Stone packing grave
The stone packing grave is a Bronze Age equivalent of the stone box . It was built parallel to this and to body burials in flat graves . The plants usually come from the Aunjetitz (2300–1600 BC) or parallel or subsequent cultures ( urn field culture ). The stone packing graves sunk into the ground are mostly modeled after the shape of the box, but there are also oval specimens (stone tub from Wendelstorf in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania ).
Occurrence
The stone packing grave occurs in Germany in regions in which there are no erratic blocks at all and flat stones of sufficient size only sporadically (e.g. in the Middle Elbe-Saale area as fixtures in burial mound 28 ) of the Dölauer Heide .
Demarcation
On the other hand, there are undemanding forms of “stone packs” that protect tree coffins deposited in burial mounds , such as those on Twellberg in Lower Saxony or near Remseck-Aldingen in Baden-Württemberg . The urns from the Late Bronze Age ( Hallstatt Period ) are more often secured by stone packings or small stone boxes. Walter Matthes dated the urns found under stone packings of about 1.1 × 1.5 m to the end of the Bronze Age (500 BC).
Stone packings that occur under megalithic systems ( e.g. Cuxhaven-Gudendorf ) or associated with them ( megalithic tombs of Hagestad ) as part of flat graves, as well as the zones in chamberless giant beds referred to as stone packings (or plasters) already belong to the megalithic phase (3500– 2800 BC) of the funnel beaker culture (TBK) of the Nordic Neolithic .
layout
Genuine stone packing graves have up to 0.8 m high edges made of unprocessed, but neatly layered dry masonry (e.g. shell limestone). Sometimes there is also a pavement made of stone slabs. They were closed with plates or a false vault (on the Sehringsberg near Heiligenthal-Helmsdorf, Saxony-Anhalt ). At times, stone packing graves are covered by flat, round hills surrounded by circular trenches . The hill area could be entered via a narrow earth bridge. In front of such an earth bridge in the Mansfelder Land , deposited under a stone cover, a horse's skull and associated extremity bones were found.
literature
- WA Brunn: Stone packing graves from Köthen. A contribution to the culture of the Bronze Age in Central Germany. Writings of the Section for Prehistory, Volume 3 . German Academy of Sciences in Berlin. (1954).
- G. Cheap: Jungbronzezeitliche Steinpackungsgräber von Rumpin, Saalkreis (2000) In: Contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe Vol. 16/1 Bronze Age and Middle Ages of Saxony.