Overview

The grave mounds "Im Kehrbusch" are part of the Archaelogical Hiking Path adjacent to Bruttig-Frankel, a small community along the Moselle river.  These mounds are exquisite examples of burial traditions during the Hunsrück Eifel culture in the 5th to 3rd century B.C.

Location

N 50,07.926', E 7,15.719', Elevation 341m above sea level

Description

Urmersheck

Grave-mounds mark the scenery along the mountain ranges between Rhine and Moselle as a funeral relict from age-old time.  Besides single hills one can also find bigger graveyards that include sometimes numerous hills. Most of the time, these grave arrangements form a group along antique roads and, therefore, can often be found along mountain ranges. The grave-mound in the Urmersheck was orignally not a single monument, but is part of of a bigger group of funeral places.

This grave-mound has survived as one of the last in the forest. The mound has a diameter of 5 to 6 m and a height of about 0.60 m. Initially, excavations were conducted at the end of 19. century. There is no evidence of a grave chamber as has been found in other mounds.

Wolfskaul

The settlements belonging to the grave-mounds were located near the fertile arable land and  close to springs of the beginning brook valleys or in valley widening of the Moselle area.

The archaeological monuments of the prehistoric grave-mounds are the last remaining examples and are mostly only partially preserved as part of former grave-mound field.   The grave-mound called "Wolfskaul " has a diameter of about 12 m and a height from about 1.20 m.

Based on excavations of other examples, much is known about the construction of the grave-mounds.  As a rule the mounds contain single funerals.  These are buried in a deepened grave pit mostly in east west direction as body graves.

In some mounds, wooden relicts were found, e.g. wooden coffins or boards, which were used to support the body of the individual, others contained "burial chambers" of wood, beam or stone settlements.  Gifts and relicts were found in the graves that corresponded to the custom of the region and the time period.

Mostly these are some ceramic objects and some jewelry.  Moreover, one can find the so-called round staffed rotated cervical and temple rings as well as decorative arm rings made of bronze.

On the basis of construction, equipment, grave custom and the grave additions within the grave-mounds, one can date the "Wolfskaul mounds" to the preroman Iron Age, which has also been called the "Hunsrück Eifel culture".  It was the Celts that burried their dead people in the time from the 5th to the 3rd cent. B.C.

Im Kehrbusch

Based on a formerly larger graveyard in the area, one can still recognize several grave-mounds in "Kehrbusch". The remaining mounds are have survived agricultural use of the land or other effects over the course of the millennium. Some hills contain a single mound, others are grouped and often different size grave mounds are arranged together in these fields.

Frequently, they are located on top of exposed areas, places where the mound was visible from afar. Often one can conclude from the size, equipment and construction the degree to which the individual occupied a leading position in the society.

The custom of the so-called "wagon funerals" is especially noteworthy among individuals during the the Hunsrück Eifel culture:  the person is usually accompanied by a mostly 2-wheeled wagon in the grave.  The chamber is situated below the ground and covered, it contains the dead person either in an urn or as a body funeral. Moreover, different relicts like ceramics, jewelry and utensils are added.  The only remaining parts of the wagons are the metal parts. The burial chamber is based on wooden beams or is made from fieldstones and is surrounded by a mighty mound. The grave-mounds themselves are often surrounded by a ditch and/or wreath made of wooden posts. At the bottom, sometimes one finds also a stone wreath or a low wall.

Construction and appearance of the grave-mounds in "Kehrbusch " indicate that they
date back to the Celtic Hunsrück Eifel culture (5.-3 cent. B.C.).

Context

The new development and processing of the bronze since 18. Cent. B.C. and the production and smelting of the iron ore since 8. Cent. B.C. offered a new way of support in addition to agriculture.  During the Iron Age (1-st mill. B.C.) the population numbers rose significantly such that even settlements occurred in previously inhospitable mountain regions.

These settlements in this areas consisted of farms, small clusters of homes, and half-timbered houses. They belonged to the so-called "Hunsrück Eifel culture". From this period, one still finds some stately well-preserved grave-mounds in the local forest of Bruttig-Fankel, which have been excavated already Usually they were located along the main distant travel connections at that time, which today are located along the height of "Almesch" and "Langewald" moved, partially when graveled route was developed and was called "racing way". The inhabitants of Hunsrück and Eifel belonged to the past of the Celtic tribe of the Treveri.

With the Roman conquests at the middle 1st cent. B.C. under G.J. Caesar moves the area along the Rhine and Moselle into written history. Moreover, the slate mountain ranges along the Rhine and on both sides of the Moselle were sites of the major Roman roads as well as numerous minor roads in the 1st cent. A.D. connecting the towns of Trier, Cologne and Mainz.

Speculation

References

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