Rhein-Main Group

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Stone chamber grave from a burial ground in the Bruchköbel forest

The Rhein-Main-Gruppe is a cultural expression of the burial mound culture of the Middle Bronze Age , which comprised the Rhine-Main area and what is now southern Hesse as well as neighboring regions. The Rhein-Main Group is roughly from 1600 to 1300 BC. Demonstrable.

Distribution area

For the Rhein-Main Group, the confluence of the Moselle into the Rhine and the river valleys of Nidda and Lahn are viewed as the northern sections of the settlement zone, a strip along the left bank of the Rhine as the western border and the Neckar valley as the southern and the Main valley as far as the river knee near Miltenberg as the easternmost areas. In the east, the Rhein-Main-Gruppe borders on the Osthessische Gruppe through which it is separated by the Vogelsberg . In the south, the Rhein-Main Group borders the Hagenauer Group .

Classification

The Rhine-Main group is usually divided into the stages Lochham (Bronze Age B, 1600 to 1500 BC), Schwanheim (Bronze Age C1, 1500 to 1400) and Bessungener Wald (Bronze Age C2, 1400 to 1300). Occasionally there is also talk of a stage Wölfersheim , Bronze Age D, which, however, can also be viewed as part of the early urn field culture and thus as the successor to the Rhein-Main Group in large parts of its area of ​​distribution.

Cultural idiosyncrasies

The differentiation of different groups of the Bronze Age is carried out by examining finds from their graves. These grave finds enable regional differentiation based on "traditional costumes" - peculiarities of the burial rituals and the design of grave goods, which were similar within certain regions and differentiate them from other regions.

In the early phase of the Rhein-Main Group, metal finds are rather rare compared to the southern German costumes. Male corpses were often only equipped with a single bronze bracelet. The jewelery mentioned below comes mainly from women's graves. There, bronze wheel needles and arm spirals with notch-like, herringbone-patterned or spiral-shaped decorations are among the typical finds, and in the middle and late phase, more and more leg mountains with similar patterns. The men's bangles were also patterned in these styles. In the case of arm spirals and leg mountains, the number of coils incorporated tends to increase in the course of cultural development. In the later phase, these pieces of jewelry are widened like a sheet, the wheel needle heads take on more and more complicated, outwardly crowned or toothed shapes. Hole neck needles and pendants in the shape of a spiked disk are secondary .

In the late phase of the Rhein-Main Group, the number and complexity of the spiked discs increased, and spiral glasses pendants were added, probably as belt jewelry. Overall, the forms of discovery become more diverse in the late period. Finger spirals and rings as well as tutuli as clothing trimmings appear. Bronze spiral rolls, glass and amber pearls and occasionally larger pectorals (some with amber trimmings) are used as necklaces . Headbands or headgear also became common.

Weapons finds are rather rare, but heel axes appear to be the dominant form among them.

Based on the grave finds, trade relations in the area on the left bank of the Rhine, in particular in the Neuwied Basin, in the middle Upper Rhine Valley, in Main Franconia, East and North Hesse can be documented.

Grave goods from Wölfersheim

The following stage, Wölfersheim, took over many of the late forms of jewelry from the Rhein-Main Group, which is why they can also be referred to as their late forms. However, the previously widespread wheel needles and arm spirals almost completely disappeared and numerous completely new forms of jewelry emerged, which is why a clear cultural break appears plausible.

Important sites

  • Darmstadt-Bessungen Forest
  • Darmstadt-Bayerseich
  • Darmstadt-Wixhausen
  • Mühlheim-Dietesheim, Teufelskaute
  • Pouring, shoot
  • Erlenbach, Eschau, Im Wirbel
  • Wiesbaden, Südfriedhof
  • Plum home
  • Frankfurt-Schwanheim
  • Bruchköbel

literature

  • Stephanie Hoffmann: The origin and development of the Middle Bronze Age in the western low mountain range. Dissertation, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn , 2004 ( PDF file , 26.8 MB).
  • Wolf Kubach: The Wölfersheim stage in the Rhine-Main area (prehistoric bronze finds), Munich, Beck 1984, ISBN 3-406-09732-4
  • Wolf Kubach: The needles in Rheinhessen and Hessen (prehistoric bronze finds), Munich Beck 1977, ISBN 3-406-00763-5
  • Isa Kubach-Richter: The arm and leg jewelry of the bronze and urnfield time in Hessen (prehistoric bronze finds), Munich 1970, ISBN 3-406-00746-5
  • Ulrike Wels-Weihrauch: The pendants and neck rings in southwest Germany and northern Bavaria (prehistoric bronze finds), Munich 1978, ISBN 3-406-00771-6