Cattle burial
The cattle burial is in Central Europe a phenomenon from the middle and final phase of the Neolithic that the particularly east Weser occurs. It is often associated with the spherical amphora culture (KAK) (around 3100–2700 BC), but also with the Baden , Bernburg and other cultures. Neolithic cattle burials are rare and interpreted as sacrifices. The cattle burial in Biendorf contained the skeleton of a woman and an approximately 5-year-old child.
distribution
Cattle burials can be found in the eastern half of today's Germany between the Baltic Sea and the Ore Mountains and in Poland. The skeleton of Penkun in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district comes from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . The cattle burials of Buchow-Karpzow and Gallberg bei Zachow in the Nauen district are in Brandenburg and are part of the Havelländische Kultur . In Saxony-Anhalt there are finds in Derenburg -Löwenberg, Schönebeck and Oschersleben . In Saxony , cattle burials are z. B. from Weideroda-Zauschwitz , Dölkau , Plotha and Altranstädt (bulb amphora culture), known in Thuringia from Stobra .
Finds
Bornecke
The archaeologists found an approximately 5000 year old ensemble of seven cattle burials and a stone box between Börnecke and Westernhausen in the Quedlinburg district . Immediately next to the stone box, cattle were deposited in two pits at the same time. The combination of stone box and cattle burial makes this ensemble unique. The type of laying down suggests a burial or sacrificial ritual. According to the bone determination, it is cattle lying in the anatomical bandage. They are almost east-west oriented and so follow the stone box burial. The cattle of one pit are three young bulls aged 3 to 4 years, an 8 to 10 year old adult and a 7 to 8 year old cow. In the neck area of an animal there was a pointed, sharp bone device with which the animals were possibly killed (bled to death). None of the animals shows signs of slaughter. Of the skeletons of the two cattle burials in Altranstädt, only the remains of the skull, teeth and jaw fragments had survived. The graves were furnished with several complete vessels and a large, completely shattered storage vessel.
Remlingen
On both sides of the entrance to the chamber of the wall chamber grave of Remlingen , the heavily burned skeletal remains of cattle lay on the gravel pavement, their skulls and lower jaws facing east. This phenomenon, so far unique in wall chamber graves, can be associated with the cattle burials of the Bernburger and bulb amphora culture. The cattle could have been teams of draft animals, because the stone-pecked depictions of teams of cattle, like those from the gallery graves of Lohne - Züschen (Schwalm-Eder district, Hesse ) and Warburg I ( Ldkr. Höxter , North Rhine-Westphalia ) knows.
Profen opencast mine
Two complete teams of cattle with yoke and wagon were found 60 m apart in the Profen opencast mine in Saxony-Anhalt.
Poland
The Polish bulb amphora culture (KAK) also enriches knowledge of cattle burials. A grave in Husynne Kolonia, Bez. Zamość , contained a cattle burial, which, in addition to a vessel and bone tools, had been given two axes, as they are known from human burials. While this grave has no stone fixtures , a stone box was found in Sahryń, Werbkowice district , which reminds of the East Lublin group and grave structures in Volhynia and Podolia . The eastern influence is not only reflected in the grave construction, but also in the shape and decoration of the vessels. In Sandomierz , district Tarnobrzeg, there were three graves of different types, grave II without stones, grave VIII with stone slabs without a chamber and grave X with a stone cover and paving. Based on the finds, the graves can be assigned to the youngest, third phase of the spherical amphora culture, a date that is also supported by two 14 C dates from grave VIII. In Zdrojówka, Koło district, next to a box-like structure built half of stones and half of small-format masonry, a pair of cattle burials was found.
Africa
The oldest known representations of cattle burials can be found on rock carvings in southeast Algeria . In Egypt , early cattle burials are known from the Badari period (5th millennium BC) and the Hyksos period (2nd millennium BC), later during the Apis cult.
See also
literature
- W. Coblenz K. Fritsche Triple cattle burial with spherical amphorae in from Zauschwitz Kr. Borna In: Ausgrabungen und Funde 6 1961 pp. 62-69
- A. Kokowski, J. Ścibior: Comments on the regional structure of the spherical amphora culture in Poland In: New excavations and research in Lower Saxony 1991.
- A. Pollex: A Neolithic cattle skeleton from Penkun, district of Uecker-Randow. Comments on the interpretation of so-called cattle burials. Soil monument preservation in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, yearbook 45/1997, 103–128.
- H. Stahlhofen; A. Kurzhals: Neolithic cattle burials near Derenburg, Kr. Wernigerode In: Excavations and finds Berlin 1983