Chariot grave

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La Gorge-Meillet burial
Bell's chariot grave

A chariot burial ( English Chariot burial - French Tombe à char ) describes a burial in which a chariot was given to the deceased as an addition to the grave. Presumably the (usually dismantled) car was supposed to enable the deceased to travel to the afterlife in keeping with their status.

description

Somme-Bionne chariot grave, Marne, France
Châlons chariot grave, France

Chariot graves appear for the first time in the Caucasian- Pontic region in the Maikop culture (3,700–3,000 BC), where disc wheel finds were particularly early. This chariot burial tradition, which finds expression in or under burial mounds made of earth and stones, continued the Novotitarowskaja culture (named after the place where it was found Novotitarowskaja ) and the late Yamnaya or catacomb burial culture of the steppe.

The wagons are shorter than their approximately 4 m long drawbar, which indicates that they were driven - at least in the context of the burial ritual. The wheel diameters of 60–80 cm are good values ​​in terms of driving technology. On the fixed axle , the loading area is raised high by superstructures and cantilevered over the wheels. The wagon is therefore very reminiscent of recent shepherds' or pen carts, only about 3.5 m² in size.

A special feature is a 3000 BC. Tomb with four wagon wheels from "Plachi Dol" in northern Bulgaria, dated to the 4th century BC, far removed from the contemporary steppe tradition. During the Sintashta culture around 2000 BC, First chariot ; On Lake Krivoye southeast of Magnitogorsk , near the border with Kazakhstan, a chariot grave from this period was found, with a chariot of the "classic" type with large wooden spoked wheels . This tradition was adopted by the cultures of ancient China and, centuries later, by the Celts and Teutons .

Later chariot graves are known from the distribution area of ​​the Celts Hallstatt and La Tène culture . More than 300 were found in the north and middle east of France (Champagne-Ardenne, Picardie, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Berry) and in the Ardennes in Belgium . There are also cart graves from England and Germany (over 100). To a lesser extent, they have also been documented in northern Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Bohemia . Overall, with the exception of the western regions of Gaul, almost the entire Celtic cultural area seems to be affected. The type of burial for the elites appears in the Iron Age and remains in La Tene until the beginning of the Gallo-romaine6 period. Car graves are known from:

In England, chariot graves occur only in the Arras culture of Yorkshire England ( Wetwang chariot grave ). Another type of chariot graves is known from the end of the Viking Age . In the west of Skåne , graves were found in which the corpses had been placed in wagons instead of boxes “for the journey to the afterlife”.

See also

Footnotes

  1. See this: Julia Katharina Koch: The three Neolithic collective graves of Großeibstadt, district of Rhön-Grabfeld. Archäologische Informations 18/1, 1995, pp. 113–117; Hans Peter Uenze: The Hallstatt car from Großeibstadt . In: Four-wheeled wagons from the Hallstatt period. Studies of history and technology. Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Mainz 1987, pp. 69–75; A complete replica of the “Hallstatt Car from Großeibstadt” can be found in the Archaeological Museum Bad Königshofen (a branch museum of the Archaeological State Collection in Munich). See: P. Haller: The Prehistory Museum in Grabfeldgau. A new branch museum of the Prehistoric State Collection Munich. Messages from the Friends of Bavarian Prehistory and Early History, 50, 1989.
  2. Real Lexicon of Germanic Antiquity . Edition 2, 2003, Volume 23 p. 69, ISBN 3-11-017535-5
  3. Fredrik Svanberg: Vikingatiden i Skåne . Lund 2000, p. 49.

literature

  • Fritz Eckart Barth et al .: Four-wheeled wagons from the Hallstatt period - investigations into history and technology. Monographs Volume 12, Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Mainz 1987.
  • Markus Egg , Albert France-Lanord: Le char de Vix: Monographs. Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Bonn 1987. ISBN 3-88467-017-4
  • Markus Egg: Hallstatt period wagons. Roman-Germanic Central Museum, Mainz 1989.
  • Markus Egg, Franco Cecchi et al .: Ceremonial wagon: status symbol of Iron Age elites. Roman-Germanic Central Museum, Mainz 2000.
  • Dorothea van Endert: The carriage burials of the late Hallstatt period and the Latène period in the area west of the Rhine. (= BAR. International series, Volume 355), Oxford 1987. ISBN 0-86054-459-1
  • Attila Kiss: The Roman chariot grave of Kozármisleny (Hungary, Kom. Baranya). (= Régészeti füzetek: Ser. 2, Volume 25), Budapest 1989.
  • CFE Pare: Wagons and wagon graves of the early Iron Age in Central Europe. Oxford University Committee for Archeology, monograph no. 35, Oxford 1992. ISBN 0-947816-35-6
  • Manfred Pertlwieser : float and barrow. Early Iron Age culture from Hallstatt to Mitterkirchen. (= Catalogs of the Upper Austrian State Museum, NF 13), Linz 1987. ISBN 3-900746-05-2
  • Klaus Raddatz : The chariot grave of the younger pre-Roman Iron Age from Husby, Flensburg district. (= Investigations from the Schleswig-Holstein State Museum for Pre- and Early History in Schleswig, the State Office for Pre- and Early History of Schleswig-Holstein in Schleswig and the Institute for Pre- and Early History at the University of Kiel, NF 20), Neumünster 1967.
  • Martin Schönfelder: The late Celtic chariot grave of Boé (Dép. Lot-et-Garonne): studies of chariots and chariot graves of the later Latène period. Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum in collaboration with the Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, (= Monographs / Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Research Institute for Pre- and Protohistory, Volume 54), Bonn 2002. ISBN 3-88467-067-0

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