Saxon burial ground near Immenbeck

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A trunk that was found in a grave in the burial ground

The Saxon burial ground near Immenbeck is an archaeological site in the Buxtehude district of Immenbeck in the Stade district . The burial ground from the 4th to the 6th century was discovered in 2000 and excavated until 2004. It is considered the largest Saxon body grave field on the European continent and is characterized by its rich grave goods with jewelry, glass beads, amber and late antique glasses.

description

It is a mixed-use burial ground from the late Roman Empire and the Migration Period . Mixed evidence means that the two burial rites of cremation and body burial were practiced side by side. Subject to the research that has not yet been completed, its occupancy is estimated to be between the 4th and 6th centuries. The occupancy period covers a period of around 200 years and thus 9 generations. 262 burials, including 214 body graves and 48 urn burials, were found on the cemetery, which was not completely archaeologically examined.

The graves were shaped differently and differed in earth, coffin, chamber and urn graves . The sizes of the chamber graves range from 2 × 0.8 to 3.6 × 1.7 meters. The trench walls of the chamber graves were built from split planks , which showed up as dark discoloration in the ground.

Excavations

The burial ground was discovered when a new building area was being developed in 2000. Excavations were carried out between 2000 and 2004 by the Archaeological Monument Preservation of the City of Buxtehude, the District Archeology of Lüneburg of the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation , the Archaeological Institute of the University of Hamburg and the Charles University in Prague with the help of excavation workers and volunteers. The excavations were limited to the construction area, so that the full extent of the burial ground is not known. The location of the settlement belonging to the burial ground has not yet been localized.

The excavations in the heavy clay soil were difficult. As a result of the soil conditions, organic residues have not been preserved to any significant extent. Even the bones of the dead buried in body graves were gone. Because of the finely divided grave goods, over 200 block salvages took place . The blocks were examined in 2010 as part of a research project by the Institute for Materials Science at Leibniz University Hannover and the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation. The blocks were first x-rayed and then subjected to an examination using computed tomography . The evaluation and uncovering of the block salvage continues to this day.

Found objects

Four-button brooch made of solid silver with gold plating

Due to the rich grave goods of jewelry, glass and metal objects, the excavations have so far produced more than 11,000 finds. The Immenbeck site is particularly known for its wealth of glass, which was shown as a large abundance of colored beads made of glass and amber. This range of finds makes up about two thirds of the grave goods; In one grave alone there were about 1,400 small pearls, which probably belonged to an upper garment. The examinations of the women's graves showed that women were probably buried in their traditional costumes and that they received jewelry and household items such as keys as gifts . Pearls were added to the women's graves as a necklace . The metal objects found included brooches made of bronze and silver, which were designed as disc and bow brooches . Other metal finds were arm, neck and finger rings as well as a few coins, including Roman denarii . Weapons were found in the men's graves, such as a 95 cm long sword, spear or lance tips, arrowheads, axes and numerous knives in various forms.

The most extraordinary finds were 13 partially undamaged glass vessels, whose area of ​​origin is believed to be on the Lower Rhine , where the art of glassmaking was founded by the Romans . The glass finds can be divided into four types. These include narrow, elongated glasses, trunk cups , glass bowls and pointed beakers . So far, there are no comparative finds for the two trunk cups found. In glass manufacture, the cup was about 3.5 mm high inscriptions in Latin applied into the liquid glass, which receive the words liver through the wine and belonging to the wine contained.

literature

  • Bernd Habermann: The Saxon burial ground on the Kattenberg near Buxtehude-Immenbeck , in: Reports on the preservation of monuments in Lower Saxony , 1/2002
  • Bernd Habermann: The old Saxon burial ground of Immenbeck, City of Buxtehude, Ldkr. Stade In: Mamoun Fansa , Frank Both, Henning Haßmann (editor): Archeology | Land | Lower Saxony. 400,000 years of history. State Museum for Nature and People, Oldenburg 2004. Pages 444–446.
  • Bernd Habermann: The Saxon burial ground in Immenbeck near Buxtehude, Ldkr. Stade. in the series Guide to the Prehistory and Early History of Lower Saxony , 28, Oldenburg, 2008.
  • Claudia Köhler:, Anglo-Saxon product pirates? In: Archeology in Germany 3/2010, p. 45.
  • Anna-Laura Krogmeier: Confirmation of findings from block rescues, using the example of a block rescue from Immenbeck. Damage, causes and ways of limiting damage. , HAWK , 2010 ( Online ; PDF file; 9.15 MB)
  • Iris Aufderhaar, Christoph Grünewald, Babette Ludowici: On the way in space and time in: Babette Ludowici (ed.): Saxones , Theiss, Darmstadt 2019, pp. 174–175

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Reports on the preservation of monuments in Lower Saxony 2002/1

Coordinates: 53 ° 26 ′ 41.6 "  N , 9 ° 43 ′ 27.8"  E