Desert on the Starenberg

The deserted village on the Starnberg is a documented unoccupied (or currently be assigned) deserted village between the villages Großwechsungen and Kleinwechsungen in the district of Nordhausen in Thuringia , where all medieval finds on small Wech Unger district located.

The desert had already been known from an inspection by Matthias Seidel and Kurt Lützkendorf since 2002 , and was excavated from June to December 2009 in advance of the construction work on the new route of the federal highway 243 . The excavation provided evidence of two independent settlements.

Location and identity

The sites are on and around the Starenberg , a hill between the Unstrut tributary Helme and the Röstegraben :

• The settlement from the late Hallstatt period (around 500 BC) was located in the lower slope area of ​​the Starenberg
• The medieval settlement was at the highest point of the Starenberg and is not identical to any of the documented high or late medieval desolations (Unkerode, Klübungen, Lengsfeld, Wiestädt) in the area of major changes . The four small turrets added in 1517 to the former defensive tower of the village church Peter and Paul (large changes) are intended to point in the direction of the former settlements .

Find evaluation of the medieval settlement

During the excavations in 2009, the remains of the medieval desert were examined. The remains of the settlement were under the hilltop of the Starenberg. The archaeologists found hearths, pit houses , ceramic remains and much more. Nineteen of the 29 major findings could be assigned to the high medieval settlement, including a. three pit houses (a furnace could be located in two), a cellar (which was completely excavated), thirteen other pits, a post pit and the remains of a walking horizon . Ten other sites (pits, posts) with no evidence of remains are also assigned to the medieval settlement. The ceramic finds (spherical bottom vessels) have a date to the settlement at least from the 11th to the 13th century. The older finds are comparable to those of the Grasburg in Rottleberode . From a cultural point of view , the finds can be assigned to Lower Saxony (especially the findings from Mechelmeshusen and Jühnde ) and Northern Hesse and have no connection with the ceramics from the Thuringian Basin . The average size of the pit houses (approx. 12 m²) coincides with the finds from Marsleben .

The findings of three pit houses do not yet allow a definitive statement as to whether this was just a settled farm or a small village complex from the Middle Ages.

literature

• M. Wehmer: A settlement from the 11th to 13th centuries on the Starenberg near Kleinwechselungen, Nordhausen district . In: Contributions to the history of the city and district of Nordhausen. Volume 36, Ed .: Nordhäuser Geschichts- und Altertumsverein, Stadtarchiv and Meyenburg-Museum Nordhausen, Nordhausen 2011, Verlag Neukirchner Nordhausen, pp. 235–246.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} M. Wehmer: A settlement from the 11th to 13th centuries on the Starenberg near Kleinwechselungen, Nordhausen district.

Coordinates: 51 ° 30 '  N , 10 ° 42'  E