Neolithic graves of Eastern Switzerland
The Neolithic graves of Eastern Switzerland consist mainly of burials in caves and under abrises ( Swiss image ).
The oldest Neolithic burial in Switzerland was discovered by "Fritz Sartorius-Preiswerk" in 1910 in the Birseck- Ermitage cave near Arlesheim . The grave without additions contained the “stool burial” of a 30 to 40 year old man “lying on his back”. The stone layer found on the feet was interpreted as the remains of a grave border. The grave and its dating between 5400 and 5000 BC BC matches the findings in ceramic burial fields in Central Europe.
In the Neolithic, single or double burials were mostly built in elongated pits with different stone surrounds. Examples are ( Opfikon , Canton Zurich and in the Schaffhausen region , Herblingen-Dachsenbühl). In contrast to western Switzerland, the outstretched dead mostly lay on their backs, less often on their stomach or on their side.
In the rest of Switzerland , stone boxes of the Chamblandes type can be found at the same time . The easternmost of these boxes can be found in Erlenbach on Lake Zurich . From their small size it can be concluded that they contained bone beds or stool burials. Their dating in the Pfyner culture (3900-3500 BC) was made on the basis of the stone ax attached . The ensemble on Lake Zurich is an indication that boxes of the western Swiss type were also built on the border of the Cortaillod , to which the central Swiss area belonged a few centuries earlier, which was primarily determined by the availability of materials. The younger stone boxes from Rapperswil SG in the canton of St. Gallen and Opfikon show similar borderline phenomena.
Finds
The graves with few gifts contained mostly cylindrical limestone beads and arrowheads with a concave base. One of the graves of Thayngen -Untere Bsetzi Kanton Schaffhausen contained buttons of the “Glis-Weisweil” type, as they are also known from stone boxes of the Chamblandes type, as well as over 100 limestone beads .
Time position
The majority of graves in eastern Switzerland seem to date from 4100 BC. To date. More recent C14 dates for Schaffhausen-Schweizersbild resulted in dates between 3800 and 3600 BC. The data obtained from burials from the Arlesheimer Dachsenhöhle in the canton of Basel-Landschaft show that the funeral rite dates back to around 3200 BC. Was exercised.
literature
- Swiss Society for Prehistory and Early History: Switzerland from the Paleolithic to the Early Middle Ages 1995, ISBN 3-908006-51-1 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Switzerland from the Paleolithic to the Early Middle Ages 6.2.4.2 pp. 240–242