Spitzwecken from Ovelgönne

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The Spitzwecken from Ovelgönne with an attempt at reconstruction

The ovelgönne bread roll obtained is a half of the pre-Roman Iron time derived bun that at a 1952 archaeological excavations in the Buxtehuder Gemarkung Ovelgoenne was found. This leftover bread is the oldest surviving biscuits in Europe. The find is shown in the archaeological permanent exhibition of the Archaeological Museum Hamburg in Hamburg-Harburg .

Find

The location in June 2012

During an inspection of the corridor in the community clay cave of Ovelgönne in May 1952, the employee of the Helms Museum Willi Rühland observed a dark discoloration in the loam in a cut wall on the north side of the cave, which indicated a clay quarry. The irregular pit was 150 cm deep and 150 cm wide. The backfilling of the pit was irregularly mixed with broken glass , charcoal , lumps of clay and stones, which points to an Iron Age waste pit . Halfway down the pit was the remains of a charred bread .
Location: 53 ° 26 '49.8 "  N , 9 ° 44' 20.4"  E Coordinates: 53 ° 26 '49.8 "  N , 9 ° 44' 20.4"  E

Findings

The remainder of the Spitzweckens from Ovelgönne in the permanent exhibition

The leftover bread is half of a pointed wake, a roll with both ends ending in tips. Due to its regular shape, it is counted among the baked goods with a predefined shape. The loaf of bread is badly charred and broken off about halfway along. The part obtained now has a length of 35.0 mm, a width of 22.94 mm and a height of 11.44 mm, with a weight of only 2.5 g. The last end is broken off from the top. The color of the surface is pearl and slate gray, the underside gray-black to black. On the upper side, the roll half has a lengthways, slightly curved, fine incision that is intended to prevent the roll from tearing open during the baking process . Approximately in the center of the surface obtained is a two millimeter deep and 3.56 × 2.80 mm wide insertion hole which was pressed in at an angle of about 45 ° with a round object. A second tap was most likely also on the missing half of the bun. The roll did not have a pronounced crust and was baked from a very finely ground and well sifted wheat flour . The microscopic examination of the surfaces showed that the dough contained noticeably small traces of the fine stone abrasion from the millstones . The dough itself was well kneaded and had only very small pores, which indicate that neither a yeast dough from wild yeast fermentation nor a sourdough was used to loosen the roll loaf. Egg white or fat may have been added to loosen the dough . The baking process must have taken place in an oven on a stone surface that has been well but not completely cleaned of charcoal , since small charcoal residues have settled in the pores on the underside. Overall, however, the bun was baked with too much top heat. Fine sand deposits in the inner parts of the fracture surface indicate that the bread had already broken apart before it was found. A radiological examination carried out in Bern, Switzerland , showed that the superficial incision widened somewhat inward. Embedded in the dough, two closely spaced, enigmatic metal particles measuring 2.92 × 3.16 mm and 1.7 × 2.92 mm in size were located.

Based on his findings from numerous post-baking attempts at historical bread finds, Max Warus reconstructed the original size of the complete bread roll, taking into account an approximately fifteen percent shrinkage of the find due to charring to an estimated 70 × 45.88 × 22.48 mm.

The dating of the bread remnants was based on the typological determination of the vessel shards that were found, all of which correspond to those of the early Iron Age around 800–500 BC. BC resembled typical vessel shapes.

Interpretation and meaning

Four loaves of bread with tipping (left) on a mosaic by Sant'Apollinare Nuovo

The background to the laying of the bun in the pit is the subject of discussion. Some authors suspect a cultic connection. This is attributed to the halving of the bun before laying it down and the baked-in pieces of metal. However, it is unclear whether the pieces of metal got into the batter deliberately or accidentally. Max Wahren poses the question of whether “The Ovelgönne Wecken was a technical creation or a replica of a profane or cultic object.” ( Max Wühren : Prehistoric leftover bread from the northern Lüneburg Heath). He sums up the meaning of the pointed wake as follows: “The find from Ovelgönne is the oldest fine pastry in Europe, in the form of a wake-shaped pastry, probably with a ritual-religious significance, which perhaps because of this was produced with a previously unimaginable delicacy and sophistication became. ”( Max Wehren : Prehistoric leftovers from the northern Lüneburg Heath). He bases this on the noticeable fineness of the wheat flour used, the grain size of which is close to modern types of flour, as well as the incision and the tipping. Punch holes are, for example, from an ancient Egyptian find from around 2000–1778 BC. BC and from mosaics from the church of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna from the 6th century , but the tip on the Ovelgönner roll remnant is the earliest prehistoric European find.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Subject area food, showcase No. 25.
  2. ↑ a b Rüdiger Articus, Jochen Brandt, Elke Först, Yvonne Krause, Michael Merkel, Kathrin Mertens, Rainer-Maria Weiss: Archaeological Museum Hamburg, Helms-Museum: A tour through the ages (=  publications of the Archaeological Museum Hamburg Helms-Museum . No. 101 ). Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-931429-20-1 , pp. 42-43 .
  3. ↑ Max Wavia: Prehistoric leftover bread from the northern Lüneburg Heath . In: Helms-Museum, Hamburg Museum for Archeology and the History of Harburg and the Museums- und Heimatverein Harburg-Stadt und -Land e. V. (Ed.): Harburger Yearbook . No. 19 , 1996, ISSN  0722-6055 , p. 11 .
  4. ^ Archaeological Museum Hamburg: Ovelgönne local file : Gauss-Krüger coordinates: 3549175; 5924200
  5. ^ A b Max Wavia: Prehistoric leftover bread from the northern Lüneburg Heath . In: Helms-Museum, Hamburg Museum for Archeology and the History of Harburg and the Museums- und Heimatverein Harburg-Stadt und -Land e. V. (Ed.): Harburger Yearbook . No. 19 , 1996, ISSN  0722-6055 , p. 12-18 .
  6. ↑ Max Wavia: Prehistoric leftover bread from the northern Lüneburg Heath . In: Helms-Museum, Hamburg Museum for Archeology and the History of Harburg and the Museums- und Heimatverein Harburg-Stadt und -Land e. V. (Ed.): Harburger Yearbook . No. 19 , 1996, ISSN  0722-6055 , p. 18-23, 37 .