Winnefeld desert
Winnefeld is a desert in the Northeim district in Lower Saxony . The uncovered foundations of the church in the former village still bear witness to the deserted area in the community-free area of the Solling .
location
The district of the former place Winnefeld is located directly on the federal highway 241 west of the place Amelith with the hunting lodge and the urban desert of Nienover and east of the place Lauenförde . The desert is located in the Winnefeld state forest of the same name at the foot of the Kirchberg and about three kilometers northeast of the Schmeessen desert . In contrast to the general geology of the Solling, the Winnefeld location is a loess island . The deserted village is freely accessible from the main road and developed for tourist use. The map of Solling made in 1603 by the cartographer Johannes Krabbe shows a church ruin on Kirchberg and names the place as the Winnefeld desert.
history
According to the findings of soil science , the area of the Winnefeld village settlement was already used as a forest pasture in the 8th century . In the period between 1150 and 1250, the Counts of Dassel cleared large areas in the area of today's desert . The naming is also mentioned in this context. The name of the place Winnefeld can therefore possibly be translated as a new field . In the course of this clearing, the village was built around the same time as the city of Nienover around 1200. The dating is based on the fragments of ceramic vessels from around 1220 that were recovered during excavations. It is believed that it supplied Nienover with food. With an estimated number of 25 to 40 courtyards with 100 to 300 residents, it reached a length of 1.7 kilometers. This work was part of a targeted country development . According to the state of research, settlement development reached its peak in the 13th century. At that time, Winnefeld was not isolated in the highlands of the Solling. In its vicinity there were a number of other settlements that later fell into desolation.
As the archaeological investigations showed, in the course of the Magdalene flood in 1342 residential buildings and bridges in the village were destroyed by the water of the Reiherbach . In addition, the arable land, which formed the livelihood of the villagers, was affected.
In the following years the village was given up. The masonry of the church was removed by the population of the surrounding villages, part of it was used for the underground reinforcement when the road was built.
As early as the 16th century, legends have grown up around the abandoned village, which highlighted it from the multitude of desolate places in Solling. The soil, from which medieval household items were recovered in the 18th and 19th centuries, was investigated early on. According to records from the 19th century, 23 wells were still open at that time, which were then filled up except for two wells. The cemetery is also said to have been recognizable at this time through a stone gate.
Excavations
After the remains of the deserted village lay under a mound long, was founded in 2002 under the direction of Hans-Georg Stephan from the Department of Prehistory and Early History of the University of Göttingen with excavations started. After seven annual excavation campaigns, the excavation series was completed in 2008. After essential knowledge had been gained with the methods of classical archeology, the flood disaster of the 14th century could be determined from 2006 with the method of optically stimulated luminescence .
Excavations of 110 to 170 skeletons testify to a cemetery that was around the church. The total number of burials is estimated at 1000 to 2000, of which only the bone material in the area of the calcareous wall remains of the church has survived. In addition, two village wells were uncovered during the excavation work.
church
The archaeologically examined foundations suggest a Romanesque church building that was built in two phases around 1200. The foundation walls are 30 meters long and 9.7 meters wide. Due to the extraordinary dimensions, it can be assumed that the settlement was relatively large. The church is the largest known deserted church from the Romanesque period in Lower Saxony. The structure, built from rubble stones , consisted of a two-bay nave with the tower on the west side and a rectangular choir on the east side. It is believed that the church had a vault inside. The height of the tower should have been 15 to 20 meters.
A partial reconstruction of the structure was carried out above the completely restored foundation walls of the church from 2006 on the initiative of the Association of Culture-Natural History Dreiländerbund Weserbergland . Like the two fountains, it is freely accessible. The chairman of the association, Jürgen Koch, was awarded the Lower Saxony Order of Merit in 2013 for his commitment to the scientific exploration of the medieval cultural landscape in the Weser Uplands, including the Winnefeld desert .
See also
literature
- David Bergemann, Jan Novacek, Hans-Georg Stephan, Stefanie Thews: Archeology interdisciplinary - village desert Winnefeld in Solling In: Archeology in Lower Saxony . 8, 2005, pp. 121-124. ISSN 1615-7265
- Hans-Georg Stephan : Interdisciplinary archaeological investigations in the area of the medieval deserted village Winnefeld in Solling in: Sollinger Heimatblätter 3/2006, 4/2006 ZDB -ID 13076309
- Hans-Georg Stephan, Ralf Mahytka, Radoslav Myszka, Matthias Zirm, Hans-Rudolf Bork , Arno Beyer: Archaeological-ecological research on landscape, settlement and economic history in Solling in 2006 , in: Göttinger Jahrbuch 55 , 2007, p. 239ff, ISSN 0072-4882
- Hans-Georg Stephan: Interdisciplinary archaeological studies in the area of the medieval deserted village Winnefeld in Solling. Contributions to research into the development of cultural landscapes and rural church building in the Weserbergland in: Nachrichten aus Niedersachsens Urgeschichte , Vol. 76, Stuttgart, 2007, pp. 199–255, ISSN 0342-1406
- Arno Beyer: 2008: Medieval-modern landscape development in Südsolling - Die Dorfwüstung Winnefeld , Dissertation, 2008, PDF (approx. 4.4 MB)
Web links
- Description of the desert and the excavations at the cultural and natural history association Dreiländerbund Weserbergland from Lauenförde
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d [1] Excavation of the church ruins in Winnefeld . Website Heimatpflege im Uslarer Land - Solling. Retrieved May 9, 2012.
- ↑ a b [2] Winnefeld desert . Website of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. Retrieved May 9, 2012.
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from February 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Excavation of the wells of the Winnefeld desert . Website of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Karstkunde Harz eV. Accessed on February 10, 2016.
- ↑ History made tangible at deutschland.today on October 2, 2013
Coordinates: 51 ° 41 ′ 20 " N , 9 ° 28 ′ 34" E