In September 2016, the Research Centre of the Keltenwelt am Glauberg carried out the first excavations on the Glauberg after many years. As part of the Summer Academy of
hessenARCHÄOLOGIE summer academy, a medieval cellar was excavated on the plateau together with students from Hesse (Frankfurt, Giessen and Marburg), England (Winchester) and the Netherlands (Deventer), as well as an excavation section with Celtic settlement remains on an undeveloped area.
This research continued in 2017 and 2018, and the results of the excavations are currently being analysed.
Photo: View from Glauberg towards northeast
The excavations that began in May 2017 on the southern slope of the Glauberg, approx. 330 m south of the reconstructed burial mound, were intended to clarify the structure of a rampart/ditch section that lies hidden in the field here, bending westwards from the "procession road" and which was previously only known through geophysical prospection (a non-destructive surveying method for investigating archaeological structures such as ditches, pits, ramparts, walls, etc. that run through the ground). It was possible to document a rampart that was originally around 5 metres high and around 18 metres wide, which had been built up from the excavation of a ditch that was also around 18 metres wide and around 5 metres deep. This gigantic enclosure ran around the Glauberg in various sections and with large gaps and is more likely to have served representational purposes than for defence.
The remains of an even older ditch system, also known from the geophysical data, were documented under the rampart and dated for the first time using finds. It is a ditch system from the Neolithic Rössen culture (approx. 4800-4500 BC).
The big surprise, however, was the discovery of an early Celtic grave. The burial of a woman with two bronze bracelets, an iron belt hook and two small amber beads was found in a tree coffin (a hollowed-out tree trunk) that was completely gone but still recognisable as an imprint in the ground. The bones of the burial were completely gone, only minimal remains of three teeth could be recovered.
In addition, the first evidence of an early Celtic drainage system was found, which was used to drain the building ground before the rampart was constructed.
Photo: Bronze bracelets from the woman's grave under the wall on the southern slope of the Glauberg
In addition to the excavations, the research center is also carrying out numerous other investigations. Naturally, the statue (simplified version of a 3D model based on a scan by colleagues from the Discovery Program in Dublin) plays a special role. Although no painting has yet been proven, a Czech-German team is currently investigating the presence of tool marks on the statue, which will be compared with marks on other Iron Age statues in the medium term.
The gold from the Glauberg graves is also still the centre of attention. Analyses carried out by a Franco-German team have already revealed, among other things, that the chemical composition of the two small gold rings from grave 1, which look completely identical, is very different. One ring was presumably made directly from river gold, while the second was made from an elaborately purified gold with a significantly lower silver content. As this technique was not yet known north of the Alps at the time of the Glauberg "prince", it can be assumed that the gold came from the area south of the Alps. This shows once again how well connected the Glauberg was throughout Europe.
Photo: Two gold rings from Grave 1 of Glauberg
In addition to its tasks in connection with the exploration of the Glauberg, the Research Centre of the Keltenwelt am Glauberg is also responsible for research into the "Celtic era" (the Iron Age) in Hesse. As part of this commitment, the main focus is currently on economic archaeological questions, especially on the Iron Age, such as iron mining in the Hintertaunus or the extraction of lead silver ore in the vicinity of the Augustan (early Roman) rampart/ditch complex of Alteburg-Oberbrechen and the associated site of Villmar-Weyer.
In cooperation with the Romano-Germanic Commission of the German Archaeological Institute, the research centre therefore carried out initial geomagnetic prospections in 2016 and short exploratory excavations at the site in 2017 and 2019 in cooperation with the Weyerer Geschichtsverein and the municipality of Weyer. In addition to numerous features from the early Roman period, some of which contained local pottery, early Iron Age pits were also discovered, which indicate that the site was used for a longer period of time.
Photo: Drone photo of the excavation in Weyer 2019
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