Mesolithic burials and loose human bones on the northern edge of the Thuringian mountains in Central Germany. In: Grünberg/ Gramsch/ Larsson/ Orschiedt/ Meller, Mesolithic burials - Rites, symbols and social organisation of early postglacial communities, 359-372. (original) (raw)

2017, Mesolithic burials - Rites, symbols and social organisation of early postglacial communities. Int. Conference Halle (Saale), Germany, 18th-21st September 2013, Tagungen des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle 13/I (2016)

This article deals with a small but remarkable concentration of sites with Mesolithic human remains in the northern foothills of the Thuringian Mountains in southwestern Central Germany. Numerous caves and rock shelters are known in the Zechstein reefs south and southeast of the Thuringian Basin and the Saale-Ilm-limestone plateau. A number of these had been used already in the Middle Palaeolithic, Upper Palaeolithic and Late Palaeolithic, but also by the Mesolithic people. Human remains found in the middle of the 2oth century in the Urdhöhle at Döbritz, the Ilsenhöhle beneath Ranis Castle and in front of the Abri Fuchskirche I at Allendorf have been initially assigned to the Upper Palaeolithic, Late Palaeolithic or more recent periods. The context of human remains at all three localities led, together with the applied excavation methodology, to several possibilities of interpretation, either as burials or as randomly embedded loose human bones. Recent studies have led to a reclassification of the human remains and a new interpretation of the contexts of the finds. In the Upper Hall of Urdhöhle were found the disarticulated but fairly complete remains of at least one individual from the Boreal period and few remains of a second individual. Whether this was a primary burial with later turbation or a secondary burial, cannot be determined exactly. Also in the Boreal period of Mesolithic date there is the lower jaw of a child about one year old from the nearby Ilsenhöhle. In the 14C-dating of both, there is a large overlap. The mandible may have been introduced as a single piece into the cave and been relocated within to the base of an alluvial fan as loose human bone. About 1ooo years younger is the grave of a small child from the Abri Fuchskirche I. It dates to the early Atlantic period. An upper canine tooth of red deer was connected with the human skeletal remains. According to available data, the infant was buried as a primary burial in a shallow pit. Thus for the Mesolithic in the Thuringian Mountains foothills the use of naturally protected places, i.e. of caves and rock shelters, is found three times in the death ritual and burial services. In contrast, evidence of burials in open air sites as they exist further north in Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt is so far lacking. Obviously, where the appropriate geographical conditions were present, the use of caves and rock shelters for burial was popular. Whether the naturally protected places in the south of Central Germany were the exclusive burial grounds or there are burials on open air sites too, can only be judged after excavations on well-preserved open air sites. At this time, a distribution of burials in Central Germany, which is also found in other parts of Europe, can be seen: burials in caves and rock shelters or their vicinity in foothills and burials on open air sites in areas without naturally protected places.