Urn burial ground on the Knickbrink

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The urn grave field on the Knickbrink is a prehistoric grave field on the northwestern outskirts of Krankenhagen in the district of Schaumburg in Lower Saxony . It was made during the pre-Roman Iron Age from around the 7th to the 2nd century BC. Used as a burial place with urns . The grave field is one of the larger facilities of this era in Lower Saxony.

description

The find area is on the upper terrace of the Weser lowlands in a gently undulating dune-like landscape that has long been used for sand extraction. The burial ground was discovered in 1938 during earthworks by the SA to create a place for solstice celebrations . The site was reported to the Rinteln teacher and voluntary ground monument curator Paul Erdniß (1886–1970). During the construction work he carried out an excavation with his son Jürgen Erdniß († 1943) and students , during which 42 burials and a bone store were documented. In one area, there were charcoal remains and small, burnt pieces of bones, which indicated a pyre used to burn the dead. Since no further burials were found despite search trenches, the excavator Paul Erdniß was of the opinion that the cemetery had been completely covered. In the years 1956 to 1959 and 1965 there were further excavations and finds.

At the site of the find there is a boulder with an inscription that it is the largest urn cemetery in southern Lower Saxony . However, there are considerably larger burial fields in Lower Saxony, such as the urn burial field Hohnhorst (350 urns), the urn burial field Leese (1,100 urns) or the urn burial field of Jastorf (500 urns). In 2017 it became known that signs to inform the population would be put up at the site in Krankenhagen.

The settlement of the people who created the burial ground has not yet been found. According to the assessment of the district archaeologist responsible for the site, Friedrich-Wilhelm Wulf from the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation, it can be assumed within a radius of around 200 to 400 meters.

Another burial ground was discovered in a nearby sand pit in the 1930s. However, the sand pit was filled in and the area is now used as a sports field.

In the area of ​​the two burial grounds there were further archaeological finds from the Neolithic to the 1st millennium AD. The burial grounds are located in or on the edge of the Auf dem Knickbrink nature reserve, which has been under protection since 1949 .

Finds

The urns recovered during the excavations often contained a small accessory vessel in addition to the corpse burn of the deceased, which often occurs at burials during this period. The urns were usually covered with a ceramic bowl. The urns were mostly Harpstedter rough pots and Nienburg cups . The dating of the burial ground to the middle of the 1st millennium BC Was based on the design of the ceramic vessels. Anthropological studies of the corpse burn showed that people of all ages were buried. In the case of two urns, the remains of bones showed that it was a mother with her newborn .

Metal objects, a needle and a small bronze ring 3 cm in diameter were found in only two burials . The artefacts were probably jewelry that was added to the deceased. Some of the urns recovered during the excavations are exhibited in the Eulenburg Museum in Rinteln .

literature

  • Jürgen Erdniß: An urn cemetery of the older Iron Age from Knickbrink, Gem. Krankenhagen. In: The customer . Vol. 7, No. 3, 1939, p. 30 ff.
  • Paul Erdniß: An urn cemetery of the older Iron Age from Knickbrink, Gem. Krankenhagen by Jürgen Erdniß. In: The customer. 1959, p. 199 ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Krankenhagen and Uchtdorf . Historical local walk (pdf)
  2. ↑ From the Erlöserkirche to Bögers Hof. In: Schaumburger Zeitung . February 19, 2008.

Coordinates: 52 ° 9 ′ 26.1 ″  N , 9 ° 4 ′ 25.7 ″  E