Ring wall
A ring wall is a ring-shaped rampart that was built for defense as a field fortification or hill fort , for religious reasons and perhaps also as a meeting place.
The origins of these systems stretch from the Neolithic (New Stone Age) up to the Middle Ages .
construction
The characteristic of a ring wall is the wall as the main fortification element. It can be constructed in different ways, as a simple earthfill, as a wood-earth construction up to a wall. Former wood-earth walls, but also those made of stone, can often only be recognized today in the terrain as supposed earth walls. Usually a ring wall had a ditch in front of it ; the wall can be supplemented by a palisade . The builders often erected several concentric ring walls, which made a more effective defense against attackers possible. Upstream systems of a ring wall represent ring section walls and section walls, like on a mountain spur.
discovery
Many ring walls were discovered in the Swiss and Lower Austrian Alpine foothills , often in the forest and often through aerial archeology (aerial photos when the sun is flat). Profiles through the facilities and the excavation of the inner surface allow analyzes of the development over time of the fortifications, the ceramics and the food supply of the past.
Chronological order
In the 19th and even in the 20th century, archaeologists often classified ring walls as prehistoric. For some, dating as prehistoric or medieval is difficult based on the shape of the complex alone, if there are no datable finds. Often, however, such systems have now also been recognized as medieval castle sites . In topographic maps , however, they are usually still marked as "ring walls".
Well-known ring walls
- Ringwall Altkönig in the Vordertaunus
- Heidenmauer near Bad Dürkheim
- Eiringsburg near Bad Kissingen
- Hünenburg Bielefeld
- Ringwall Heiligenberg near Bruchhausen-Vilsen
- Ring wall in Bürgstadt
- Quatmannsburg near Cappeln
- Sierhauser Schanzen near Damme
- Rödchensmauer on the Dornburg (Oppidum)
- Donnersberg in the Palatinate
- Ring wall in the Eurasburger forest
- Lembecksburg on Föhr
- Heidenwall Dehlthun near Ganderkesee
- Dünsberg near Giessen
- Arkeburg near Goldenstedt
- Ring wall of Groß-Raden in Mecklenburg
- Grotenburg in the Teutoburg Forest
- Heiligenberg in Heidelberg
- Holterhöfchen in Hilden
- Ringwall Kapellenberg near Hofheim am Taunus
- Judenhügel near Kleinbardorf in Lower Franconia
- Pöppendorfer ring wall near Lübeck
- Sachsenwall on the Marienberg near Nordstemmen
- Mettermich
- Ring wall on the Tönsberg near Oerlinghausen
- Slavic ring wall system in Oldenburg in Holstein
- Ring wall of Otzenhausen
- Ring walls in Reitlingstal im Elm ( Krimmel- and Brunkelburg )
- Tinnumburg on Sylt
- Hünenburg near Twistringen
- Schwalenburg ring wall in Willingen (Upland) Schwalefeld
- Ring walls near Stromberg near Bonn
- Ring head on the boundaries of Sensweiler and Allenbach in the Birkenfeld district
See also
literature
- Arthur Dähn with Susan Möller-Wiering, ring walls and tower hill. Medieval castles in Schleswig-Holstein . Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Husum 1999, ISBN 978-3-88042-850-8 .