Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c4f8m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-16T06:33:08.504Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Iron Age Square Enclosures in Rhineland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

K. V. Decker  and
I. Scollar
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Banked and ditched rectangular burial enclosures, called ‘Grabgärten’ (grave garden, literally) by the local folk, are found frequently in the southern Rhineland, with distribution centred on the south east Eifel, the Rhine-Moselle junction and the northern part of the Hunsriick mountains. All examples known to us up to the time of writing are plotted on the map (FIG. I).

Within these enclosures are found incineration burials, either in urns, pits or stone cists made of schist slabs, or simply a scatter of bones in a pit. In some cases post holes which have been found may belong, by analogy with finds in Champagne, to mortuary houses, cult stelae or the like. Chronologically, the enclosures in the Rhineland fall partly in the late La Tène period, but the majority are early Roman Imperial in date. Inasmuch as the origin of these enclosures, due to the paucity of data, is still unclear, it is not possible to comment on that aspect of the question.

In the fifties of the last century attention was paid to these earthworks for the first time by von Cohausen, though he misinterpreted them as Roman fortifications. Half a century later, R. Bodewig recognized that the ‘Grabgärten’ which he excavated in the Koblenz municipal forest were flat graves, and he contrasted them with the round barrows which often accompanied them. He considered them to be the individual family burial plots of the Treveri, a view which the present writers support?

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 36 , Issue 143 , September 1962 , pp. 175 - 178
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1962

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Bonner Jahrbucher, 26, 1858, 7 ff.

2 Westdeutsche Zeitschrift, 19, 1900, 32 ff. and 58.

3 B.J., 128, 1923, 136; 130, 1925, 316; 133, 1928, 260; 134, 1929, 143.

4 B.J., 134, 1929, 134. 149, 151; 133, 1928, 263, 270; 132, 1927, 274; 135, 1930, 180.

5 B.J., 140-141, 1936, 433 f. and 492; 143-144, 1938-39, 423 ff. with a summary of the then known ‘Grabgärten’ by W. Haberey; B.J., 145, 1940, 322; 146, 1941, 337; Nachrichten Blatt für Deutsche Vorzeit, 17, 1941, 121.

6 Bulletin de la Société Archéologique Champenoise, 24, nr. 3-4, 1930, 85 ff. ; Gallia, 7, 1949, 116; 12, 1954, 516 f.; Revue Archéologique de l’Est et Centre-Est, 5, 1954, 71 ff.; Germania, 39, 1961, 196 ff.; Nassauische Annalen, 44, 1916-17, 186; Westfälische Forschungen, 1, 1938, pl. 16; 3, 1940, 189, no. 13; Germania, 22, 1938, 93; Benadik, Vlček, Ambros, Keltische Gräberfelder der Südwestslotcakei, p. 15, 23, 28, and figs. 3, 6, 7.

7 I. M. Stead, ‘A Distinctive Form of La Tène Barrow in Eastern Yorkshire and on the Continent.’ Ant. J., XLI, 1961, 44 ff.

8 B.J., 148, 1948, 114; Germania, 14, 1930, 26 ff.

9 Neue Ausgrabungen in Deutschland, 1958, 213.

10 Ibid.

11 E.g. late La Tène: Mainzer Zeitschrift, 24-25, 1929-30, 125ff.; 54, 1959, 47ff.; early Imperial: B.J., 143-144, 1938-39. 423 ff; 145. 1940, 337 ff.

12 Germania, 14, 1930, 26 ff.

13 Kärlich, Kreis Koblenz, ‘Flur 15’ unpublished; Gallia, 5, 1947, 445 f.; Gallia, 7, 1949, 116, fig. 4.

14 Miesenheim, Kreis Mayen, unpublished: Hambuch, Kreis Cochem ; Andernach, Kreis Mayen.

15 For example, B.J., 18, 1852, 33 ff.; 148, 1948, 82.

16 Koblenzer Stadtwald; Sohrschied, Kreis Simmern; Mayen Stadtwald ‘Distrikt Greueler Kopf’.

17 B.J., 148, 1948, 82; Buch, Kreis Simmern, unpublished; W. Dehn, Katalog Kreuznach, 1941, 11, 99.

18 Germania, 39, 1961, 196 ff., pl. 35, fig. 1 ; B.J., 145, 1940, 322; 146, 1941, 337; Miesenheim, Kreis Mayen, Distrikt Hinter Zantermann, unpublished, and we thank Dr J. Röder for telling us about it.

19 W.Z., 19, 1900, 38; ibid., 32 ff., 34; B.J., 140-141, 1936, 433 f.

20 Dehn, Katalog Kreuznach, 1941, 11, 100.

21 B.J., 142, 1937, 287.

22 Koblenzer Stadtwald; Miesenheim, Kreis Mayen; Hambuch Kreis Cochem.

23 Kruft, Kreis Mayen near the housing estate behind the village school, according to information from Dr J. Röder.

24 Koblenzer Stadtwald.

25 W.Z., 19, 1900, 32 ff.