Größter eisenzeitlicher Waffenhort in NRW auf der Wallburg Wilzenberg (Schmallenberg, HSK)

The Wilzenberg near Schmallenberg, also known as the holy mountain of the Sauerland. A small chapel existed here in the late Middle Ages. To this day, the mountain is a popular pilgrimage site. The sanctuary is located in two interwoven ring-walled structures, which show that the mountain also had a military significance in the early days. Scout Matthias Dickhaus has been visiting the Wilzenberg since 2018 on behalf of the LWL Archeology for Westphalia. His special interest was the older ring-walled structure, which probably already existed in the 3rd century BC. Here we have the hilltop, the island-like position that we have of the Wilzenberg, and this is the digital terrain model, so the vegetation is calculated. You can of course see the field paths very nicely, but you can also see the inner ring wall, which we have in the east of the layout. Here we have such a small bulge-like elevation, that's what today's view is about. But then, in addition to the quarry as a disturbance here, you can clearly see another wall and another wall body, and here another annex. And these three waves, that's the iron-time phase, where we of course don't know if the inner ring wall is the oldest or the outer one. But what we do know is that this annex, which was connected there, is the last phase, and this last phase concludes a water outlet here, which is a pond today, and we assume that it was already built in the iron age. Yes, and especially for us today, this area between the two iron-time ring walls is exciting. Because this is exactly where Matthias Dickhaus came across a multitude of different weapon parts. His finds make the Wilzenberg the largest iron-time weapon of North Rhine-Westphalia. The first mass was bomb splinters, grenade splinters from the Second World War. Then the second mass, crown corks from the parties here at Wilzenberg. Then a lot of iron-time weapons, iron-time jewelry, coins from the iron age. And then from the pilgrim area, from 1600 to today, a total of 550 coins, which describe the history of the Wilzenberg. This area that I now have with this weapon found, I have almost 1,200 hours in it in two years. It's a lot of work, but it's also fun to support the LWL, to get further information about this Valburg. The trustworthy cooperation between the probe seeker and the LWL archaeology has provided very special results. The objects that Matthias Dickhaus has stored, they basically look like this. These are mostly unformed, rusty objects. He probably found a tinderbox here. And they have to be restored with great effort. This happens in the central services of the LWL archaeology. And in the best case, objects look like this, which the colleague has just released, partly put together again, very special objects. And that's why they're so special, because we have a large number of pieces of equipment from Iron Age warriors here. Here we have the standard equipment of an Iron Age warrior. For example, this bent metal sheet is part of a shield. This is the shield buckle that protects the hand. Behind it is the handle. The wood is of course no longer held. And we have a spear and a lance here. I can throw the spear. The lance is for fencing, for stabbing. And that's the standard equipment a warrior has. The swords that you get shown again and again, or that you hear about, of course, also exist. But that's what the better warriors or the leaders have. Because a sword is of course much more expensive and more elaborate in its manufacture. But the standard weapon is above all the lance. This is what the Iron Age finds from the Wilsenberg look like in a restored state. Notably, all weapons point to striking destruction features. We are now standing in front of one of the Iron Age ring shafts. It is now preserved as a wall structure, as a ruin. In reality, of course, it was a fortification with a straight front made of wood and stone. And the exciting thing is that Matthias Dickhaus has stored these finds in the humus up to about this area. And we reconstruct the situation in such a way that these weapons, shields, lances, spears were hung up here on pillars or on a scaffold, positioned in such a way that they fell down afterwards or they were taken away, destroyed and left here. They were definitely left here and not taken away. So a holy place. A holy place with killed weapons of a fallen enemy. Evidence of a war-like confrontation that probably took place in the late 1st century in the vicinity of the Wilsenberg. But what exactly happened here remains the secret of the Holy Mountain of Sauerland for now.