Illuminiertes Bornhöved – eine außergewöhnliche Hügelkonstruktion der Bronzezeit

Abstract

North of Bornhöved, district of Segeberg,
remains of an unusual burial mound with
a ditch and a post henge were found in
summer 2018 in a new development area.
The barrow belongs to a group of 5 mounds
dating to the Older Bronze Age. In cooperation
with the Archäologisches Landesamt
Schleswig-Holstein and the municipality of
Bornhöved, the tumulus was investigated
over a large area in 2018 by the project D 3
within the CRC 1266, University of Kiel.
The tumulus stands out due to its unusual
construction. The central grave was
surrounded by a repeatedly excavated
ditch, stone circle, stone packing and post
henge. Extensive botanical and geological
investigations point to a mound that was
repeatedly reshaped, enlarged and modified
with new features. The highlight of
the site was certainly a fire that enclosed
the mound in a circle of flames. The burial
mound was also later used as a burial place.
Seven urn graves partly preserved under
a colluvium (Younger Bronze Age) and
three stratigraphically younger oval stone
pavements bear witness to this. Settlement
traces were found in the south-west of the
mound with a waste pit below a cultural
layer and postholes dating to the Bronze
or Iron Age. The article will highlight the
complex phases of use of the barrow over
the centuries from the Late Neolithic to
the Bronze Age and beyond. This type of
complex burial construction is typical of
the Late Neolithic / Older Bronze Age, but
rarely attested in Schleswig-Holstein and
Denmark. Rather, the unusual construction
points to parallels in the West, the
Netherlands and Belgium.