Redstone cave
| Redstone cave
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.jpg) entrance |
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| Location: | Weserbergland | |
| Height : | 340 m above sea level NN | |
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Geographic location: |
51 ° 56 '47.1 " N , 9 ° 39' 40.7" E | |
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The Rothestein Cave is located in the Ith , a ridge of up to 439 m high in the Weser Uplands . The Ith extends over a length of about 20 km between Holzen and Coppenbrügge in Lower Saxony . Strongly jagged dolomite cliffs ( Korallenoolith of the Upper Jurassic ) rise below its ridge . Near the southeast end of the Ith, northwest of Holzen, there are six caves, of which the Redstone Cave is the most archaeologically interesting.
description
A narrow crevice forms the entrance. Behind it, a narrow passage about 20 m long leads into the rock. At the end, on the right, bends at right angles, the high, relatively narrow and 40 m long so-called Wollemann corridor, which is lower than the entrance and can be reached via a stepped landing. In some places the corridor is widened. At another point, a crevice that narrows towards the bottom goes down about 20 m. In the vicinity of the landing, a narrow slip (the "von Hase-Gang") opens up, which leads to an inconspicuous, small opening below the cave forecourt. The cave is freely accessible from April 1st to September 30th. The rest of the time it is closed to protect the bats that hibernate there.
Research history and finds
At the end of the 19th century, the history association in Wolfenbüttel became aware of the cave through various finds and commissioned the student Alfred Wollemann with a systematic archaeological investigation, which he carried out in 1883. He came across a cultural layer within which he identified four key sites. There were shards of vessels lying there and next to some animal bones he came across numerous human bones, which in many cases seemed to have been scorched. Only the smaller bones were intact. However, tubular bones enclosing the marrow were cracked in almost all cases. Devices made of bronze and bone were recovered in three places . All in all, he found a bone needle and a bone sliver , a ridge hatchet with a broken edge, two dagger blades and a wire spiral, all made of bronze.
In the following decades there were explorations and robbery excavations , which, apparently, confirmed Wollemann's investigations in the cave. At best, there are fragmentary reports on this. The material from an excavation from 1909 includes medieval ceramics , animal and human bones and a bronze ring. In 1934 a bronze awl with bone shaft was found. In the years 1951–54 numerous animal and human bones, prehistoric and modern ceramic shards as well as a bone slab came to light.
The finds made from human bone material were mostly fragments. The bone material found in the Rothestein cave and two other neighboring caves could be attributed to 19 children, two adolescents and 23 adults. However, it was not a question of complete skeletons, but rather small portions of bone.
Von-Hase-Gang
In 1954, the student Friedrich Wilhelm von Hase reported new discoveries after he and his fellow students had penetrated cave areas that had not yet been explored. On the side of the entrance to the Wollemann-Gang he discovered a eight-meter-long and low cave chamber, which was named after its finder as the von Hase-Gang . When clearing block rubble, found objects came to light on a large stone slab. Two dagger blades, an awl with a partially preserved bone handle, small rings and a sheet metal fragment, all made of bronze, and a small bone sliver. Along with these finds, he also recovered some human finger bones. Pieces of bone assembled later belonged to the fragment of an animal skull. In the area of the von Hase Ganges, the archaeologist Klaus Grote hid Iron Age ceramics and an iron gooseneck needle in 1963/64 .
Dating
The majority of material from the excavation from 1883 to 1953, the bronze age culture Unetice be assigned. Further finds show that the cave was also occasionally visited later by humans. Evidence for this are the Iron Age finds from the excavation by Klaus Grote in the early 1960s and the medieval and modern ceramics recovered on various occasions.
interpretation
Wollemann had already accepted the possibility of sacrificial acts and cannibalism in the cave in 1883 . An anthropological study of the bones found in the 20th century by the paleopathologist Michael Schultz revealed traces of violence on two skulls and clear cuts on a human rib. Human sacrifices are therefore not excluded. Cannibalism is not ruled out either, as found human bones were exposed to a heat source at the time.
The Rothesteinhöhle can be interpreted as a Bronze Age cult cave, in which bones were introduced for cultic reasons in prehistoric times. Similar actions are also known from other caves, such as the caves in Kyffhäuser and the Lichtenstein cave . Cultic acts in the cave can be proven by the discovery of a sacrificial plate with the skull of a newborn cattle.
Caves nearby
The group of four caves to the south-east of the Rothestein Cave was also visited by people in prehistoric times, as was revealed by the excavations of Hildesheim pharmacist Jolsting in 1911. The nasal stone cave, where human bone material was recovered, which can be dated to the end of the Neolithic and the beginning of the Bronze Age, had a cultic function, comparable to the red stone cave. At the same time, the children's cave, the soldiers' cave and the pottery cave, which is connected to the nasal stone cave by a crawl, seem to have been visited. The pottery cave, however, apparently served a potter as a workshop in the pre-Roman Iron Age , as it was half a meter high filled with clay . Only from the Bear Cave northwest of the Red Stone Cave is there any evidence of human use in prehistoric times, as it has not yet been investigated.
Mention in the film
The German television thriller Die Toten von Hameln from 2014 deals with the mysterious disappearance of four girls and a supervisor in the Rothesteinhöhle of the Ith , to which, according to the film, the Pied Piper of Hameln is said to have once led the children of Hameln . Contrary to what the film said, the cave is relatively manageable.
literature
- Michael Geschwinde : Caves in the Ith. Prehistoric places of sacrifice in the mountainous region of southern Lower Saxony. Lax, Hildesheim 1988, ISBN 3-7848-1233-3 ( publications of the prehistoric collections of the Landesmuseum zu Hannover 33).
- Ernst Andreas Friedrich : Die Höhlen im Ith , pp. 23-25, in: If stones could talk. Volume I, Landbuch-Verlag, Hannover 1989, ISBN 3-7842-03973 .
- Friedrich Laux : The "Rothestein Cave" near Holzen, Ldkr. Holzminden. Ralf Busch (Ed.): Place of sacrifice and sanctuary, cult of prehistoric times in Northern Germany. Wachholtz, Neumünster 2000, ISBN 3-529-02010-9 , pp. 50–53 ( publications by the Hamburg Museum for Archeology and the History of Harburg - Helms Museum 86).
