Unusually Good Feature Preservation Reveals Diverse Burial Customs

During the 10 months of excavation (spread out over the years from 1995 to 1998) we documented a total of twelve grave mounds either partially or in their entirety. All of these barrows were discovered in an area of the excavation which was 125m long and just under 20m wide. Eight of the barrows included stone packing and stone circles between 5 and 35 metres in diameter.

Kinding-Ilbling: Overview of the investigated area of the grave mound field.

Four burial chambers without stone architecture were also discovered, such as mounds 8 and 9. A small cremation interment with an accompanying stela was found near to the peripheral stone circle around mound 5. Many other diverse, small features were discovered between the mounds including reused graves, scattered sherds etc. These gave us an insight into the dynamics of this intensively utilised burial ground.

Kinding-Ilbling: Feature photo, mound 12. Body and urn grave in a wooden burial chamber.

The large majority of the mounds proved to be constructions with jurassic limestone packing in the centre and containing wooden burial chambers. They are surrounded by either a stone circle at the foot of the mound or by a wide band of stone slabs. The central stone packings are predominantly quadratic and around 5 to 11 metres wide across the base. In the very centre of the stone packings are the wooden burial chambers, the remains of which are unusually well-preserved thanks to the damp environment. Occasionally, caved-in stone lids indicate the position of the original wooden chamber covers. The chambers are between 4 to 36 square metres in area. There are further earth mounds between the stone mounds but these can only be vaguely discerned due to the extremely problematic soil conditions.

Funeral pyre remains

The burial ground contains evidence of simple skeleton and cremation burials, bi-ritual multiple burials, clear indications of the remains of funeral pyres in the mounds, sherd pavements and traces of fire. The stone packings and barrows also contain secondary skeleton burials. The Kinding necropolis provides valuable insight into the diversity of Hallstatt period burial practices.

back  |	1 - 2 - 3 - [ 4 ] - 5 - 6 - 7	|   next