DOI Kapitel:
Grenzgänger, traders and the last hunter-gatherers of the North European Plain
DOI Kapitel: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 Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.66745#0034
Marion Heumuller, Mirjam Briel, Florian Klimscha, Andreas Kotula, Hanns Hubert Leuschner, Reinhold Schoon and Tanja Zerl
33
37 tab. 1). The significantly greater economic import-
ance of domestic animals indicated for Hunte 3 is
certainly not statistically valid due to the relatively
small amount of material and has therefore to be
verified with the help of further find complexes from
the research region.
Archaeobotanical analyses
During the archaeological investigations at the
Hunte 3 site a total of 25 soil samples were extract-
ed, above all from the charcoal-rich cultural layer de-
scribed above, but also from the carr peat.4
Only ten samples contained fruit and seeds
(n = 51). Identified were fragments of hazelnut shells
(Corylus avellana) and a drupelet of raspberry (Rubus
idaeus), both of which can be considered as forage
plants. Besides, diaspores of synanthropic species were
found: fat-hen (Chenopodium album), white dead-/
spotted dead-nettle (Lamium album/maculatum),
pale persicaria/red shank (Polygonum lapathifolium/
persicaria), the caryopsis of a grass (Poaceae), dia-
spores of goosefoots, knotweeds and docks or sor-
rels (Chenopodium spec., Polygonum spec., Rumex
spec.) which were not possible to determine in more
detail, and a probable seed of cabbage (cf. Brassica
spec.). The fruit of a branched burr-reed (Sparganium
erectum s. 1.), a riparian and meadow plant, was also
found. Sixteen diaspores could not be identified due
to the bad state of preservation (Indeterminatae).
Most of the remains were subfossil, i. e. un-
charred, just a hazelnut shell fragment and the fruit
of the burr-reed were charred. Even though there is
no evidence of cultivated plants, these charred resi-
dues together with the other finds document local
anthropogenic activities.
The modest number of fruits and seeds as well as
the low density at 2.8 n/1 (remains per liter of sample
volume) indicate that for the Hunte 3 site the pres-
ervation of subfossil plant remains must be classified
as extremely poor. This is most likely the result of a
considerable drop in groundwater levels in the past
decades causing the once continuously moist fen to
dry up.
4 Analysed by Tanja Zerl in the Archaeobotanical Laboratory
of the Department of Prehistoric Archaeology at the University
of Cologne. For the analysis of the sample material subsamples
of 0.51,1.0 to 21, resp. (181 in total) were divided and processed.
This involved dissolving the subsamples carefully, then rinsing
the samples through sieves with mesh sizes of 2 mm, 1 mm,
0,5 mm and 0,25 mm. The fractionated sample material, kept
in water, was then examined for plant remains under a stereo
magnifier with up to 80x magnification.
Radiocarbon dating
Charcoal from the lowest planum of Section 1 was
used for 14C-dating. Initially animal bones were tried
to avoid old wood effects. Radiocarbon measurements
on these, however, proved unsuccessful due to the
poor condition of the collagens. The charcoals from
sample no. 460/3456.00113-28 1 (Lab. no. Poz-87927)
originate from material taken from a number of square
meters of planum 4, roughly 30-40 cm below the
ground surface, whereas charcoals taken from sam-
ples 460/3456.00113-28 6.1 (Lab. no. Poz-87928) and
460/3456.00113-28 6.2 (Poz-87929) come from sever-
al square metres of the lowest level of planum 5, some
40-50 cm below the surface. A sample recovered from
planum 4 was dated to 4,228-3,963 calBC and thus
slightly younger than the two samples from the lowest
level of planum 5, which dates to 4,328-4,054 calBC
or 4,331-4,057 calBC (95.4 %). This age-range could
represent both the latest Swifterbant and the earliest
Funnelbeaker culture.
The wooden trackway Pr 31 in
Campemoor - a Swifterbant timber
construction
Site, discovery and course of investigations
Campemoor, southwest of Lake Dummer, still cov-
ered an area of 46 km2 in the 1970s. Towards the east
it merges seamlessly with Dummer moor (Schnee-
kloth/Schneider 1972, 74-79). Here the bog, which
in other places is up to 7 km wide, narrows to a rough-
ly 3 to 4 km wide bog landscape.
For a long time only the Campemoor trackways
at the bottleneck to Dummer moor were known. Here,
trackway Pr 25, discovered as early as 1826 during the
construction of the causeway between Hunteburg and
Damme, is particularly worth mentioning. It was built
in the late Pre-Roman Iron Age and was used again in
the early Roman Imperial Period (Fansa/ Schneider
1990, 24-25; Bauerochse et al. 2012, 138).
However, in October 1991, two more trackways
were discovered in Campemoor during peat cutting.
Between 1992 and 2011 a variety of rescue excava-
tions took place, during which three other Neolithic
trackways were discovered. The five newly discovered
trackways all run in a similar northwest to southeast
direction and cross each other corresponding to
their varying dates and levels. There is a time span of
1,600 years between the oldest (Pr 31, dendro-dated
at 4,629-4,538 BC) and the most recent (Pr 32, den-
33
37 tab. 1). The significantly greater economic import-
ance of domestic animals indicated for Hunte 3 is
certainly not statistically valid due to the relatively
small amount of material and has therefore to be
verified with the help of further find complexes from
the research region.
Archaeobotanical analyses
During the archaeological investigations at the
Hunte 3 site a total of 25 soil samples were extract-
ed, above all from the charcoal-rich cultural layer de-
scribed above, but also from the carr peat.4
Only ten samples contained fruit and seeds
(n = 51). Identified were fragments of hazelnut shells
(Corylus avellana) and a drupelet of raspberry (Rubus
idaeus), both of which can be considered as forage
plants. Besides, diaspores of synanthropic species were
found: fat-hen (Chenopodium album), white dead-/
spotted dead-nettle (Lamium album/maculatum),
pale persicaria/red shank (Polygonum lapathifolium/
persicaria), the caryopsis of a grass (Poaceae), dia-
spores of goosefoots, knotweeds and docks or sor-
rels (Chenopodium spec., Polygonum spec., Rumex
spec.) which were not possible to determine in more
detail, and a probable seed of cabbage (cf. Brassica
spec.). The fruit of a branched burr-reed (Sparganium
erectum s. 1.), a riparian and meadow plant, was also
found. Sixteen diaspores could not be identified due
to the bad state of preservation (Indeterminatae).
Most of the remains were subfossil, i. e. un-
charred, just a hazelnut shell fragment and the fruit
of the burr-reed were charred. Even though there is
no evidence of cultivated plants, these charred resi-
dues together with the other finds document local
anthropogenic activities.
The modest number of fruits and seeds as well as
the low density at 2.8 n/1 (remains per liter of sample
volume) indicate that for the Hunte 3 site the pres-
ervation of subfossil plant remains must be classified
as extremely poor. This is most likely the result of a
considerable drop in groundwater levels in the past
decades causing the once continuously moist fen to
dry up.
4 Analysed by Tanja Zerl in the Archaeobotanical Laboratory
of the Department of Prehistoric Archaeology at the University
of Cologne. For the analysis of the sample material subsamples
of 0.51,1.0 to 21, resp. (181 in total) were divided and processed.
This involved dissolving the subsamples carefully, then rinsing
the samples through sieves with mesh sizes of 2 mm, 1 mm,
0,5 mm and 0,25 mm. The fractionated sample material, kept
in water, was then examined for plant remains under a stereo
magnifier with up to 80x magnification.
Radiocarbon dating
Charcoal from the lowest planum of Section 1 was
used for 14C-dating. Initially animal bones were tried
to avoid old wood effects. Radiocarbon measurements
on these, however, proved unsuccessful due to the
poor condition of the collagens. The charcoals from
sample no. 460/3456.00113-28 1 (Lab. no. Poz-87927)
originate from material taken from a number of square
meters of planum 4, roughly 30-40 cm below the
ground surface, whereas charcoals taken from sam-
ples 460/3456.00113-28 6.1 (Lab. no. Poz-87928) and
460/3456.00113-28 6.2 (Poz-87929) come from sever-
al square metres of the lowest level of planum 5, some
40-50 cm below the surface. A sample recovered from
planum 4 was dated to 4,228-3,963 calBC and thus
slightly younger than the two samples from the lowest
level of planum 5, which dates to 4,328-4,054 calBC
or 4,331-4,057 calBC (95.4 %). This age-range could
represent both the latest Swifterbant and the earliest
Funnelbeaker culture.
The wooden trackway Pr 31 in
Campemoor - a Swifterbant timber
construction
Site, discovery and course of investigations
Campemoor, southwest of Lake Dummer, still cov-
ered an area of 46 km2 in the 1970s. Towards the east
it merges seamlessly with Dummer moor (Schnee-
kloth/Schneider 1972, 74-79). Here the bog, which
in other places is up to 7 km wide, narrows to a rough-
ly 3 to 4 km wide bog landscape.
For a long time only the Campemoor trackways
at the bottleneck to Dummer moor were known. Here,
trackway Pr 25, discovered as early as 1826 during the
construction of the causeway between Hunteburg and
Damme, is particularly worth mentioning. It was built
in the late Pre-Roman Iron Age and was used again in
the early Roman Imperial Period (Fansa/ Schneider
1990, 24-25; Bauerochse et al. 2012, 138).
However, in October 1991, two more trackways
were discovered in Campemoor during peat cutting.
Between 1992 and 2011 a variety of rescue excava-
tions took place, during which three other Neolithic
trackways were discovered. The five newly discovered
trackways all run in a similar northwest to southeast
direction and cross each other corresponding to
their varying dates and levels. There is a time span of
1,600 years between the oldest (Pr 31, dendro-dated
at 4,629-4,538 BC) and the most recent (Pr 32, den-