Agencies-Gaza post
Swords, jewelry back to medieval age found in Germany
Archaeological treasures, including Stone Age pottery and medieval graves with swords and jewelry, were discovered a long history of human habitation near the Danube River in Germany.
From the place, in the Geisingen-Gutmadingen region of Tuttlingen, in southwestern Germany, archaeologists revealed one grave from the Neolithic, or Stone Age, that dates to the third millennium B.C..
It contained distinctive pottery from the Corded Ware culture. They also found 140 early medieval graves, dating to between A.D. 500 and 600, that include goods including swords, lances, shields, bone combs, drinking glasses and earrings.
“Our Gutmadingen district is probably much older than we previously assumed,” Mayor Martin Numberger reported in a statement. The district had previously been dated to 1273 based on the first written records of settlement there.
The treasures were made by a team from archaeology firm ArchaeoTask GmbH in an area near the Danube river where a rainwater retention pond is planned.
The Stone Age grave referred to the presence of a The Corded Ware people, who are now known mostly for their pottery decorated by geometric lines formed by pressing cord into clay and leaving the impressions to dry.
These people were probably pastoralists who kept animals such as cows and sheep, and some also practiced early farming of crops such as barley. Graves from this period are rare in southwestern Germany, according to local officials.
The early medieval graves age to the century after the end of the Western Roman Empire, which fell in 476 A.D. when the German warlord Odoacer deposed the Roman emperor Romulus Augustus.
This time is part of what is known as the Migration Period, or the Völkerwanderung, when various tribes in Europe moved around, often conquering one another and pushing each other into new territories.
Historians thought this period the transition between antiquity and the early Middle Ages.
In other graves from this era found in Germany, men are often buried with weapons, and women are interred with jewelry and beads. Burial rites sometimes changed as conquerors took over a particular village or region. For example, a Germanic tribe called the Alemanni was defeated by the Franks in A.D. 496 and became absorbed into the Duchy of the Merovingian.
