Schnelsen equestrian grave

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The Schnelsen equestrian grave is the burial of a Saxon warrior together with a house horse . The grave was found in 1952 during construction work in Hamburg-Schnelsen . The grave, laid out on a Bronze Age burial mound, is one of the few rider and horse burials north of the Elbe from the early Middle Ages and it is one of the earliest late Saxon body graves. The grave inventory is shown in the archaeological permanent exhibition of the Archaeological Museum Hamburg in Hamburg-Harburg .

Find place

Urn from an urn burial from the Migration Period in the area of ​​burial mound I.

The site is on a high field north of Heidlohstrasse in Hamburg-Schnelsen , which has been used for agriculture since the 17th century . The soil of the field was very sandy at this point with only a small amount of humus . Local residents knew that there were archaeological finds in the field. These finds were collected from the fields or buried undocumented for many years. In 1880 at least three burial mounds still existed in the field, but they were all plowed down in 1951 during a field inspection as part of the planned construction work for a settlement and were only recognizable as soil discoloration. After archaeological finds came to light during the construction work, the building sites were archaeologically examined from March 1952. During subsequent excavations in 1955, an early medieval burial ground with several cremations and body burials was found north of the former grave mounds II and III . Another Iron Age urn burial was discovered at Grave Hill III and two body graves from the Migration Period at Grave Hill II . The grave hill I was on the building of houses Heidlohstraße 104/106 and contained grave goods leading Bronze Age burial and two cremation pit graves of the migration period. The Schnelsen equestrian grave was discovered in 1952 on the northern edge of Bronze Age burial mound I. The grave was laid in a north-south orientation as a subsequent burial on the existing burial mound. Rotten wood residues showed that the burial was laid out in a wooden burial chamber measuring 210 × 150 cm and covered with reading stones . The sunken grave pit was only 70 cm deep below the humus layer. The southern end of the burial chamber was cut and disturbed by dredging work. Location: 53 ° 37 ′ 40.2 ″  N , 9 ° 54 ′ 46.2 ″  E Coordinates: 53 ° 37 ′ 40.2 ″  N , 9 ° 54 ′ 46.2 ″  E

Findings

The preserved horse teeth from the equestrian grave

The conservation conditions for organic material were extremely unfavorable due to the loose, well-ventilated and lime-poor sandy soil at the sites. Faint corpse shadows have survived in only a few body graves of the deceased . The acidic soil also provided unfavorable conditions for the maintenance of metal objects. The extent to which archaeological findings were lost through previous agriculture, robbery excavations and finally through construction work can no longer be estimated. In addition, the rescue excavations were made more difficult by workers and residents, the finds overlooked, disturbed or destroyed. In the rider's grave of Schnelsen there were no reliable traces of the corpse of the person buried. In the northwest of the grave lay the preserved upper and lower jaws of a horse with teeth , but the bones were so fragile that only the teeth could be recovered. A more precise determination of whether a person's body was buried in the grave was not possible, nor was it possible to determine whether only a horse's head or a whole horse was added. The grave contained a typical of the 8th century weaponry consisting of a Saxon Langsax with the remains of an ornate Saxscheide , a knife , also with decorated scabbard and a spearhead . The arms were placed with their tips facing north. At the southern end of the burial chamber was the iron hump of a past shield . In addition, numerous buckles , strap fittings, a pair of triangular loops with attached eyelets and a simple ring bridle were found, the location of which has only been roughly documented in the grave.

Weapon equipment

The long ax was pointing north, i.e. the dead man's feet. The Sax blade corresponds to the typical Saxon shape of the time and is a careful forging work , but without any further forging technical features. The total length is 635 mm, the blade has a length of 520 mm and a width of 45 mm. The location is at the level of the cutting line . During the recovery, the remains of a wooden scabbard three to four mm thick were visible. Reinhard Schindler described a winding of the sax scabbard made of leather or linen , which was studded with silver rosette-shaped rivet heads . The wooden handle of the Saxes was also wrapped in leather, over which were very thin strips of sheet silver attached with silver rivets. The handle was largely preserved when it was found, but disintegrated when it was recovered. Half under the sax scabbard was a knife with a partially preserved ornate scabbard. The knife had a bent back line and was also with the point towards the feet of the deceased. The iron of the knife was very badly corroded and is no longer preserved. In the southwest of the grave pit was a badly corroded iron lance tip, with a flat, lanceolate blade and a narrow spout . The total length of the lance tip is 423 mm. The blade has its widest point with 55 mm in the lower third. The spout has a length of 115 mm. A shield was included as a protective weapon, of which only the iron shield boss and part of the shield shackle have survived . The shield boss has a sugar loaf shape typical of the 8th century, as is known from numerous grave finds and historical illustrations. The hump has a height of 175 mm, a diameter of 155 mm and a rivet edge of 15 mm width. Remnants of six rivets were preserved on the rivet edge. Originally, the front of the shield was leaning against the head wall of the burial chamber, as if it were protecting the person who was buried. Information on the qualitative equipment of the organic weapon parts can no longer be given due to the poor condition.

Riding gear

The horse equipment included seven buckles, a pair of rectangular belt fittings, a pair of three-pass fittings, a pair of triangular loops with hooked-in eyelets, two belt tongues, a simple ring snaffle, two round eyelets with tapering clamps and hooked-in fittings, a ring with the remains of a clamp Ring with a rectangular cross-section, an iron rivet pin with surviving wood remains, two leather fittings and a strap end fitting. Some of these parts can no longer be found in the museum's holdings.

Dating

The dating of the burial place was typologically based on the spatial orientation of the grave and, above all, the characteristic weapon equipment of the saxe, the shield hump and the ornate strap fittings in the second half of the 8th century AD.Scientific dating using dendrochronology or radiocarbon dating was previously due to the poor Preservation of organic materials in the grave is not possible.

interpretation

The sex of the deceased and its location in the burial chamber could only be derived from the location of the grave goods. The addition of weapons, horses and riding gear speak relatively safely for a male deceased. The orientation of the weapons in the grave, all of which were placed with their points facing north, suggest that the dead man was buried with his head facing south and facing north. Due to the fact that no traces of the dead were recognizable during the rescue, it is also possible that the grave was created as an empty grave ( cenotaph ) without a buried person . Based on comparative finds from equestrian graves such as in Rullstorf , the ring bridle , the various ferrules, eyelets and strap fittings can be relatively safely assigned to horse equipment consisting of bridle , riding saddle and bridle. The triangular loops with hooked-in eyelets can be supplemented to form stirrups . The parts of the riding gear and the horse's jaws indicate that a horse was added to the deceased. However, the revealed dental age estimation of horse teeth by Wolf Herre an age of the animal from three to four years. Thus the horse would not have grown up yet and would have been too young to be a riding horse. However, whether only a horse's head was added pars pro toto or a whole horse can no longer be clarified today. The size of the Schnelsen burial chamber would have been sufficient for the addition of a whole horse, as confirmed by comparative finds from Liebenau or the Mahndorfer burial ground in Bremen . The rare occurrence of horse burials in comparison to normal body burials and the sophisticated accessories of the grave as well as its arrangement on an existing older burial mound suggest that the deceased held a special position in his social environment or was highly valued there .

Parallels

20 cavalry graves ( Danish Ryttergraven ) were also found on the Cimbrian Peninsula (Fregerslev; Grimstrup) and in Torgård in Norway. One of the most distinctive graves of Norway's Viking Age is the grave of a rider. The Gjermundbugraven (also Gjermundbufunnet) by Ringerike in Buskerud . It is rich in equipment, but made world famous for the helmet and the ring fountain that was in the grave. This is the only helmet and the only ring fountain in the Viking Age. In addition to a large number of so-called rider burials from the early Middle Ages, the burial from grave no. 3 from Hollenstedt ( Harburg district ) is an almost identical equestrian grave from the same period south of the Elbe. In this grave, however, the horse was buried outside the burial chamber.

literature

  • Mirjam Briel: The "equestrian grave" of Hamburg-Schnelsen. Findings and interpretation - a contribution to Saxony research. Ed .: University of Hamburg. Hamburg 2011 (Master's thesis).
  • Ralf Busch (ed.): Hidden treasures in the collections . 100 years of the Helms Museum. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1998, ISBN 3-529-02001-X , p. 82-83 .
  • Ingrid Sudhoff: Horse and rider from Hamburg-Schnelsen . In: Ralf Busch (Ed.): Find and Interpretation - Old and New Finds from the Archaeological Collections . Hamburg Museum for Archeology and the History of Harburgs Helms-Museum, Hamburg-Harburg 1995, p. 90-91 .
  • Reinhard Schindler : Excavations in old Hamburg: new results on the early history of the Hanseatic city . Society of Friends of the Fatherland. Schools and Education, Hamburg 1957, p. 103-111 .
  • Reinhard Schindler: A Saxon equestrian grave in Hamburg-Schnelsen . In: Hammaburg . No. 3 / VIII , 1952, ISSN  0173-0886 , p. 132 ff . (First publication).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hamburg-Schnelsen, site 3, finding I, 1
  2. ^ Rüdiger Articus, Jochen Brandt, Elke Först, Yvonne Krause, Michael Merkel, Kathrin Mertens, Rainer-Maria Weiss: Archäologisches Museum Hamburg, Helms-Museum: A tour through the ages (=  publications of the Archaeological Museum Hamburg Helms-Museum . No. 101 ). Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-931429-20-1 , pp. 104 .
  3. ↑ Subject area natural landscape, showcase No. 76.
  4. ↑ Mirjam Briel: The "Reitergrab" of Hamburg-Schnelsen. 2011, p. 18-28 .
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g Mirjam Briel: The "Reitergrab" of Hamburg-Schnelsen. 2011, p. 34-39 .
  6. ↑ Mirjam Briel: The "Reitergrab" of Hamburg-Schnelsen. 2011, p. 30 .
  7. ↑ IX by Hübener
  8. ^ A b Mirjam Briel: The "Reitergrab" of Hamburg-Schnelsen. 2011, p. 50-79 .
  9. ^ A b Mirjam Briel: The "Reitergrab" of Hamburg-Schnelsen. 2011, p. 210-265 .
  10. ^ A b Mirjam Briel: The "Reitergrab" of Hamburg-Schnelsen. 2011, p. 294-295 .
  11. ↑ Mirjam Briel: The "Reitergrab" of Hamburg-Schnelsen. 2011, p. 281-283 .
  12. ↑ Mirjam Briel: The "Reitergrab" of Hamburg-Schnelsen. 2011, p. 266-269 .