Quarter (archeology)

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Holstein Chamber with three quarters (Bunsoh)

As quarters the designated archaeologist Ewald Schuldt the partitions of the chamber base of a megalithic by (usually) vertically erected stone slabs. In Denmark it is spoken of Gulvinddelinger , in Sweden of Sections.

Roosts in the same chamber (up to 18 were counted) can have different floor paving. Different paved floor areas without boundaries are not referred to as quarters. In the dolmen of Alt Duvenstedt north of Rendsburg , the bottom of the grave is flat. In the western part, however, the pavement was 0.6 m wide, about 5–8 cm higher than in the eastern part.

Bottom left - passage grave with quarters

description

The chamber floorboards in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Sweden are particularly well structured by quarters (in the Hercynian area there are also some stone boxes ). However, many more chambers in the megalithic complex have undivided floorboards. In other chambers (especially in Denmark , occasionally also in Schleswig-Holstein ), only the ends are separated, so that, as with the contemporary wooden buildings, there are special cuts that have existed since the individual grave culture ( burial mounds of Trappendal ) in the north and that are still in Viking castles emerge ( Trelleborg ), a three-part area results. The chamber of the passage grave in Rævehøj at Slots Bjergby , near Slagelse on Zealand is divided on both sides, that in Denghoog on Sylt and at the passage grave of Busdorf , only on the east side. In the dolmen of Süderende , the quarters were divided into a tiny wall .

Germany

Schleswig-Holstein

In Schleswig-Holstein , five passage graves and two polygonal pillars are provided with quarters. In his treatise from 1938, Ernst Sprockhoff states that the dead were not always placed freely in the room, but that it was divided into quarters using small plates. As an example, he cites the megalithic complex (grave III) near Hemmelmark, in the Rendsburg-Eckernförde district . These arrangements are closest to those in Denmark. In Denghoog, the eastern part of the oval chamber was separated from the rest of the room by five upright stone slabs that tower 25 cm above the floor level. Beside them lay a row of smaller stones. The same applies to a megalithic complex near Flehm, Plön district in Ostholstein , where dividing walls made of 30–40 cm large, thin tiles of approximately square shape were found in the narrow ends of the chamber. In the passage grave of Missunde , Eckernförde district, the western part of the chamber was separated at a width of 60 cm by upright, 30 cm high plates. "In Grammdorf , Oldenburg district in Holstein, a similar partition was found in the northern part of the chamber The large stone grave of Bunsoh near Albersdorf, district of Süderdithmarschen, was symmetrically divided by three walls made of 9 thin stone slabs, which reached 20-25 cm above the floor area.

Mecklenburg

In Mecklenburg, Ewald Schuldt's quarters were recognized as both primary and secondary installations, so that at the beginning of the development there were obviously floorboards without quarters. However, the period during which the partition walls were created can only be defined imprecisely. Since re-uses (e.g. by the KAK sponsors ) were also made in cleared, unpatched systems, partition fittings tend to be in the middle of use. Schuldt found a total of 91 quarters in 27 of the 106 excavated facilities. The areas between 0.3 m² and over 1.5 m² occur between one and nine times per system.

Gallery graves

In Hessian-Westphalian gallery graves , a subdivision of the chamber by transverse stones or differences in the pavement is sometimes observed ( Chamber of Liebenburg ), which the storage of the skeletons took into account.

Sweden

Parceling is also represented in Swedish passage graves and megalithic stone boxes. In the area of Hagestad in the southeastern Swedish province of Skane having passage grave two overlapping planks of Carlshögen. The upper one, around 2100 BC. Plank created in the 4th century does not show any parcelling. It is no longer attributed to the funnel beaker culture (TBK). A few decimeters below is the nine-fold subdivided approximately 3000 BC. Primary board created in BC. Since the planks within the nine Carlshögen sections are made of inconsistent material, it stands to reason that they were created successively or that their planks were provided in this way. A fragmentary division of quarters by Katelbogen near Bützow in Mecklenburg supports the assumption of a successive floorboard design. But not only closed departments, sometimes even covered from above. In the passage grave at Vetterlingsgården near Falköping , 18 niches were only marked by side panels.

Swedish systems with sections

(after M. Strömberg)

  • Halland:
  • Västergötland:
    • Fiskaregården, Gem. Varnhem
    • According to Falköping-West No. 20
    • Klövagården , Gem. Karleby
    • Logården, Gem. Karleby
    • Mellomgården, Gem. No. Lundby
    • Nils Olofsgården, Gem. No. Lundby
    • Onskulle, Axevalla, Gem. Skärv
    • Prästgården, Gem. Hångsdala
    • Rössberga , Gem. Valtorp
    • Vetterlingsgården , Gem. Falköping
    • Vilhelmsberg, Gem. Falköping

Danish systems with quarters

(after M. Strömberg)

In Denmark, these are often partitions the size of stone boxes. The Quartiere (Danish: Gulvinddelinger) are similar to the German and Swedish ones in that they are low walls that merely mark a room. Otherwise they differ from the German and Swedish, especially from the small quarters of Västergötland , in their size. The difference is also considerable with regard to the number of units per system, as there are only a few partitions in Denmark, while there are many quarters in systems in Mecklenburg and Sweden.

  • Zealand
    • In the double- aisle grave Lodneshøj (Låddenhøj), Sneslev municipality , a rectangular box 1.8 m long and 60 cm wide was found in 1884. One plate was 30 cm high, the other lower.
    • In the double- aisle grave Ormshøj , Årby municipality, which was examined in 1879, a square area of ​​about 0.5 × 0.5 m was divided off. In the other part of the complex you can see on the plan an oval enclosure about 1.6 m long and 90 cm wide.
    • In the neighboring double- aisle grave Hyldedysse von Rørby , a medium-sized quarter of slabs was found in each chamber opposite the mouth of the duct, which reached 15 cm above the ground level.
    • In a passage grave near Ejby , Rye parish, slabs were found in 1870 that were about 30 cm high and formed an enclosure that reached about 60 cm from the long side into the chamber.
    • The passage grave Bavnehøj, Kirke Helsinge Municipality was examined in 1924. In the 6.45 m long chamber there were two 10-20 cm high panels that separated an approximately 1.8 m long and 80 cm wide room.
    • In the passage grave Rævehøj at Slots Bjergby , whose chamber is 7.5 × 1.4-2.0 m in size, two 1.0 and 1.4 m long stone slabs are buried in the ground near the ends. This divides the chamber into three parts.
  • Jutland
    • In 1960 investigated passage grave Dall II, municipality Dall, south of Aalborg , whose chamber measures about 6.5 × 3 m, one found two quarters 1.6 and 2.0 m long and 60-70 cm wide.
    • In the passage grave on the Tustrup burial ground , municipality of Nørager, a section of the 10 m long chamber was separated by a long plate that protruded about 20 cm above the flooring. Here the circumstances indicate that the partition wall belongs to the original construction of the passage grave.
    • In the passage grave of Hulbjerg , Magleby parish, on Langeland , H. Berg found six (of originally seven) plates dug in 1960-61, which divided the south end of the gable (i.e. 0.8 × 1.65 m).
    • Nordman mentions other Jutland graves with quarters, such as the passage grave in Tolstrup, Aars municipality and one in Fjellerup municipality.

Quarter-like subdivisions of the interior of megalithic systems can also be found outside the Nordic megalithic architecture .

Great Britain, Ireland, Channel Islands

Various forms of division of megalithic complexes occur in the British Isles . Apart from the fact that the stone slabs of the Stalled Cairns are considerably higher, there is only an equivalent to the Danish "internal boxes". In the megalithic complex near Unival , a passage grave in the west of the Hebridean island of North Uist in Scotland , a box made of thin plates was found in one half of the chamber. However, there are no systems with low partitions on the British Isles.

In Ireland, O'Kelly found in the Wedge tomb of Baurnadomeeny , in County Tipperary also a small "internal box" made of low plates.

The passage grave of "Mont Ube" on the island of Jersey has separate rooms in its chamber. Here, however, the partition walls seem to have been higher on the sides and only consisted of low panels in the middle of the chamber. A relocated megalithic complex near “Mont de la Ville” on Jersey has five or six niches that were at least one meter wide. There was a capstone on each one. Their height was about 1.2 m.

France and the Iberian Peninsula

A connection between France and Västergötland has been emphasized on various occasions ( Lili Kaelas 1919–2007). In a double grave near Kerléven , in the Finistère department , small transverse walls were found in one chamber that are similar to those in the passage graves in Västergötland, and on the other hand there are stones in the chamber in the extension of the passage (which is also found in other French graves, but is to be regarded as a threshold stone), creating a chamber division that can be compared formally with the conditions in Rævehøj on Zealand but also with the passage grave of Rössberga , Gem. Valtorp in Västergötland. As L. Kaelas emphasizes, in France there is also the division of the chamber by a transverse wall, which also occurs in some Danish and German systems and in Asahögen in Skåne . A peculiar chamber near Penar-ar-Menez, in the Finistère department, contained several small boxes of dimensions similar to those of Carlshögen .

Georg and Vera Leisner have established chamber divisions on the Iberian Peninsula in a number of cases. There are rooms separated by low stones, which correspond to conditions in Skåne; there are also internal crates of the type found in Denmark, Germany and the British Isles. z. B. in the Anta of Pavia in Portugal .

See also

literature

  • Jutta Roß: Megalithic graves in Schleswig-Holstein 1992
  • Ewald Schuldt : The Mecklenburg megalithic graves. Studies on their architecture and function , In: Ewald Schuldt: Contributions to the prehistory and early history of the districts of Rostock, Schwerin and Neubrandenburg , Volume 6, VEB Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1972.
  • Märta Strömberg: The megalithic tombs of Hagestad. On the problem of grave structures and grave rites . Habelt, Bonn 1971, ISBN 3-7749-0195-3 ( Acta Archaeologica Lundensia . Series in 8 °. No. 9).
  • 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 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lili Kaelas "Dolmen and passage graves in Sweden" In: Offa vol. 15, 1956, p. 22