Slit pit

A trench pit is a common archaeological find type . These are 2 to 3 m long, up to 4 m deep, wedge-shaped pits. Since trench pits are usually poorly funded, no clear landfill structure can be identified. A dating is difficult. In general, slit pits have been known since band ceramics and can thus be dated to the Neolithic . Slit pits were z. B. found near the ceramic settlement area in Kirchheim unter Teck in Baden-Württemberg .

Hypotheses about the function of the slot pits

Lehner suspected in 1912 and 1917 that meat was stored cool in slit pits or that it was used as a game trap . Buttler and Haberey (1936) thought it could be used as a tanning pit .

Vladar and Lichardus ' (1968) theory that slit pits are sacrificial pits was rejected by Van de Velde in 1973. In 1989 Gronenborn formulated the hypothesis that slot pits could have served as weaving pits. There are also theories that say slit pits are latrines , clay pits for potters or storage areas for bows and arrows .

Since slit pits were not present in every Neolithic settlement, but only in some, and then often in larger numbers, one can assume that they were used in a special branch of the economy. It is conceivable that animal skins were stored in them (urine bath to remove hair), or that the actual fermentation process of tanning took place in them. This is also supported by the location, which is often far from settlements (an indication of odor nuisance during tanning).

As an argument for its use as weaving pits, Gronenborn used the stylized representation of a weaving person on a Hallstatt urn . The warp threads of the loom hang far below the standing surface of the weaving person in a pit. Corresponding loom constructions are conceivable.

Analyzes showed accumulations of phosphate in limited areas of the pit floor. This speaks against both the theory of the latrine - there the phosphate accumulations would have to be much higher - and against the use as a weaving pit, since no phosphate accumulation would be expected there.

literature

Eva Lenneis (Ed.): Rosenburg im Kamptal, Lower Austria. A special place for the older linear ceramics. (= University research on prehistoric archeology. Volume 164). Rudolf Habelt, Bonn 2009, ISBN 978-3-7749-3575-4 , p. 43 f.
Heiko Mauch: Studies on leather production using the example of the northern Alpine region. From the beginning to the modern age. Dissertation . Eberhard-Karls-University of Tübingen, Überlingen 2004, ISBN 3-9806206-5-4 .
E. Eckmeier: Detecting prehistoric fire-based farming using biogeochemical markers. Dissertation. University of Zurich, Faculty of Science, 2007, p. 12. ( Memento from December 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

↑ Gabriela Ruß-Popa: The skin, leather and fur finds from the Older Iron Age core watering works in the salt mine of Hallstatt, Upper Austria - an archaeological and technical recording. Thesis . University of Vienna, Vienna 2011, p. 86 f.
↑ Eric Biermann: Old and Middle Neolithic in Central Europe. Investigations into the distribution of various artefact and material groups and references to regional traditions. Cologne 2001, pp. 182-183.

[1] Gabriela Ruß-Popa: The skin, leather and fur finds from the Older Iron Age core watering works in the salt mine of Hallstatt, Upper Austria - an archaeological and technical recording. Thesis . University of Vienna, Vienna 2011, p. 86 f.

[2] Eric Biermann: Old and Middle Neolithic in Central Europe. Investigations into the distribution of various artefact and material groups and references to regional traditions. Cologne 2001, pp. 182-183.