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Early Celtic wood chamber tomb found preserved
An excavation near Riedlingen, southwestern Germany, has unearthed a completely preserved early Celtic wooden burial chamber. It is only the second completely preserved Celtic burial chamber tomb ever found in Germany, and that other one was discovered in 1890 so it was poorly documented, poorly excavated and only parts of it survive today.
The chamber was the found in the center of a huge burial mound more than 200 feet in diameter. Today it is 6.5 feet high, but originally the mound was more than 20 feet high. These dimensions classifies it as a rare princely burial mound, built between 620 and 450 B.C. by the early Celts for people of the highest societal rank. The mound had been tunneled into by looters in antiquity. All princely graves from the period loomed so large on the landscape that thieves targeted them almost as soon as the deceased was buried, and so far none of them have been found intact.
Usually the same goes for the burial chambers themselves, which, as solid built as they were, decomposed over time, all the more rapidly after the tunnelers damaged the wood structure and exposed the interior of the mound to air. The exceptional preservation of this chamber tomb is due to the anaerobic, waterlogged soil of Riedlingen which is in the Danube plain.
The chamber is made of solid oak timbers and is 11 feet wide and 13 feet long. It is complete with strong plank flooring, walls consisting of three upright planks that interlock at the corners. The long walls have crossbeams inserted at the midpoint to support the weight of the ceiling. Four wooden posts were driven into the soil through recesses in the upper ceiling beams. The ceiling was very heavy, built in two layers of split oak planks. Some of the planks were wider than the burial chamber itself. Two more split timbers were placed on the middle top of the ceiling, forming a roof ridge. The massive ceiling collapsed at some point, pushed down by the weight of the mounded soil on top of it.
The timbers are currently undergoing dendrochronological testing which will allow researchers to pinpoint the precise age the oaks used to make the chamber were cut down. A wooden artifact that looks like a cricket bat that was left behind by the builders of the tomb has been dated, however, and the oak tree used to make it was cut down in 585 B.C. This date likely applies to the chamber tomb as well, which would make it only two years older than the tomb of the Celtic princess from Bettelbühl discovered a few years ago at the foot of the Heuneburg Celtic hillfort.
The looters cleared out everything they could get in a systematic fashion, but archaeologists did discover decorative bronze nails and some iron nails believed to have come from a four-wheeled cart that was included in other princely graves from the period. Skeletal remains in good condition were identified as belonged to a male between 15 and 20 years of age and 63-66 inches tall.
A secondary grave was found close to the surface of the ground at the edge of the mound. It contained the skeleton of a 25-35 year old man. The looters must have missed it because his grave contained two bronze garment clasps and a rock crystal that may have been worn as an amulet around his neck. A few feet away were two clay vessels containing cinerary remains. They are a little older that the wooden chamber, dating to around 600 B.C., so shortly before construction of the mound began.
The excavations will continue in the coming weeks and are due to be completed this year. Excavation and analysis will be carried out using the latest excavation, documentation and restoration technology and in close cooperation between archaeologists, restorers and natural scientists. Dr. Roberto Tarpini (LAD), who is scientifically leading the excavations on site, emphasized: “The investigations and analyses that will be carried out after the excavations have been completed will lead to further important findings, particularly on the question of who this monumental burial mound was built for.”
The President of the LAD, Prof. Dr. Claus Wolf, concluded: “All of the wood from the burial chamber will be carefully recovered and conserved and restored in the workshops of the State Office for Monument Preservation over the next few years in order to be able to present the completely reconstructed chamber to a broad public as a museum exhibit.”
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