Wahlitzer Group
The prehistory of Central Germany as the Wahlitz group is an archaeological cultural group that (from around 150 BC to 60 BC) during the late pre-Roman Iron Age (480 BC to 30/60 BC) lived in the Middle Elbe Saale region .
In the north of today's Saxony-Anhalt , the cremation graves contain since about 150 BC. A new type of urn. In this area, these urns can only be found in men's graves; their funnel shape distinguishes them from the previously common burial vessels. These urns and their preforms can originally be found in the Niederelbe and Holstein as well as in the Altmark . Above all, the fibulae referred to as the Longobard Brooch refer to the area of the early Longobards on the lower Elbe as their area of origin.
The group created their own grave fields separately from the cemetery of the communities, on which the warriors of several settlements were buried. They each received weapons equipment with them to the grave. Research interprets the centrally separated grave fields with men in weapons equipment to the effect that men apparently organized themselves across locations in followers to which they were still connected in death. Initially, a single weapon, the lance, was placed in the grave from the middle of the first century BC. Also sword and shield .
Funeral customs
In the Wahlitzer group was cremation exercised. After the cremation , the remains were put in an urn and the urn with the ashes were then buried in a simple earth pit. Complete sets of burial objects are not known; most of the objects had already been destroyed by the pyre fire.
It can be seen that a single robe clasp was given in each men's grave. A weapon, an iron lance tip, was found in the grave of a few men.
Characteristic artifacts
A distinctive artifact of the Wahlitz group is the brooch made of bronze wire. Around 150 BC The earliest form of this fibula had a narrow rectangular foot part. Afterwards the foot widened, the so-called Longobard brooch was created. The last form of this brooch had a kinked bow.
Archaeological collection
The findings on the Wahlitz group are part of the collection of the State Museum for Prehistory in Halle an der Saale.
Remarks
- ↑ Early Lombards are attested there by ancient authors for the turn of the times. See Harald Meller (Ed.): Glutgeboren: Middle Bronze Age to Iron Age . (= Booklets accompanying the permanent exhibition in the State Museum of Prehistory, Hall 6). Halle an der Saale 2015, pp. 89–93.
literature
- Harald Meller et al. (Ed.): Glutgeboren: Middle Bronze Age to Iron Age . (= Booklets accompanying the permanent exhibition in the State Museum of Prehistory, Hall 6). Halle an der Saale 2015.
