The Early Medieval graves of Groß Ottenhagen (Berezovka). On the way from Sambia to the middle reaches of the Niemen

Abstract

The field research at Groß ottenhagen (Berezovka) conducted in 2003 and 2004 was the first international scientific collaboration between German and russian archaeologists in kaliningrad region since 1945. The Groß ottenhagen cemetery demonstrates almost continuous functioning for about 1,000 years, from the roman iron Age up to the middle Ages. The part of the site considered in the article belongs to the last stage of the development of sambian-natangian culture among the old Prussians in the 11th to the 13th centuries Ad. despite a first analysis by the excavators in 2005, this data from the cemetery has never been fully published. Groß ottenhagen graves from the discussed period are represented by so-called double layer burial features, with human cremations on top of horse burials. The burial rites and grave goods at the cemetery are discussed in the context of archaeological material from the sambian peninsula and southwest and central lithuania. The relative chronology of Groß ottenhagen is based on an analysis of grave goods, as well as the stratigraphy and the spatial distribution of the graves. According to the absence of imported/status goods at Groß ottenhagen, the cemetery probably belonged to a peripheral group of the late sambian-natangian region culture of the Prussians.Prussians, Early medieval period, archival archaeology, cremation graves, burial rite, typo-chronology, natangia

Biomolecular evidence reveals mares and long-distance imported horses sacrificed by the last pagans in temperate Europe

“…In many cemeteries, horses were buried separately from humans (9,18,20), whereas there are many examples of horses with overlain human cremations, known as double-layer cremations or Aschenplätze (11,21,22). Horses can be buried with (23)(24)(25) or without (9,26) riding equipment. Interment may have involved ancillary rituals with evidence for grave-side hearths (20) and the deposition of charred plants or charcoal from funerary pyres (27).…”

“…Research has also demonstrated that sacrificed horses are morphologically and metrically consistent with local breeds such as the forest tarpan [Equus ferus or Equus sylvestris; see discussion in (40)] and Lithuanian žemaitukas breeds from the sixth century CE onward (6,7,9,10,26,29). Osteometrical analysis provides little indication that the horses are not local to the region (7), although horses at the higher end of stature distributions have been speculated to be examples of nonlocal breeds at sites such as Gross Ottenhagen (25). There is sparse historical evidence for horse trading or raiding (41) and limited evidence for horses sourced from the eastern Baltic region at Scandinavian sites (42).…”