Archaeological excavations carried out during the construction of a drainage channel on the K17 road connecting the towns of Moisburg and Immenbeck in Lower Saxony (Germany) uncovered 30 funerary urns from the Late Bronze Age (1200–600 BCE). However, the discovery, led by archaeologist Dr. Jochen Brandt of the Hamburg Archaeological Museum (AMH), was not entirely unexpected.

As early as the 1930s, farmers had found urns while working the land in this same area, which were excavated at the time by the former Helms-Museum, the predecessor of the AMH.

This precedent led Brandt to carefully supervise the construction work on the new drainage channel, although what did surprise the experts was the exceptional state of preservation of the funerary vessels found.

Urnfield Culture Germany
Another of the urns found under the road in Germany. Credit: Archäologisches Museum Hamburg (AMH)

This is the first time in years that we’ve managed to recover complete cremation burials in such an intensively farmed area, explained Brandt. Usually, modern agriculture has almost completely destroyed this type of evidence.

The discovered urns, which belong to the so-called Urnfield Culture, were protected by a covering of stones and in some cases sealed with a large slab or even with a second inverted vessel.

The AMH team, along with volunteer detectorists—who this time traded their metal detectors for shovels—documented and extracted the remains of nearly thirty tombs.

Urnfield Culture Germany
One more of the 30 urns of the Urnfield culture, from the late Bronze Age. Credit: Archäologisches Museum Hamburg (AMH)

Most follow the typical Late Bronze Age pattern: ceramic urns placed within stone structures to protect the cremated remains of the deceased. However, as Brandt notes, inside the vessels there’s little more than burned bones; grave goods are rare in this period.

Subsequent analyses will focus on the Leichenbrand (German term for the bone ash resulting from cremation), provided funding can be secured for anthropological studies. If so, it could be possible to obtain information about the sex and approximate age of the individuals buried, and even demographic data on the small farming communities that inhabited the area.

Once the construction work is completed, the landscape will return to its usual appearance and the site will be covered again. The urns will be studied and preserved at the AMH, where they will become part of a fragmentary but essential account of prehistoric funerary rites in northern Germany.

SOURCES

Landkreis Harburg

  • Share on:

Discover more from LBV Magazine English Edition

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Follow LBV Magazine on Google News