Bell's chariot grave

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The chariot grave of Bell is the final resting place of a man from the local ruling class who lived in the late Hallstatt period around 500 BC. Was buried near Bell in the Hunsrück .

origin

The grave and the associated burial ground "Fuchshohl" are assigned to the Celtic culture, which began in the middle of the 6th century BC. BC is also tangible in the Middle Rhine region.

The wagon grave of Bell has found in the archeology of particular importance because it is one of the oldest evidence of the origins and development of the Early Latène is ceremonial burial custom of the Middle Rhine and long one of the few early cars tombs of the region was the regular, dug using scientific methods and was investigated.

It should continue to play a role in research into the transition and social change from the Hallstatt to the Latène period in the region.

It was discovered in 1938 during the construction of the Hunsrückhöhenstrasse , as a first and central burial in the largest burial mound of a barrow field on the site of what is now a military property, known from the former Pydna missile base , between the towns of Bell , the town of Kastellaun , Hasselbach and Hundheim in the Hunsrück .

The chariot grave

Reconstruction of Bell's chariot grave

In a wooden burial chamber , unusual for the regional conditions at the time, the leading man of a settlement community with a four-wheeled cart, a bronze situla (a wine or drinking container in the form of a bucket) that had been imported from Ticino, and an iron lance and a (now lost) fibula (robe clasp) laid to rest.

Except for the lance, which could be local production, all of the additions probably came from the south - either from northern Italy or from the Hallstatt culture, which is located in southern Germany and eastern France.

In the archaeological discussion it is assumed that the leading man from Bell was deliberately buried according to the model of the then progressive North Alpine Hallstatt Circle and that a "Hallstattization", ie. H. an assimilation to the cultural expressions of the early Celtic Hallstatt culture in the Middle Rhine region becomes recognizable.

The iron lance tip marked the dead man as a man. The bronze drinking utensils demonstrated that he belonged to the ruling class in his region or settlement community. The burial of the deceased with his carriage and the wooden burial chamber are an expression of a growing awareness of social superiority and distinguish him as the colonel of his group.

The wagon grave belongs to the culture level of the older Hunsrück-Eifel culture , which corresponds nationally to the late Hallstatt period (Ha D2 or D3).

The surrounding

The wagon grave was evidently the founding grave of the Fuchshohl barrow field, which in 1938 still comprised 29 hills with a total of at least 41 burials from the late Hallstatt period.

A few hundred meters away, near the present-day Beller train station, another burial mound field "Alter Markt" is known, which was partially examined in 1887 and 1888. From this second burial ground, four burial mounds are still preserved in a restricted area of ​​the Bundeswehr .

Both burial mounds could have belonged to the same settlement community from the Iron Age. The associated Iron Age settlement has not yet been discovered.

The barrow fields "Fuchshohl" and "Alter Markt"

While the 22 burial mounds of the burial ground "Alter Markt" were created by the Laufelder culture (Ha C to Ha D2) up to the spring La Tène period (Lt A) (ie from the 6th to at least the end of the 5th century BC), in Burial mound field "Fuchshohl" buried in the late Hallstatt and in the early La Tène period .

The finds from the “Old Market” are poorly published. The accessible documents show ceramics and only very seldom metal finds that were made between approx. 600 and approx. 400 BC. Are to be dated.

Location map

The burial ground “Fuchshohl” begins with the chariot grave around or shortly after 500 BC. Some other burials - especially three or four subsequent burials in the burial mound with the wagon grave - are still in the late Hallstatt period, ie the older Hunsrück-Eifel culture, around 500 to 470 BC. To date. In the next 100 years or so, the level Lt A or the Hunsrück-Eifel culture II, at least another 20 burial mounds were created. Another 4 to 6 burial mounds can be proven to date from a later stage of the early La Tène period (Lt B). The rest of the hills cannot be dated with certainty. The burial mound field "Fuchshohl" breaks around 350 BC. From.

Anthropological studies of the human remains from the “Fuchshohl” burial ground suggest that the community buried there probably belonged to two at most three Iron Age courts.

The graves are - apart from the late Hallstatt car grave - very simply furnished. Usually one or two ceramic vessels were added to the dead. There are metal additions in only about a third of the graves. In male burials, these are mostly individual lance tips, rarely other metal objects such as parts of a belt. Parts of the women's jewelry typical of the region, e.g. B. discovered arm rings. - Overall, the graves make a very sparse impression. In doing so, they are likely to give eloquent testimony of the real average population of the region and time.

Finds and reconstructions

The finds from Bell's wagon grave and the two grave fields are kept in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn . The reconstruction of the wagon grave has now found a permanent place in the museum's permanent exhibition.

Another reconstruction and the description of the grave as well as finds from the Celtic era can be found in the newly built lower castle of Kastellaun Castle , in the so-called "House of Regional History".

literature

  • Jürgen Driehaus : On the dating of the cemetery of Bell in the Hunsrück. In: Bonner Jahrbuch 166 (1976), pp. 1-25.
  • Alfred Haffner: The western Hunsrück-Eifel culture. In: Roman-Germanic Research 36; 2 volumes; Berlin: de Gruyter, 1976; ISBN 3-11-004889-2 .
  • B. Hammes: Bell's chariot grave and its burial ground. In: Adventure archeology. No. 6, 2004, pp. 8-13; ISSN  1615-7125 .
  • Hans-Eckart Joachim : A barrow field of the younger Hunsrück-Eifel culture in Brachtendorf, district of Cochem. In: Bonner Jahrbuch 171 (1971), pp. 59–113.
  • Hans-Eckart Joachim: The car from Bell, Rhein-Hunsrück district. In: Four-wheeled wagons from the Hallstatt period - studies of history and technology. Roman-Germanic Central Museum, Mainz 1987; Pp. 135-143.
  • C. Möller: To wagon graves with situles from the late Hallstatt and early La Tène periods on the Middle Rhine. In: Reports on archeology on the Middle Rhine and Moselle 5, Trier 1997, pp. 117–130.
  • Hans Nortmann: The western flank of the Rhenish Mountains up to the onset of the “princely graves.” In: Report of the Roman-Germanic Commission 74 (1993), pp. 199-258.
  • Nortmann, Hans: Two new bronze columns from the Eifel. In: Trier Journal 62 (1999), pp. 83-139.
  • W. Rest: The cemetery of Bell in the Hunsrück. In: Bonner Jahrbuch 148 (1948), pp. 153-189.
  • W. Wagner: Hunsrück Museum Simmern. With inventory of the prehistoric and early historical collection. In: Series of publications by the Hunsrück Museum in Simmern / Hunsrück. No. 7, Simmern 1993, pp. 104-119.

Coordinates: 50 ° 2 ′ 44 ″  N , 7 ° 25 ′ 0.3 ″  E