«Die Fundmünzen», in: P. Eggenberger, R. Bacher, J. Frey, S. Frey-Kupper, A. Heigold-Stadelmann & S. Ulrich-Bochsler, Die Kirche von Seeberg, Archäologische Untersuchungen 1999 (Schriftenreihe der Erziehungsdirektion des Kantons Bern), Bern 2009: pp. 205-216 (original) (raw)
Related papers
2016
(The finds from the graves.) The excavations carried out at the church of Biel-Mett yielded only a small number of Late Antique and early medieval burials, which contained relatively few grave goods. The Late Antique grave 136 can be dated absolute-chronologically to the period around AD 350. The early medieval graves with offerings largely belonged to phase SD 9 / NRh 9, in other words to the period around AD 640–670. Both the previous and subsequent phases were identified but only in one or two burials, which suggests that from an absolute chronological point of view the middle periods of each phase are the most likely. The overall range of the early medieval grave goods recovered at Biel-Mett can therefore be dated to the period from the middle of SD 8 / NRh 8 to the middle of SD 10 / NRh 10, i. e. between around AD 625 and AD 685. Based on the stratigraphical links between the graves and the church buildings (Chaps. 3.2.5.3–4 and 3.2.6.1), church I was built in the middle or second half of the 7th century. Two burials with sparse offerings, which already belonged to complex II, suggest that this church may have been constructed as early as the end of the 7th century. The ethnicity of the deceased in the early medieval graves at Biel-Mett is obvious: the graves adhered to Romanic funerary rites and blend in very well with the cultural area to the west of the River Aare. Alemannic or Frankish burials from the same period usually contain weaponry and ceramic vessels. With 38 graves, the number of burials dating mainly from the middle third of the 7th century is large enough to allow for a reasoning based on the absence of finds. All the finds from Biel-Mett were objects associated with the clothing of the deceased; there were no grave goods in the actual sense. The earliest remains unearthed during the excavations beneath the present-day church of Biel-Mett were those of an important male from the mid-4th century AD, above whose grave a small memorial was erected. Almost three centuries later, a community with Romanic influences referred back to this construction by burying their dead and building a church in the same location. With this referral to a location which, despite the chronological discontinuity, is still remembered as being significant, Biel-Mett shows a similar sequence of events as did, for instance, Bonn and Xanten in the Rhineland (Germany). This in stark contrast to the sequence that is more frequently seen in Switzerland, where there is continuity in the burial grounds from Late Antiquity which is later followed by the foundation of a church. The construction of a church in amongst Roman ruins is often seen during this period. Contrary to other regions, the Romanic population which buried their dead at Biel-Mett in the 7th century showed no signs of adopting any Germanic funerary rites or of a new Germanic ruling class being imposed.