Urn field in the Ruser Steinbusch
The urn field in Ruser Steinbusch is located near Högsdorf in the Plön district in Schleswig-Holstein . In the small forest an Iron Age urn field with above-ground stone setting has been preserved in a largely undisturbed condition. The forest is located in a moraine area with a boulder scattering that was read off for the stone setting.
The different forms
Similar to the district ditch cemeteries in Westphalia and the Netherlands , burial above ground is assigned a fixed place on Nordic urn fields . In the north, instead of ditches, stones placed close together on the surface mark this boundary. In addition to circular shapes, there are occasional elongated shapes.
Stone circles
The round edging is formed by a closed ring, usually in one row, made of stones the size of a head. The diameter is usually a few meters. Large rings longer than seven meters and small rings less than two meters are rare. The interior is paved with small stones in two layers. In the middle below there is a pit. the urn, encased in stones the size of a fist, placed on a stone slab . It is not uncommon for a grinding stone with the friction surface facing downwards to lie above or next to the mouth of the vessel .
Row graves
In addition to the stone rings, which are a well-known phenomenon in prehistoric grave construction, there are roughly rectangular and ship-like stone settings . A stone grave on the Timmberg near Grebin, in the district of Plön z. B. of three parallel rows of stones, each 29 m long. The outer ones come together in an arch at the ends and, together with the middle row, form narrow districts about three meters wide. A single burial was found in this spacious complex, in the middle of the northern runway. In a neighboring stone row grave of 45 m length, three burials were found. The dimensions of the stone row graves on the Timmberg far exceed those in the "Ruser Steinbusch" and other places. The graves in the Ruser Steinbusch are between 10 and 15 m long. Since they lack the middle row, the interior consists of one sheet. At one end - also different from the Timmberg - the narrow side is rectangular, while the other end is pointed. A stele , which sometimes forms the tip of the bow, does not indicate a tomb. It is reminiscent of the bow stones of Nordic ship settlements . The stone protection of the main burials in the stone row graves was sometimes characterized by careful construction. One contained a plate box, and over the other was a huge millstone with the friction surface facing down. The corner stone of another row grave has two bowls .
Building blocks
Within the stone row graves or between the grave sites one can find unprocessed, elongated stones set vertically into the ground, rarely more than half a meter high. Most indicate a burial at their foot. However, there are also steles without burial. The erection of such steles, called building stones in Denmark , was limited to smaller areas of the Rus grave field. In some stone rings, a lying boulder replaces the stele. Grave steles are usually found in stone graves. There it is used to identify the main burial, to which some subsequent burials may have been assigned.
The stone bush
On the northern edge of the burial ground is a mighty Bronze Age burial mound 22 m in diameter and about five meters high. The coexistence of Bronze Age burial mounds and Iron Age urn field can often be found in the Nordic Iron Age.
Timeline and context
There are almost no additions or vessels. The bulbous urns are undecorated and, as a sign of the older period of the pre-Christian Iron Age (500–300 BC), have a pronounced neck with a stepped rim. The excavation of a type-related urn field near Groß-Timmendorf, Eutin district , did not produce a single recent item. So the Ruser field was probably also occupied at the turn of the 4th to the 3rd century BC. If one assumes that the oldest part of the - not thoroughly examined - burial ground is to be found in the vicinity of the Bronze Age hill, comparatively wide stone rings are to be regarded as the older form. A small group of larger than average stone rings can also be found on the southern edge of the field. The largest of these, unusually, surrounds a low, presumably older, hill. As a result, the occupancy could have started in two places. According to this, the small and smallest ring graves in the middle part should represent the younger stage. Following this sequence, because it is limited to the eastern and western edge, the row of stone graves would be the most recent form.
On the Cimbrian Peninsula urn fields with stone rings can be found up to Central Jutland, where there are even equivalents with a boulder in the middle. Similar sites are also found on the Danish islands and in western Sweden. At present it cannot be decided whether burial fields in the coastal area on both sides of the Oder are also included.
literature
- K. Hucke: The urn field in the Ruser Steinbusch near Högsdorf. Kr. Plön . In: Guide to Prehistoric and Protohistoric Monuments . Volume 10: Hanseatic City of Lübeck, Ostholstein, Kiel . von Zabern, Mainz 1972, pp. 183-191.
Coordinates: 54 ° 15 ′ 34.5 ″ N , 10 ° 36 ′ 6.3 ″ E