt period with rich additions, the almost empty plank chamber of the robbed central burial could be documented and recovered. The dendrochronological data from the wooden burial chamber were controversial for a long time, as they potentially offer an important chronological fixed point at the beginning of the late Hallstatt period.

In June 2011, Allard Mees from the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum (RGZM) in Mainz published an essay entitled “ The starry sky from Magdalenenberg ”, according to which the arrangement of the graves around the burial mound was an early Celtic calendar. With the help of special software from the US space agency NASA , the state of the constellations at that time could be traced from the winter to the summer solstice. This means that the entire complex is dated to 618 BC. Successful, which differs only slightly from the dendrochronological dating of the wood of the burial chamber (616 BC). According to this interpretation, the 126 graves are arranged according to the northern constellations and the lunar cycle and not according to the solar cycle like Stonehenge . This interpretation of the arrangement of the subsequent burials was also questioned. Both the lack of source criticism and the methodology used were criticized.

Finds

Bernstein - Collier , Franciscan Museum (Villingen-Schwenningen)

In addition to simple pieces of jewelry (such as gagat and sheet metal bracelets ), numerous fibulae were found , including a so-called dragon or drago fibula. The amber necklace, which points to the long-distance trade connections of that time, is also of particular importance. Some antenna daggers made of bronze and iron are also exceptional .

exhibition

The burial chamber (8 × 6.5 meters), dendrochronologically dated to the year 616 BC. It is the largest wood find from the Hallstatt period in Central Europe and can be viewed today in the Franciscan Museum in Villingen . In addition, around 300 exhibits give insights into the life of a culture without writing: amulets and children's rattles, razors and nail cutters testify to the continuity of basic human needs. A model of a hill and a diorama , original photos and films of the two archaeological excavations as well as an introduction to the archaeological methods used at Magdalenenberg, such as dendrochronology and anthropology, await the visitor .

Current

Magdalenenbergstrasse runs in the Südstadt district in the Villingen district - built in the early 1930s. In September 2014 the “Celtic Path” was inaugurated, which connects the Franciscan Museum and the Magdalenenberg. A newly laid footpath with information boards allows you to go around the burial mound. On the top of the hill, some of the archaeologically documented pole settings were reconstructed, and a new seat in the form of a hand-worked beam was created on a gravel surface with the dimensions of the burial chamber.

literature

  • Allard Mees, The starry sky from Magdalenenberg. The princely grave near Villingen-Schwenningen - a calendar work from the Hallstatt period . In: Yearbook of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseums 54, 2007, ISSN 0076-2741, pp. 217–264.
  • Dirk Krausse , Marina Monz (ed.): New research on the Magdalenenberg (= archaeological information from Baden-Württemberg Volume 77). State Office for Monument Preservation Baden-Württemberg, Esslingen 2017, ISBN 978-3-942227-31-5
  • Konrad Spindler : Magdalenenberg I, The Hallstatt-era princely grave hill near Villingen in the Black Forest , 1st volume, with a foreword by E. Sangmeister and contributions by A. von den Driesch, G. Gallay, F. Schweingruber and others. J. Fuchs. Neckar-Verlag, Villingen 1971. 119 pp., 82 plates, 2 fold-out supplements.
  • Konrad Spindler: Magdalenenberg II, The Hallstatt-era princely grave hill near Villingen in the Black Forest , Volume 2, with a foreword by W. Kimmig and with the collaboration of G. Gallay and others. W. Hubener. Neckar-Verlag, Villingen 1972. 93 pp., 72 plates, 6 folding hatchets.
  • Konrad Spindler: Magdalenenberg III, The Hallstatt-era Fürstengrabhügel near Villingen in the Black Forest , 3rd volume, with a foreword by H. Zürn, with the collaboration of G. Gallay and with e. Contribution by R. Hauff. Neckar-Verlag, Villingen 1973. 71 pp., 98 plates, 5 folding hatchets.
  • Konrad Spindler: Magdalenenberg IV, The Prince's grave mound from the Hallstatt period near Villingen in the Black Forest , Volume 4. Neckar-Verlag, Villingen 1976, ISBN 3-7883-0817-6 . 85 p., 144 plates, 1 folding ax.
  • Konrad Spindler: Magdalenenberg V, The Hallstatt-era Fürstengrabhügel near Villingen in the Black Forest , Volume 5, with contributions by S. Boesken-Hartmann, W. Fritz, G. Gallay, Th. E. Haevernick, H.-J. Hundt, U. Körber-Grohne, I. Kühl, S. Müller, W. Paul, KD Pohl, P. Volk u. O. Wilmanns. Neckar-Verlag, Villingen 1977, ISBN 3-7883-0818-4 . 151 p., 2 fold-out inserts.
  • Konrad Spindler: Magdalenenberg VI, The Hallstatt-era princely grave hill near Villingen in the Black Forest , Volume 6, with the collaboration of F. Schweingruber and with contributions by W. Fritz u. O. Rochna. Neckar-Verlag, Villingen 1980, ISBN 3-7883-0819-2 . 217 pp., 50 plates, 17 folding hatchets.
  • Konrad Spindler: The Magdalenenberg near Villingen, a princely grave hill of the 6th century BC , with contributions by E. Hollstein a. E. Neuffer, guide to prehistoric and early historical monuments in Baden-Württemberg, volume 5. Theiss-Verlag, Stuttgart a. Aalen 1976, 2nd edition 1999, ISBN 3-8062-1381-X . 112 p., 1 folding ax.

Web links

Commons : Magdalenenberg  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Graßmann, “Strange in many ways” The first excavation of the Magdalenenberg in 1890 In: Villingen in the course of time, year XXXIX / 2016, pp. 109–116.
  2. ↑ Allard Mees: The starry sky from Magdalenenberg. The princely grave near Villingen-Schwenningen - a calendar work from the Hallstatt period . ( Memento of the original from September 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. web.rgzm.de, special edition from the yearbook of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum 54 [Mainz 2007 (published 2011)], pp. 217–264 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / web.rgzm.de
  3. ↑ a b The unraveling of the Celtic graves . In: Südkurier , June 17, 2011
  4. ↑ see picture from Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
  5. ↑ Celtic calendar in XXL. NASA technology decodes the function of a burial mound . 3sat , nano broadcast on January 11, 2012; Video - accessed January 12, 2012
  6. ↑ Marina Monz, The Stars Fetched From Heaven. A source-critical commentary on the archaeoastronomical interpretation of the Magdalenenberg near Villingen. In: Dirk Krausse, Marina Monz (ed.), New research on the Magdalenenberg (= archaeological information from Baden-Württemberg Volume 77). State Office for Monument Preservation Baden-Württemberg, Esslingen 2017, ISBN 978-3-942227-31-5 , pp. 110–123.
  7. ↑ Wolfhard Schlosser, review of: Allard Mees, Der Sternenhimmel vom Magdalenenberg. The princely grave near Villingen-Schwenningen - a calendar work from the Hallstatt period. Yearbook of the RGZM 54, 2007, pp. 217-264. In: Annual Journal for Central German Prehistory 94, 2014, pp. 569–573.
  8. ↑ Tourism of the future with the ancient Celts . In: Schwarzwälder Bote , May 15, 2013
  9. ^ Celtic path brings history to life , Martina Zieglwalner, Schwarzwälder Bote, September 5, 2014, accessed November 19, 2014

Coordinates: 48 ° 2 ′ 39.5 ″  N , 8 ° 26 ′ 37.3 ″  E