Archaeology
Archaeologists map the lost town of Rungholt
Rungholt was a medieval town in North Frisia, that according to local legend, was engulfed by the sea during the Saint Marcellus’s flood in 1362.
The Saint Marcellus’s flood was an extratropical cyclone event that triggered a powerful storm tide, devastating the coastal regions of the British Isles, the Netherlands, northern Germany, and Denmark.
The storm tide peaked on the 16th January, the feast day of St. Marcellus, resulting in the deaths of around 25,000 people.
In 2023, archaeologists discovered a two-kilometre-long chain of medieval terps (settlement mounds) in the North Frisian Wadden Sea, including the possible remains of a large church.
In a study published in the journal Scientific Reports, archaeologists have presented a detailed reconstruction of the medieval landscape of Rungholt, featuring a network of drainage ditches, a sea dike, the proposed church, and 64 newly identified dwelling mounds.
Excavations have also unearthed imported high-quality objects, including lead-glazed redware and stoneware, cast bronze cauldrons, hammered brass cauldrons, swords, and hispano-moresque faience.
According to the study authors: “The basis of our prospection work is multi-channel magnetic gradiometry, which is applied during low tide. At key locations, the magnetic map is complemented by Electromagnetic Induction (EMI) measurements or marine seismic reflection profiles.”
This enabled the researchers to interconnect isolated settlement structures and reconstruct the wider settlement area, extending over an area of at least 10km2. Four main areas have been identified that have several rectangular terps arranged in a row.
A geophysical survey of a prominent terp, believed to be the site of the town’s church, has revealed two magnetic anomalies indicating a rectangular feature and a semi-circular structure.
Image Credit : GeoBasis-DE/LVermGeo SH/CC BY 4.0
By comparing their survey data to other known medieval churches still preserved in North Frisia, the researchers suggest that the structure is a Late Romanesque church with an integrated tower.
“The building must have been among North Frisia’s main churches and is most likely the one that provided a home and place of work for the clerical collegium,” said the study authors.
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to cultural heritage reasons to protect the site.
Header Image Credit : Scientific Reports (Sci Rep)
Sources : Wilken, D., Hadler, H., Majchczack, B.S. et al. The discovery of the church of Rungholt, a landmark for the drowned medieval landscapes of the Wadden Sea World Heritage. Sci Rep 14, 15576 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-66245-0
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
Archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences have been excavating a burial ground associated with the Finnic Muromians.
The Finnic Muromians were groups of settlers that lived within the vicinity of the Volga and Oka rivers. They spoke Muromian, an Uralic language that became extinct following their assimilation by the Slavs.
The burial ground, which dates from the early 10th century AD, was discovered on the eastern bank of the Oka river, located in the Nizhny Novgorod Region of Russia.
A total of seventeen burial pits have been identified, nine of which have been severely damaged through looting.
The surviving 8 burials contain the remains of four children, two women, and two men.
The men were accompanied with an ornate collection of grave goods, including arrowheads, knives, bronze bracelets, iron plates, a bronze buckle, and a whetstone.
At the bottom of one of the pits is a heavily corroded axe, along with a flint that has traces of iron-coated embossed leather and textile threads.
The burials containing women were also accompanied with high status funerary goods, such as a necklace of red-brown prismatic and dark blue berry-shaped beads of Byzantine origin, signet ring-shaped pendants, plate bracelets, a bronze spiral, and a silver ring.
Traces of wood within the pit fillings suggest that they originally contained a wooden structure, similar to a log house made of thin beams and covered with birch bark.
According to the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences: “The culmination of the discoveries at the site were two clay vessels, testifying to direct and close contacts between the right-bank Muromians and the Old Russian population.”
Header Image Credit : Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Sources : Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
Archaeologists from the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt are currently excavating the site of a former gallows in Quedlinburg, Germany.
Gallows are usually wooden structures made of two vertical posts, a horizontal crossbeam, and a hanging noose. They have been used for executing criminals by hanging, a prevalent form of capital punishment in Europe since the Middle Ages.
Archaeologists are currently excavating a gallows site on Galgenberg, or ‘Gallows Hill,’ which was used for public executions by the courts in Quedlinburg from 1662 to 1809.
Excavations have revealed complete and partial burials in the area, along with bone pits containing multiple bundled burials, likely the result of mass executions carried out in a short period.
Image Credit : LDA
According to the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt, “these discoveries provide unique insights into penal practices from the Middle Ages and early modern times.”
A burial unrelated to the gallows has also been unearthed, featuring a wooden coffin containing the skeletal remains of an individual buried with a rosary chain.
Archaeologists propose that the burial’s characteristics suggest that the individual was likely a suicide victim, denied burial in consecrated ground so was placed in the cemetery near the gallows.
Also discovered is a so-called ‘revenant grave’, where the skeletal remains of a man was found placed on his back with several large stones placed across his chest.
According to the researchers, the stones were likely placed to prevent the individual from rising as a revenant, which are described as animated corpses in the verbal traditions and lore of many European ethnic groups.
In medieval times, those inflicted with the revenant condition were generally suicide victims, witches, corpses possessed by a malevolent spirit, or the victim of a vampiric attack.
Header Image Credit : LDA
Sources : State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
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