Überraschende Details zu den Bestattungen der Trichterbecherkultur in Heek-Nienborg

First of all, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Today, we would like to present to you a new detail on the stockpiling in a minefield of the Trichterbecher culture from Hegg-Nienborg. In the first part of the lecture, I will explain the minefield with the most important research results. And in the second part, Ms. Zehr will present the result of the analysis of the organic remains from dig F42. The minefield Hegg-Nienborg is located in the northwest of the Münsterland, already close to the border with the Netherlands. The 2.5 hectare area was excavated in 2018 and 2019. And in the northeast corner, 27 excavations of the Trichterbecher culture could be documented. It is a very small minefield, but since the ceramics indicate that it is a one-phase minefield, it is of great importance for the research. All vessels can be classified in Horizon 4 according to Anna Brindley. Nevertheless, there are clear differences in the stockpiling. There are mainly oval excavations with mould-shaped soil and no to few finds have been documented. In addition, there are also angular excavations with also few finds and also flat soil. As a third group, there are angular excavations with a lot of finds and also burnt Silex devices, burnt plant parts and burnt vessel parts in the stockpiling. One of these minefields we would like to present now, namely mine F42, which had the most additions in the entire minefield. Here is the minefield in the third planum, when the first vessel remains appeared. It is a rectangular minefield, which is 1.5 x 2.3 meters in size. The minefield was probably lined with wood and had a flat soil. One can already speak of a mine chamber here. Eight vessels were placed on the minefield, partly in moulds. These vessels can be seen here in the picture. In the middle area, in the background, we see a shoulder vessel with double handles. I also brought that with me. It is here in front next to the speaker's desk. First of all, I would like to draw your attention to the two twin vessels, which can be seen here on the right in the picture. During the mining, it was obvious that there are very big differences between these two vessels. The vessel on the left in the picture was completely deposited in the minefield. It stood in a small mould on the east side of the minefield. You can see here in the picture how strong it is crushed by the earthquake. On the right in the picture you can see the second vessel. This vessel was already broken down. It can be seen here that several large shards were stacked exactly on top of each other in the minefield. Let's take a closer look at the two vessels. They are very similar, but there are also slight differences. If you now look at the decoration on the shoulder of the vessel, there are blocks with horizontal dashes and angular patterns in alternation. Always in alternation. On the left of the handle, however, there is a deviation in both vessels. Here are two blocks with angular patterns next to each other. This is the same for both vessels. It certainly had a certain importance for the owners at the time. Then there are also small differences in the decoration. Above the handle, for example, you can see on the left vessel that three rows of horizontal dashes were applied. On the right vessel there are four. Below the handle there are also slight deviations. On the right vessel there are five vertical dashes. On the left there are six. And so there are even more small deviations in the decoration of the two vessels, which we can no longer interpret today. Here in the picture you can see four vessels stored together in a block. In the picture on the right, I would like to go into the small funnel cup in more detail. In the exhibition in the restoration workshop, it can be clearly seen that in the upper area the decorative pattern below the edge is covered by a black mass. This mass, as you can see in the small detail photo, was painted both in the decorative pattern and completely over the entire decoration. Natural science analyses have shown that it could be residues of bast and resin. It was not possible to determine exactly, because there is not enough comparative data for this. But it is clear that the original decorative pattern was covered with this mass and probably served to cover a new pattern or just the decorative pattern. This now comes to the already known finds from the grave F42. And Ms. Zerl now comes to the special features that we only discovered last year. Thank you very much. During the investigation of the grave F42, several soil samples were also stored for archaeological analyses. And in one of these samples there were such charred remains with a bluish structure, where the suspicion from the beginning was that it could be food residue. One of these chunks was dated directly and the 14C date is calibrated at 3,115 to 2,921 CalVc. This means exactly in this horizon 4, to which the funnel cups can also be assigned, according to Anna Bridley. To clarify whether it could really be food residues, brine, bread or the like, we decided that we would make high-resolution electron microscopic recordings. For this purpose, these chunks were broken several times and glued to such small sample tables and then looked at and documented in an extreme magnification in a high-resolution electron microscope. Even at the first view of the images, such porous structures as you can see on the right showed up. This shows that it is really about strength, which has been added to the water and which is then glued due to heat ingress, namely before cooling. So this is really a grain production. In the same chunk, as you can see here, it is also enlarged on the right, a fragment embedded in this glued strength. If you enlarge it further, you can see it up there, you see such longitudinal cells. This is very typical for grain, for grain grains, i.e. the outer fructus wall that shows such longitudinal cells. And where this fructus wall is no longer present, you can see it further down, you see such rectangles. These are cells of the aleuron layer that are present below the fructus wall. So this is a fragment of a grain cariopse. Such grain cariopses were also found on other chunks. In the upper picture on the right, you can still see, this is shown with the yellow arrows or marked, you can also see these longitudinal cells of the grain fructus wall, the grain testa. And with the blue arrows you can also see these rectangle cells at the top, which are very typical for the aleuron layer. So here again on a chunk, the fragment of a grain cariopse. And below in the picture on the right, you can also see a grain cariopse fragment again. There the testa is no longer completely present, only the area marked with the yellow arrow. And the aleuron layer has also disappeared. Only at the bottom left you can still see a piece of these rectangle cells. So you can see that we are dealing with a product made of flour, in which grain cariopses are present. What else did we find? There were also such cell structures, which you can now see on the right of the picture. This is a sclera-enzyme tissue. So you can see very clearly these longitudinal cells, these sclera-enzyme cells. And if you zoom in a little bit, you can see these longitudinal cells again, these sclera-enzyme cells. And I don't know if you can really see that. They are porous. There are small holes in the walls. These are tufts, very typical for sclera-enzyme cells. And marked with the blue arrow, there is also a screw texture, which is also present on the cell walls, which serves for the stabilization and fastening of these cells. Such sclera-enzyme tissue is very typical for truss remains, i.e. for grain cariopses. We cannot say 100% that this is a grain cariopse, because unfortunately the surface is no longer there. But it is highly likely that there were also grain cariopses in these foods. So what can we say about these small, but relatively inconspicuous chunks that we found in the samples? We can say that it is definitely a grain production. We have seen that clotted starch is present. This means that water was added to the flour and it was heated before the charcoal. So this is a result that we can interpret as bread or wheat, which was added to this grain. The grain was not completely ground. We still have remains of grain cariopses, which is also to be expected if you consider that in the Neolithic with stone mills grain was hand-ground. And the whole product or all the chunks looked relatively homogeneous and clean. We only found a few other inclusions. An example would be these cell structures, which can be interpreted as grain cariopses. These finds were a relatively lucky case for the archipelago. We have very few remains or finds of bread and wheat from Westphalia. Hardly anything is known. And from the same period and from the same context we only know a comparable find from a Trichterbecher-era grave from Hegarmantenmark. These grain chunks or remains of grain production were a lucky case for the archipelago. Thank you very much for your attention.