Schöninger Group

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The Schöninger Group consists primarily of archaeological finds from Neolithic ceramics. It was named after its location in the Schöningen opencast mine in Lower Saxony .

Discovery and processing

The Schöningen group was discovered in 1985 at an archaeological excavation site in the Schöningen opencast mine in the Helmstedt brown coal area . Reinhard Maier presented the finds and assessed them in the early Neolithic.

During the processing of the Salzmünder culture , Jonas Beran came across material in the eponymous Salzmünde -Schiepzig site that earlier research in 1938 did not recognize as independent, as it had been partially recovered with Salzmünder material. After viewing and typological examination of the ceramics, Jonas Beran defined a "Schöninger group" to which he assigned 16 unmixed complexes, and based on typological considerations, dated the Schöninger group to the early Michelsberg horizon (MK I / II; 4200/4000 BC. ). Beran named several ceramic lead shapes, some of which are documented from Schöningen and which probably come from closed find complexes. The ceramic is fired mainly oxidizing and has mica temper .

Further unpublished mine inventories from Schöningen are in progress. Perhaps the term means a spectrum of different groups in the Epi-Rössen tradition in the late Lengyel horizon . The archaeologist Dirk Raetzel-Fabian recognized early Baden elements in 2006 on the basis of ceramic comparisons and dated the Schönferlder Group to the horizon of the Baalberg culture , possibly the early Salzmünde (3700-3350 BC).

Economy

Only one finding has been published which allows statements to be made about the economy. A 30 × 30 cm large and five cm thick layer of charred remains of parallel lying (bundled) feather grass awns with fruits was recovered from a storage pit in Schöningen.The deliberate selection, stems and leaves missing, as well as the bundling suggest a use for which it however, there are no equivalents that suggest the function. The pit was irregular, roughly. 4.5 × 3.6 m in size and 0.65 m below the subgrade. It contained pottery and the neck part of a rock ax.

Grave and burial customs

There are no known graves that can be clearly assigned. A relative lack of graves is also characteristic of the Bischheim culture at about the same time and the Michelsberg culture that began in West and Southwest Germany . An incomprehensible handling of the dead would partly explain why the independence of the material was recognized so late.

The probably closed complex of finds from Salzmünde-Schiepzig yielded in place 49 the skeletal remains of a ten-year-old child mixed with ceramics, animal bones, clay , flint artifacts and shells. Position 51 showed human and animal bones with ceramics and position 57 ceramics with skeletal remains of a small child. Corpse fire is recorded from point 68 with Schöninger, but also with Salzmünder ceramics (Beran 1993). A body grave from Freckleben in the Salzlandkreis in Saxony-Anhalt (Nitzschke / Stahlhofen 1977) contained a " Gatersleben amphora", which Dieter Kaufmann (1986) wanted to place more generally in the late lengyel horizon, and a pointed rock ax and a bowl similar to that Type "Schöningen", only this two opposite handles had knobs on the shoulder. The grave was probably oriented to SN. Due to the slightly different shape of the bowl, the assignment to the "Schöninger Group" is problematic.

literature

  • Jonas Beran : Studies on the position of the Salzmünder culture in the early Neolithic of the Saale area (= contributions to the prehistory and early history of Europe. Volume 2). Beier & Beran, Wilkau-Hasslau 1993, ISBN 3-930036-01-0 .
  • Dieter Kaufmann 1986:?
  • Reinhard Maier: New settlement finds from the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age in the brown coal area near Schöningen, Ldkr. Helmstedt. In: E. Cerna (Ed.), Archaeological Rescue Activities in Lignite Areas and the Problems of Settlement History Research, International Symposium Most 1986 . Prague 1987.
  • Nitzschke / Stahlhofen 1977 ??
  • Torsten Schunke: "Schöninger Group". In: Hans-Jürgen Beier , Ralph Einicke (Ed.): The Neolithic in the Middle Elbe-Saale area. An overview and an outline of the state of research (= contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe. Volume 4). Beier & Beran, Wilkau-Hasslau 1994, ISBN 3-930036-05-3 , pp. 107-112.
  • Alexandra Philippi: A Neolithic filler. New results on the Schöninger Group in: Archeology in Lower Saxony 18, 2018, pp. 67–67 ( online )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reinhard Maier, New Settlement Finds of the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age in the brown coal area near Schöningen, Ldkr. Helmstedt. In: E. Cerna (Ed.), Archaeological Rescue Activities in Lignite Areas and the Problems of Settlement History Research, International Symposium Most 1986 . Prague 1987.
  2. ↑ Dirk Raetzel-Fabian, Martin Furhol, early Baden elements in the Neolithic of Central Germany: the »Schöninger Group«. www.jungsteinSITE.de10 , October 2006, http://www.jungsteinsite.uni-kiel.de/pdf/2006_fabian_furholt.pdf