Storage pit
Storage pit ( earth mine , earth silo or truncated cone pit) describes an earth pit that was created specifically for the storage of agricultural products, mostly grain . Prehistoric and medieval storage pits are also an archaeological source type.
Storage pits usually consist of a bag-shaped or spherical pit in the ground, the walls of which are smoothed or lined with clay. The pits are filled to the brim with grain, which, however, must have a moisture content of less than 14.3%, and sealed airtight with clay or earth. The bacteria and yeasts on the grain set in motion putrefaction and fermentation processes in which larger amounts of carbon dioxide are released. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the tightly closed pit rose steadily until the microorganisms are inactive or killed by the gas and the biological degradation of the supplies is reduced to a minimum. The stocks can be stored under this protective atmosphere for a long period of time. Under favorable circumstances, a thin layer of rotten grain forms only on the top layer of the stored goods, in the area of the pit opening, which is no longer usable for nutrition. To access the supplies, the closure is opened, the rotten grain removed and the usable supplies removed completely. The storage pits are reusable.
Storage pits that have become unusable are said to have been used as waste pits and filled with rubbish and rubbish , but there is no evidence of premature waste management. For archeology, pits are valuable sites that, for example, indicate eating habits via the bones of domestic animals or wild animals and the time setting via ceramics.
literature
- Jens Lüning : Stone Age farmers in Germany. Agriculture in the Neolithic . From the seminar for prehistory at the University of Frankfurt / M. (= University research on prehistoric archeology . Volume 58 ). Publishing house Dr. Rudolf Habelt, Bonn 2000, ISBN 978-3-7749-2953-1 , p. 173 .
Web links
- Horse sacrifices in Slavic storage pit from the 11th / 12th centuries Century