Horse burial
As a horse burial (also horse sacrifice ) ritual are burials of horses referred to by the prehistoric to the Middle Ages are known.
description
Horse burials are often found as secondary burials next to royal graves, as in Salamis (Cyprus) , or among the Hittites and Mycenaeans . Also the Late Bronze Age Koban culture , which took place in the 9-7. Aldy-Bel culture , which was native to southern Siberia in the BC century, as well as the Cimmerians and the Scythians , both nomadic equestrian peoples , knew the rite . A horse sacrifice from the 11th or 12th century was found in a Slavic settlement near Pasewalk . A grave with three horses and a harnessed red deer from the 8th century was excavated in the settlement chamber of Rullstorf in the district of Lüneburg. At least 42 horses were buried on the site. It is one of the largest horse burial sites in Germany and is considered the largest known late Saxon horse burial ground.
Not only the early medieval Turkic peoples cultivated the custom of horse burial, it was also widespread among the Teutons . In 1964, for example, 24 horse burials were found during an emergency excavation on the early medieval burial ground of Emstek-Drantum ( Cloppenburg district in Lower Saxony ). "Verena Freiin von Babo" states in her dissertation from 2004 that this is related to the Germanic belief in the afterlife . The horses were to carry the deceased to Valhalla . Furthermore, there are reports of horse burials from Haithabu and the large Danish ring castles , from the canton of Basel and the entire area of the Austrian Limes . Herwig Friesinger documented such a Roman horse burial from Stillfried an der March in Austria . In addition, two individual horse burials from the time of the Great Migration next to royal graves in Liebersee and a horse grave from Rullstorf were examined. From northern Germany there are, among others, the old Saxon triple horse burial of Wulfsen or the equestrian grave of Schnelsen . In addition, an undocumented and undated one from Langenfeld (Rhineland) is reported.
It can be assumed that only high-ranking personalities were granted the privilege of such a secondary burial. It will have been equestrian peoples or at least groups of people for whom the horse had a special meaning. Presumably it was the deceased's favorite animals that were given to him in the grave. Despite the Germanic belief in the afterlife that the horse should carry its rider to Valhalla in the afterlife , one should not conclude that the deceased definitely needs a horse in the afterlife, otherwise the rite would have been practiced throughout.
Examples
Horse graves can be found in:
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans-Jürgen Häßler : Pre- and early history of Lower Saxony p. 304
literature
- Wolfgang Amschler: About the animal sacrifices (especially horse sacrifices) of the Telingites in the Siberian Altai . In: Anthropos Vol. 28, Issue 3./4. (1933), pp. 305-313
- Verena Freiin von Babo: Horse burials on the early medieval burial ground of Drantumer Mühle. Dissertation at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover 2004. PDF; 2.7 MB
- Michael Müller-Wille: Horse grave and horse sacrifice in the early Middle Ages. In: Reports van de Rijksdienst voor het Oudheidkundig Boemonderzoek No. 20-21 1970/1971. Amersfoort, The Netherlands, ISSN 0167-5443 . Pp. 119-248
- Manfred Rech : Horse sacrifice - equestrian warrior. Driving and riding through the millennia; Accompanying publication to the exhibition of the same name in the Focke Museum . Habelt, Bonn 2006, ISBN 978-3-7749-3479-5 .
- Ralf Schauwacker (Ed.): Horse sacrifice, cavalryman. Driving and riding through the millennia . Schauwacker Filmproduktion, Bassum 2006, ISBN 978-3-931394-08-0 (DVD in preparation)
- Daniel Winger: Ross und Reiter: Horses in the early medieval burial ritual in: Babette Ludowici (Ed.): Saxones , Theiss, Darmstadt 2019, pp. 208-209
