Stone box from Esperstedt
The excavation of the stone box of Esperstedt within the boundaries of the district Esperstedt the community Obhausen in Saxony-Anhalt took place in 2004, as part of the route survey of motorway links the town Esperstedt to the A38 . Over a hundred burials in a grave field from the Middle to Late Bronze Age could be excavated; there were also stone boxes from the late Neolithic period . The stone box is registered as a ground monument in the local monument register with registration number 428300318 .
The box
The stone box showed no signs of looting. Its ceiling consisted of two plates of shell limestone that had not moved for thousands of years . The larger one was 1.62 m long and 0.78 m wide, the small one less than half the size. The side and end stones were made of flat material. There were three panels on one side and a continuous panel on the other. The two end plates cantilevered on both sides. The joints in the south and west corners of the stone box were smeared with mortar inside . The mortar consisted of clay to which coarsely ground lime was mixed. The wall panels, which were only about four centimeters thick, reached about 30 cm below the burial level. The box was filled with seeping sediment . It was completely dismantled and rebuilt in the Schraplau local history museum .
The finds
Isolated bone fragments and milk teeth of a child that belong to a subsequent burial were found . The skeleton of the main burial belonged to a 30 to 40 year old man. The southwest-northeast orientation corresponds to the rules of cord ceramics in a crouched position on the right. Cord ceramic women were buried on the left side. Complete ceramic vessels made of corded ceramics (SK) were found in the east and west corners of the box. At the dead man's feet was a two-handled amphora , next to his head was a mug. There was a green discoloration on the skull due to copper oxide . As a result, the deceased wore a copper headdress that was completely gone.
Cultural assignment
Both vessels are with cord impressions ornamented been - the eponymous feature of this archaeological culture . With the two vessels and a flint blade that was found in the hip area, the man almost had the "classic basic equipment" of a dead cord ceramist. He was missing the battle ax . More than 1000 burials of cord ceramists are known from central Germany, a concentration can be found in the Mansfeld region . The region in which the Esperstedt stone box is located plays a central role in research into cord ceramics.
Dating
As part of a research project, grave complexes from the Late Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age from Central Europe and Southern Scandinavia were 14C-dated , including 41 systems from the "Middle Elbe-Saale area". The stone box can be dated more precisely using these comparative finds. The special amphora (a Schraplauer line bundle amphora) occurs since 2600 BC. In all phases of cord ceramics; it is a "typological runner". A variant of this vessel shape is called "Schraplauer type amphora" by international research. Using the string cup with horizontal string decoration on the neck and a circumferential angle band, the stone box can be dated to 2460 to 2300 BC. To be dated.
A strikingly small stone box was found nearby, in which two young children were buried. They had been given five vessels.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Short question and answer Olaf Meister (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen), Prof. Dr. Claudia Dalbert (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen), Ministry of Culture February 25, 2016 Printed matter 6/4829 (KA 6/9061) List of monuments Saxony-Anhalt
Coordinates: 51 ° 24 ′ 35.7 " N , 11 ° 40 ′ 55.5" E