Stockhof (Gröna)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Floor plan of the Stockhof burial mound according to Virchow (1884)

The Stockhof is a burial mound of the late Neolithic Bernburg culture near Gröna , a district of Bernburg (Saale) in the Salzland district , Saxony-Anhalt . In 1884 the hill was examined archaeologically . A central wall chamber grave with several burials and numerous additions was found. Furthermore, a subsequent burial from the migration period was discovered in the mound .

location

The hill is located a few hundred meters behind the eastern exit of Gröna directly on a power line. It can be reached via a dirt road.

Research history

The Stockhof was excavated in just three days in 1884. The reason for this was a one-day excursion by the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory under the direction of Rudolf Virchow to Bernburg on June 29th. The southern part of the hill was examined. The Bernburg Antiquities Association continued these excavations on September 29th and October 1st under the direction of Paul Höfer and Otto Merkel. The ceramic vessels from the Stockhof, together with other inventories of finds, formed the basis for the first definition of a Bernburg ceramic style by Alfred Götze in 1892 .

description

The hill is oriented southwest-northeast and originally had an oval shape. At the time of the excavation it was 30 m long and 7 m wide. Its eastern side was already heavily plowed, so that it can be assumed that the hill was originally much wider. The archaeological investigation and the construction of a power line in the 1960s also affected its appearance. Today the complex has a very flattened appearance. A conspicuous large stone protruding from the hill does not belong to the original grave, but only came here at a later time. Erhard Schröter saw it as a menhir . The stone is shaped like an irregular plate and is broad rather than high.

In the center of the mound was a wall chamber grave made of layered stones, of which only the north and south walls were preserved. This chamber contained numerous human skeletons, but the exact number has not been determined. Both adult individuals and children were represented. The dead were buried in two zones. The skeletons lay in the stool position and were partly intertwined. More than 60 ceramic vessels, a few flint blades and numerous pierced fangs of canids were found among grave goods . The canid teeth were only found in the southern zone. Some of these were directly with the dead, but 60 were also found inside a vessel. Another vessel was held in the hands of one of the dead in the northern zone. Another dead man held a flint blade.

On the first day of the excavation, a human skeleton was found in the southern area of ​​the mound just 1.6 m from the edge, which could be identified as a reburial from the Migration Period (5th / 6th century AD). It lay in a stretched position from west-northwest to east-southeast. The body was 2 m long. An iron ring above the left arm as well as two ceramic vessels and a three- layer comb made of ivory above the skull were found among grave goods . A bench made of several stone slabs served as a base for the deceased.

To the southwest of this reburial was another, northwest-southeast oriented skeleton in a stool position, the timing of which remains unclear due to the lack of additions. A single ceramic vessel was found about halfway between these two burials and the central wall chamber, but no more detailed description is available. On the third day of the excavation, two unoriented, unoriented skeletons were finally found in a stretched position on the northern side of the wall chamber just below the surface of the hill.

Photo-request.svg
 Image wanted 
BW

The finds from the Stockhof were only partially recovered. Most of the skeletons remained on site. The additions, however - especially the vessels - came to the Bernburg Castle Museum .

literature

  • Hans-Jürgen Beier : The grave and burial customs of the Walternienburg and Bernburg culture. Halle (Saale) 1984, p. 103.
  • Wilhelm Albert von Brunn : Knowledge and care of the ground monuments in Anhalt. In: Annual publication for Central German prehistory. Volume 41/42, 1958, pp. 28-71.
  • Ulrich Fischer : The Stone Age graves in the Saale region. Studies on Neolithic and Early Bronze Age grave and burial forms in Saxony-Thuringia (= prehistoric research. Volume 15). De Gruyter, Berlin 1956, pp. 93, 98-99, 101ff., 271.
  • W. Fischer: Stockhof near Bernburg. In: Negotiations of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory. 1884, pp. 578-581 ( online ).
  • W. Fischer: Annual report of the antiquity society in Bernburg for 1884. In: Communications of the society for Anhaltische Geschichts- und Altertumskunde. Volume 4, 1886, pp. 301ff.
  • Fabian Gall : Stone Age Landscape Latdorf (= small booklets on archeology in Saxony-Anhalt. Volume 1). State Office for Archeology Saxony-Anhalt / State Museum for Prehistory, Halle (Saale) 2003, ISBN 3-910010-70-9 , pp. 16-17.
  • Alfred Götze : New acquisitions of the prehistoric department of the Museum of Ethnology. In: Negotiations of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory. 1892, pp. 177-188 ( online ).
  • Johannes Groht: Menhirs in Germany. State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt, Halle (Saale) 2013, ISBN 978-3-943904-18-5 , p. 453.
  • Paul Höfer : Stone box graves and house urns from Hoym. In: Journal of the Harz Association for History and Antiquity. Volume 31, 1898, p. 274, note 1 ( online ).
  • K.-J. Schmidt: The Walternienburg and Bernburg culture in the Bernburg district, district Halle. Diploma thesis, Halle (Salle) 1980, p. 39ff.
  • Erhard Schröter: soil monuments of the Halle district. In: Annual publication for Central German prehistory. Volume 69, 1986, p. 67.
  • Rudolf Virchow : Excursion to Bernburg (Anhalt). In: Negotiations of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory. 1884, p. 403 ( online ).

Web links

Coordinates: 51 ° 45 ′ 51.5 "  N , 11 ° 42 ′ 23.1"  E