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Fieldnotes
| taken from the on-site information board Eco Pfad Archäologie Calden: The Neolithic earthwork Calden On this area between the Kassel-Calden airport in the north and the forest in the south, the darkly colored traces of a double ditch were discovered in 1976 through aerial photographs. Archaeological excavations (1988 - 1992) confirmed that it is a Neolithic earthwork. It was built around 3700 BC. Since 2006, four newly built stone steles (see plan, sign o) mark the extent of the earthwork. Construction of the earthwork The double ditch has an extension of 470 x 390 m. The excavated earth was probably piled up before, between and behind the ditches to ramparts. On the inside of the earthwork was a double palisade fence, the interior of which was probably also filled with excavated earth so that a person could look over the palisades. The ditch work is interrupted in seven places. Here foundations of wooden, house-like installations were found. Each installation consisted of two rooms to be entered from the inside and the outside of the earthwork. The size and construction of the wooden fixtures are so far unique in European history. Inside the earthwork, there were no development remnants or other settlement activities (such as hearths), but a younger urnfield grave of the Hallstatt period (around 800 BC). Settlement or sanctuary? The builders of Calden's earthwork were farmers of the surrounding villages. The complex building structure suggests a central organization, which had to take care of planning, material procurement and the supply of the numerous workers. The earthwork was probably on a trade route between Fritzlar Bucht and the Warbuger Börde, where sites of the same age were discovered. The function of earthworks is not always clear. Depending on the state of research, an interpretation in the secular field is possible, such as marketplace, settlement, meeting place or refuge. The interpretation of the earthwork of Calden refers to the religious area as a sanctuary or place of worship: The finds found in the ditches such as animal bones, deer antlers and human bones point to ritual, religious acts. Even later, when the piles and palisades had long since passed, people used the earthworks or its ditches. Intermittent use lasted from the 37th to the 19th century BC. That means 1800 years! |
Posted by Nucleus5th November 2019ce Edited 5th November 2019ce
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