Princely grave of Gammertingen

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The gilded spangenhelm from the Gammerting grave

The prince grave of Gammertingen is the grave of a high-ranking personality of the 6th century and part of the burial ground of Gammertingen . The grave was found undamaged in 1902.

Find history and location

The grave of the Prince of Gammertingen was in an Alemannic burial ground in Gammertingen . The first discoveries were made as early as 1884 during construction work; In the years that followed, other objects were discovered, including skeletons. Further important finds were reported in 1902, which in turn led to further excavations, in which the cemetery with the prince's grave of Gammertingen was discovered and exposed. The grave is located in the area of ​​a cemetery from the Migration Period in Gammertingen. It was found near the church on the road to Sigmaringen (today Sigmaringer Strasse 57).

The helmet wearer

The man probably died around the year 570 AD at the age of 30. He had an athletic build and, according to the valuable burial objects, must have been a high-ranking person, such as an Alemannic prince. However, since his title is not known, people tend to use the neutral term helmet wearer today. The grave was discovered in 1902. The dead rested 2.5 m below today's surface in a 2 m wide and 4 m long wooden burial chamber, which was partially sunk into the Jura limestone. The chamber was also framed with stone slabs. The grave was unfortunately only improperly excavated by the excavator Johannes Dorn and the inventory was then sold to the princely Hohenzollern collections in Sigmaringen for 1,500 marks . About two meters from the helmet grave was also the grave of an eight to ten year old girl. She also died in the 6th century and, given the proximity and splendid burial equipment, may have been a daughter of the deceased. A special feature of the grave is a small ivory box with a rune inscription that can be read as ADO . This could be a short form of the name and refer to the giver of the box. In 1906, a few meters away, the grave of a wealthy woman was discovered who also died in the late 6th century. She, too, was probably related to the helmet wearer.

helmet

The splendid Spangenhelm of the Baldenheim type is the most striking find of the grave and represents an important testimony to the Alemannic settlement history in Gammertingen . The helmet was mainly made of copper and iron plates and was completely covered with a thin layer of gold. Its weight is 1.55 kg, but it was originally 2 kg with the inner leather and fur intact. It was kept in the Sigmaringen Castle museum until 2014 , when it was sold to the Württemberg State Museum . Colloquially it is referred to as The Golden Helmet . The helmet is registered in the register of nationally valuable cultural assets as No. 01902.

Other armaments and clothing

In addition to the helmet, the rest of the armament also indicates a wealthy, influential person. Among the grave goods were the remains of a chain mail , a shield hump , a sword ( Spatha ), a single-edged sword ( Sax ), an ax, a throwing lance ( Ango ) and a lance with an elaborately decorated leaf. The Breitsax, which is now part of the grave inventory, is likely to come from the time after 600. It is therefore assumed that a possibly originally added Schmalsax was exchanged after the time it was found. The chain mail has a length of 98 cm and a width of 63 cm and is the largest surviving specimen in Germany. Finally, under the weapons there is also a quiver with arrows. Nothing of the clothes has survived. The dead man was wearing a leather belt that has rotted away, but is documented by the iron core, thickly gold-plated belt buckle on the outside. The belt buckle contains a total of about 25 g of gold, which at that time corresponded to about five and a half solidi . According to the Pactus Legis Alamannorum , six solidi had to be paid for the theft of a horse or bull. There were also gold rivets weighing around 1.9 g on the belt. There were also golden shoe buckles in the grave.

Equipment

The tools include a silver eyelet, which is evidently more of a badge of rank than an object of daily use, a comb, scissors and a punched sieve spoon of unknown function. At the dead man's feet there was a bridle decorated with silver. Food was given to him in various vessels, such as a glass beaker, a clay jug and two copper vessels. A wooden vessel, of which only the silver fittings testify, lay on his thighs.

Alemannic row burial ground

The grave field of Gammertingen consists of a total of 300-350 burials, which can be dated over the period from the middle of the 5th century to the beginning of the 8th century. It is assumed that the cemetery has been almost completely excavated today. At most, there could still be graves under Sigmaringer Strasse, which seems unlikely, however, since streets often mark the boundaries of old grave fields.

literature

  • JW Gröbbels: The row grave find of Gammertingen. Munich 1905, plate 1.
  • Rudolf Henning : The helmet from Baldenheim and the related helmets of the early Middle Ages . Trübner, Strasbourg 1907, p. 12 ( digitized version ).
  • Klaus Georg Kokkotidis among others: The man with the gold helmet. The early medieval "princely grave" from Gammertingen, Sigmaringen district , ed. by the Kulturstiftung der Länder in conjunction with the Landesmuseum Württemberg (Patrimonia 384), Berlin / Stuttgart 2019
  • Frauke Stein : Alemannic settlement and culture - the row grave field in Gammertingen . Thorbecke 1991, ISBN 3-7995-4152-7 .
  • Frauke Stein: The Spangenhelme from Pfeffingen and Gammertingen - considerations for determining their production space . Acta Praehistorica et Archaeologica 35, 2003, pp. 41–61, 14 fig.
  • Mahand Vogt: Spangenhelme. Baldenheim and related types. Publishing house of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum. Mainz 2006, pp. 212-218.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Frauke Stein: Alemannic settlement and culture - The row grave field in Gammertingen p. 37ff
  2. ↑ a b Mahand Vogt: Spangenhelme. Baldenheim and related types. (= Catalogs of prehistoric antiquities. Vol. 39). Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum et al., Mainz et al. 2006, ISBN 3-88467-100-6
  3. ↑ http://www.gammertingen.de/fileadmin/benutzerdaten/gammertingen-de/bilder/geschichte/F%C3%BCrstengrab_Gammertingen_LandesmuseumPM2.pdf Press release Landesmuseum Württemberg: The Gammertinger prince has a new home
  4. ↑ Ellen Riemer, Peter Heinrich: To the restoration of the finds from the "Prince's Grave" of Gammertingen. Monument Preservation in Baden-Württemberg, Year 1997, Issue 2, p. 54 ( Memento of the original from January 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 8.0 MB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.denkmalpflege-bw.de
  5. ↑ Frauke Stein: Alemannic settlement and culture - The row grave field in Gammertingen. P. 57ff
  6. ↑ Ellen Riemer, Peter Heinrich: To the restoration of the finds from the "Prince's Grave" of Gammertingen. Monument Preservation in Baden-Württemberg, Year 1997, Issue 2, pp. 57–59 ( Memento of the original from January 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 8.0 MB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.denkmalpflege-bw.de
  7. ↑ http://www.schwaebische.de/region_artikel,-Fuerstenhaus-verkauf-goldenen-Helm-_arid,10089386_toid,604.html
  8. ↑ Frauke Stein: Alemannic settlement and culture - The row grave field in Gammertingen. P. 57ff
  9. ↑ Frauke Stein: Alemannic settlement and culture - The row grave field in Gammertingen. P. 57ff
  10. ↑ Frauke Stein: Alemannic settlement and culture - The row grave field in Gammertingen. P. 39

Web links

Coordinates: 48 ° 14 ′ 56.3 "  N , 9 ° 13 ′ 13.2"  E