DOI chapter:
Grenzgänger, traders and the last hunter-gatherers of the North European Plain
DOI chapter:Heumüller, Marion; Briel, Mirjam; Klimscha, Florian; Kotula, Andreas; Leuschner, Hanns Hubert; Schoon, Reinhold; Zerl, Tanja: Wetlands settlements and a wooden trackway: Swifterbant sites in the Dümmer basin
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.66745#0027
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Wetlands settlements and a wooden trackway: Swifterbant sites in the Dummer basin
Fig. 1 The Dummer basin and the adjoining Campemoor with the Swifterbant sites mentioned in the text. Mapped are known and more
precisely located sites of different Stone Age periods (source: LBEG Bodenubersichtskarte, archaeological data: Adabweb, graphics:
M. Heumuller, K. Dietrich/NLD).
over the wide plains and could cover an area of up to
100 km2 (Dahms 1972,196). Pollen analyses indicate
that there was a similar shallow lake near the Campe-
moor site some 30 km to the southeast which silted up
and became overlaid by peat bog during the Atlantic
period (see Bauerochse/Leuschner this volume).
Wetland settlements around Lake
Dummer
The Dummer and the surrounding fen areas are
well known beyond the borders of Lower Saxony for
their special wetland sites ranging from the Upper
Palaeolithic, the Mesolithic and the Neolithic to the
Bronze Age - and possibly even to the Iron Age and
up to the early Middle Ages, too. Here, house and
settlement ground plans with preserved construction
timbers have been documented that are unique in
the Neolithic Age of central and northern Europe.
Other settlements with wetland preservation of the
North German Plain were mostly located on sites in
close proximity to bodies of water so that in saturated
milieus only part of the settlement remains are pre-
served (cf. Muller 2012). The earliest reports of pre-
historic finds from the lake come from the 17th century
(Struckmann 1887, 13-14). Large-scale excavations
took place between 1938 and 1941 under the direction
of Hans Reinerth, who oversaw the almost complete
excavation of the moorland village of Hunte 1 to the
north of Dummer (Reinerth 1939). Scientific evalu-
ation of the finds and findings was not carried out
until almost seventy years later by Rainer Kossian
(Kossian 2007; 2009). According to his assessment
the area was settled during the early and late Funnel
Beaker culture, the early Corded Ware culture and
the Bell Beaker culture - so in at least four settlement
phases - between 3,300 and 2,000 BC.
According to the published information, ten pre-
historic sites are known in the lowland fens along the
river Hunte and in today’s lake basin (Kossian 2007,
23 fig. 6). However, a glance at the sites archive at the
State Office for Cultural Heritage of Lower Saxony
indicates that today there are considerably more prehis-
toric sites around Lake Diimmer, which have yet to be
processed or published (Fig. 1). The majority of these
sites are located in drained areas used as farmland,
which have been re-wetted by nature conservation-
ists since the 1990s. It is uncertain how much of the
potential older organic materials remain preserved.
Wetlands settlements and a wooden trackway: Swifterbant sites in the Dummer basin
Fig. 1 The Dummer basin and the adjoining Campemoor with the Swifterbant sites mentioned in the text. Mapped are known and more
precisely located sites of different Stone Age periods (source: LBEG Bodenubersichtskarte, archaeological data: Adabweb, graphics:
M. Heumuller, K. Dietrich/NLD).
over the wide plains and could cover an area of up to
100 km2 (Dahms 1972,196). Pollen analyses indicate
that there was a similar shallow lake near the Campe-
moor site some 30 km to the southeast which silted up
and became overlaid by peat bog during the Atlantic
period (see Bauerochse/Leuschner this volume).
Wetland settlements around Lake
Dummer
The Dummer and the surrounding fen areas are
well known beyond the borders of Lower Saxony for
their special wetland sites ranging from the Upper
Palaeolithic, the Mesolithic and the Neolithic to the
Bronze Age - and possibly even to the Iron Age and
up to the early Middle Ages, too. Here, house and
settlement ground plans with preserved construction
timbers have been documented that are unique in
the Neolithic Age of central and northern Europe.
Other settlements with wetland preservation of the
North German Plain were mostly located on sites in
close proximity to bodies of water so that in saturated
milieus only part of the settlement remains are pre-
served (cf. Muller 2012). The earliest reports of pre-
historic finds from the lake come from the 17th century
(Struckmann 1887, 13-14). Large-scale excavations
took place between 1938 and 1941 under the direction
of Hans Reinerth, who oversaw the almost complete
excavation of the moorland village of Hunte 1 to the
north of Dummer (Reinerth 1939). Scientific evalu-
ation of the finds and findings was not carried out
until almost seventy years later by Rainer Kossian
(Kossian 2007; 2009). According to his assessment
the area was settled during the early and late Funnel
Beaker culture, the early Corded Ware culture and
the Bell Beaker culture - so in at least four settlement
phases - between 3,300 and 2,000 BC.
According to the published information, ten pre-
historic sites are known in the lowland fens along the
river Hunte and in today’s lake basin (Kossian 2007,
23 fig. 6). However, a glance at the sites archive at the
State Office for Cultural Heritage of Lower Saxony
indicates that today there are considerably more prehis-
toric sites around Lake Diimmer, which have yet to be
processed or published (Fig. 1). The majority of these
sites are located in drained areas used as farmland,
which have been re-wetted by nature conservation-
ists since the 1990s. It is uncertain how much of the
potential older organic materials remain preserved.