The causewayed enclosure Büdelsdorf LA 1 near Rendsburg is located in Schleswig-Holstein. It is a structure that was built during the Neolithic period and belongs to Northern European "monumental architecture". The Büdelsdorf LA 1 enclosure was surrounded in parts by four concentric rings with elaborately designed gateways. The enclosure has a long and complex history of use. In the beginning and at the end, the actual enclosure existed. A settlement was uncovered inside the complex, which was used in an intermediate phase when the enclosure was probably not in use. Together with the Neolithic cemetery of Borgstedt nearby, the enclosure forms a Neolithic micro-region. [1]
The Büdelsdorf LA 1 enclosure was investigated and comprehensively published by Franziska Hage as part of the Priority Programme SPP 1400 "Early Monumentality and Social Differentiation", sub-project Monumental enclosures, non-megalithic and megalithic tombs of the early and middle Neolithic in Schleswig-Holstein: "Studies on the construction history, age determination, function and landscape relations within the micro regions Büdelsdorf and Albersdorf", funded by the DFG and directed by Johannes Müller. [2]
The site Büdelsdorf LA 1 is located at the geomorphological boundary of the young moraine of the Eastern Hills and the outlying glacial outwash plain. The site is located north of the present-day town of Rendsburg on a hilltop on the north bank of the Eider River. To the north at a distance of about 800 m are terrain knolls on which the Borgstedt cemetery is located.
Discovered by a historian collector in the 1950s, large-scale excavations were carried out in 1969–1974. A small re-excavation was carried out as part of the DFG-funded SPP 1400 in 2013.
The settlement area covers 5 ha. Many settlement pits and post-holes were found. The latter (353 pieces) allow the reconstruction of ten houses. These are between 25 and 36 m long and 5 to 6.4 m wide. [1] The Büdelsdorf houses combine architectural elements Neolithic houses of northern Germany and southern Scandinavia. [3]
The Büdelsdorf 2 settlement was multi-phase, as intersecting features reveal. Nevertheless, a settlement of 40 simultaneous houses is likely. No evidence indicates that the enclosure was used during the settlement phase. [1]
The enclosure that surrounds the settlement covers 5.6 ha and could be accessed through two entrances to the northeast and east. It consists of three surrounding ditches, presumably formed by single segments joined. The ditches were 2–3.5 m wide and 1–2.5 m deep. They were opened several times and quickly closed again. Between the ditches, ramparts (made of excavated material from the ditches) were built and rows of palisades were installed. In addition, two rows of double palisades are documented in the inner part of the enclosure and a massive flank palisade was erected in the entrance area. [1]
A total of 74 14C datings were made, on the basis of which a phase model could be established. [1]
Megalithic graves were repeatedly visited sites of small burials, probably important for collective memory. [4] Enclosures, on the other hand, were probably important sites for establishing and maintaining the collective memory of large groups. [5] People from a wide area had to come together to effect the construction.
The location of the enclosure at the Eider River is certainly related to its accessibility. This river system covers almost the whole of Schleswig-Holstein in its west–east extension.
The connection of monuments from the Borgstedt cemetery to the enclosure is made clear by the orientation of the long mounds, almost all of which point in the direction of the enclosure .
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A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea.
A causewayed enclosure is a type of large prehistoric earthwork common to the early Neolithic in Europe. It is an enclosure marked out by ditches and banks, with a number of causeways crossing the ditches. More than 100 examples are recorded in France and 70 in Southern England and Wales, while further sites are known in Scandinavia, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Ireland and Slovakia.
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Brú na Bóinne, also called the Boyne Valley tombs, is an ancient monument complex and ritual landscape in County Meath, Ireland, located in a bend of the River Boyne. It is one of the world's most important Neolithic landscapes, comprising at least ninety monuments including passage tombs, burial mounds, standing stones and enclosures. The site is dominated by the passage tombs of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, built during the 32nd century BC. Together these have the largest assemblage of megalithic art in Europe. The associated archaeological culture is called the "Boyne culture".
Büdelsdorf is a town in the district of Rendsburg-Eckernförde, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the river Eider and the Kiel Canal, approx. 2 kilometres north of Rendsburg, and 30 km (19 mi) west of Kiel, just 5 mi (8 km) off the motorway.
Schülp bei Rendsburg is a municipality in the district of Rendsburg-Eckernförde, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
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C. Joshua Pollard is a British archaeologist who is a professor of archaeology at the University of Southampton. He gained his BA and PhD in archaeology from the Cardiff University, and is a specialist in the archaeology of the Neolithic period in the UK and north-west Europe, especially in relation to the study of depositional practices, monumentality, and landscape. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London
Nordic megalith architecture is an ancient architectural style found in Northern Europe, especially Scandinavia and North Germany, that involves large slabs of stone arranged to form a structure. It emerged in northern Europe, predominantly between 3500 and 2800 BC. It was primarily a product of the Funnelbeaker culture. Between 1964 and 1974, Ewald Schuldt in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania excavated over 100 sites of different types: simple dolmens, extended dolmens, passage graves, great dolmens, unchambered long barrows, and stone cists. In addition, there are polygonal dolmens and types that emerged later, for example, the Grabkiste and Röse. This nomenclature, which specifically derives from the German, is not used in Scandinavia where these sites are categorised by other, more general, terms, as dolmens, passage graves and stone cists.
The simple dolmen or primeval dolmen is an early form of dolmen or megalithic tomb that occurs especially in Northern Europe. The term was defined by archaeologist, Ernst Sprockhoff, and utilised by Ewald Schuldt in publicising his excavation of 106 megalithic sites in the north German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The simple dolmen emerged in the early days of the development of megalithic monuments of the Funnelbeaker culture (TBK) and around 3,500 BC they appeared across almost the entire region covered by the stone cult structures of Nordic megalith architecture, but not in the Netherlands, in Lower Saxony west of the River Weser nor east of the River Oder and only once in Sweden.
A rectangular dolmen, extended dolmen or enlarged dolmen is a specific type of megalith, rectangular in shape, with upright sidestones and, usually, two capstones. The term rectangular dolmen was coined by Ekkehard Aner and is used especially in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, where dolmens with this type of ground plan primarily occur. A more precise term, however, is extended dolmen, used by Ewald Schuldt and Ernst Sprockhoff, because these types of dolmen also occur with trapezoidal ground plans.
A polygonal dolmen is a megalithic architectural structure and often depicted as the archetypal dolmen.
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The Hütten Hills are an area of upland, up to 105.8 m above sea level (NHN), roughly west of the town of Eckernförde in the county of Rendsburg-Eckernförde in the North German state of Schleswig-Holstein. They lie within the Hütten Hills Nature Park.
The Eider Canal was an artificial waterway in southern Denmark which connected the North Sea with the Baltic Sea by way of the rivers Eider and Levensau. Constructed between 1777 and 1784, the Eider Canal was built to create a path for ships entering and exiting the Baltic that was shorter and less storm-prone than navigating around the Jutland peninsula. In the 1880s the canal was replaced by the enlarged Kiel Canal, which includes some of the Eider Canal's watercourse.
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)The main publication of the settlement and enclosure Büdelsdorf is available for free. Interested people can download many publications (monographs and collections, also in English language) from DFG the Priority Program 1400 "Early Monumentality and Social Differentiation" here.