Archaeology of Caves and Caverns (Archaeospeleology) Research Papers (original) (raw)

Prehistoric pottery from caves in Saxon Switzerland In the Saxon Switzerland (a rocky landscape on both sides of the Elbe on the border between Bohemia and Saxony) there are numerous caves, some of them with finds of prehistoric... more

Prehistoric pottery from caves in Saxon Switzerland

In the Saxon Switzerland (a rocky landscape on both sides of the Elbe on the border between Bohemia and Saxony) there are numerous caves, some of them with finds of prehistoric pottery. Pottery is next to flint artefacts the only kind of finds occurring here.
In a conceivable remote and inaccessible situation is located on the north-western slope of the mountain Kleiner Winterberg a small cave. Her mouth hole is 6 m height in a vertical rock wall. Here stood 5 meters away from the entrance on a pedestal-like, 0.5 m high stone a vessel –slightly sloping– against the cave wall was leaning. It is a coarse beaker of the Bell Beaker culture with four handles below the rim, which is dated in the final phase of the Bell Beaker culture, thus into the 21st century cal BC.
Under a rock shelter in Fuchsbachtal valley near Rosenthal, close below the upper edge of the canyon, loose parts of a prehistoric vessel were found at a depth of up to 0.75 m, distributed in the rubble of the soil, in addition to younger shards. This was a great high cup with three weak grip strips from the Unetice culture, and indeed from the medium (»classical«) phase (19th or 18th century cal BC). The location of the site is to be seen in connection with an alleged prehistoric way, 2 km away.
At the slope of Elbe valley opposite the hamlet Schmilka, 40 m high above the Elbe, the opening of a small cavity beneath a rock slab, with some potsherds, was exposed when felling of roots. Fortunately, the discovery was immediately reported and so the place could be investigated archaeologically. Under the originally horizontal roof of a small cave from boulders once stood a single complete vessel on a projecting, 40 to 50 cm high stone. In addition to this was charcoal in the sand, probably of an accompanying sacrificial fire. The vessel was a large egg-shaped pot from the Middle Bronze Age Tumulus Culture (16th–mid 14th century cal BC).
From the period of the Lusatian culture of Late Bronze Age (13th–9th century cal BC) there are cave discoveries in the immediate area of the mountain Pfaffenstein, where of its time was a fortified hilltop settlement and a place of worship on the highest plateau region. These have been published elsewhere in connection with a template of all the finds from the Pfaffenstein.
At the foot of the Nonnenstein near Weißig, a 18 m high, near the Elbe isolated towering rock, a small prehistoric shard was discovered below a small cave next to medieval shards: The lip fragment of a small dish with diffuse inner facets of the late Urnfield period, the final phase of the Lusatian culture in the 9th century cal BC. This relic goes back on a libation.
The Franzosenhöhle cave below the mountain Lilienstein yielded an inventory of shards that span an entire millennium, from the 13th until the 3rd century cal BC. These finds have been published elsewhere and together with other finds they may create the image of a kind of cult area, a »Temenos« that surrounded the whole rock Lilienstein.
Between Schmilka and the mountain Großer Winterberg a small cave unfurls below the rock Kipphorn at the foot of a group of small rocks at the moderate hillside towards the Elbe Valley. Besides Medieval pottery were found here two prehistoric shards from the early La Tène period (5th–4th century cal BC), a fragment of a large, weakly S-shaped profiled, cylindrical pot with a wave band at the base of the neck and a shard from the lower part of a vessel with coarse vertical fissures.
On the slope of the valley of Biela, south of the mountain Quirl near Königstein, come from a flat small cave, filled with a loamy sand layer, coarse crooked pottery, bulbous wall shards, including a piece with a simple, edge lip. They lay just beneath the topsoil and belong to the migration period, maximum still in the times of the early Slavs. This is the 5th–8th century AD (probable the second half of this period), and thus a period only very sparsely certified by finds in whole of Saxony. Important are also the find geographic implications regarding the oldest Slavic immigration in Saxony alongside the Elbe, which perhaps took advantage of a nearby prehistoric way. Not far from this site, the Diebskeller cave at the Quirl, charcoal and potsherds were discovered, undated and missing today.
Besides finds from caves there are a number of crevices, which are related to the caves in their find topography.
From section of the climb on the southwest side of the rock Lilienstein, there are finds of prehistoric shards from a long time (13–4th century cal BC), apparently associated with the former role of the striking rock as »Holy Mountain«. At least for some of these ceramics is certain that she was intentional and from the foot of the rock laid down in one of the columns, which cleave the otherwise so unapproachable and monolithic rocks here. Important are fragments of a steep sided small bowl with an Omphalos from the late West Hallstatt environment, specifically the Czech Bylaner culture (HaD3; second half of the 6th century cal BC). How the freshly broken edges of the thin-walled shell residue demonstrate, the delicate vessel was once entrusted intact the ground. It was exposed to the fire before its disposal. In addition, there are further shards as further testimonies of former victims in columns (for sizes, good condition, close to their finding-places the clefts of the rock). The washing out of shards from these columns and their distribution over the slope was probably a side effect of the assumed deforestation during the existence of a medieval castle on the Lilienstein.
High above the deep carved Elbe valley the Schrammsteine rocks lie, a towering group of rocks. Immediately at the Großes Schrammtor here rises the Osterturm rock amidst stunning natural scenery. In a crevice of him climbers discovered on a pedestal into humus rich sand an almost completely preserved vessel, a situla-like shoulder pot with smooth, retracted upper part. He belongs in the early La Tène period (5th–4th century cal BC).
The spatial distribution of these sites shows three principles. Since caves are evenly distributed throughout the landscape, a conscious choice by the people of that time must be hidden behind. In the majority these sites are located in immediate vicinity of Elbe Valley and can be reached by a short way from the Elbe. The river –a former major route of Europe– provided the opportunity relatively easily from Saxony or North West Bohemia to traverse the Saxon Switzerland. For the second are the caves at Pfaffenstein and Quirl an own group, not too far away from the Elbe valley, but probably even more likely related to a nearby prehistoric way of regional character that connected the former settlement areas of Pirna and Děčín. So the origin of the finds from caves in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains is to seek in some cases in the north, in other cases, to the south of him. Entirely explained by this way is probably the site of Rosenthal. It belongs to a third category–as well as the cave at the Kleiner Winterberg (Ostrau I), for which, despite its accessibility from the Elbe Valley from the apparently deliberate isolationism is not to disregard.
Into the chronological sequence of the finds still finds from the adjacent Bohemian Switzerland are included, a cup of older Unetice culture (21–20th century cal BC) from a rock shelter in the Tisovské stěny rocks, an amphora and a shard from a rock shelter in a cliff high above the River Elbe, south of Dolni Žleb (HaB1; 11th century cal BC) (they were interpreted as cultic in the first publication, for remains of a Late Bronze Age sacrificial food), the remains of a small spherical bulbous pot with a bent collar edge of the Augustan and early Imperial period (late 1st century BC–1st century AD) from Ostrov at the headwater of Biela valley between boulders at the foot of a cliff. Of utmost importance –not only because of its cultural and historical value– is silvered bronze jewellery, a bangle and a fibula, which date from the early migration period and were recovered in a small cave at Hřensko near the Elbe. This victim context from the 5th century stands beside the somewhat younger one from the vicinity of the Quirl (Königstein).
As a result therefore shows in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains from the end of the Neolithic period to today an unbroken succession of cave finds. Over these periods there are a stable spectrum of finds and finds situations (always complete clay pots or residues of such). Chronological culminations of the central European cave using (periods of increased cultic activities) are recognizable as such also in the Saxon Switzerland. But otherwise poorly documented periods are also represented with finds (e.g. HaC). Here regional patterns play a role. Causes of such continuity are the adjacency of Elbe and the relative proximity to permanently densely populated areas on both sides of the mountains, another causes the high number of caves and the unusual quality of the Sandstone Mountains in the sense of a »sacred landscape«.
With the exception of the Franzosenhöhle only once and never repeated sacrifices were observed at each site. The discovered individual, often originally intact vessels are single victims and not the remains of collective religious practices. They reflect a very narrow subject selection. This indicates food offerings, whose »packaging« the vessels were. Their installation in niches and on stone blocks increases indicate sacrifices, situations with echoes of an altar. Background of all this are magical rituals to securing adequate food volume, a fertility cult.