Fundamentales aus der westfälischen Mittelalter-/Neuzeitarchäologie: Das Jahr 2021

Dear audience, what did medieval and modern archeology achieve in 2021? The same as always, only in a much larger scale. Why? The structure on the construction site suffered from Corona and supply shortages and continued to run at a high level, which is why we had to deal with a total of 79 measures across Westphalia. Notably only for medieval and modern archeology. I would like to point out one number in particular, namely the construction site monitoring and prospecting measures carried out in self-management, which show that medieval and modern archeology, apart from monumental consultations and audit activities, does a lot for the people in Westphalia, for municipalities, for church communities and small builders. The number of plans processed in 2021 reached a new peak with 1,295, compared to the previous year, an increase of just under 26%, which means that we will also have our hands full in the coming years. In 2021, city and town centers, churches and monasteries, castles and mansions, courtyards and objects of the modern era will once again be affected by all kinds of site categories. Here is a brief overview of the following. Hadehausen Monastery at Warburg-Scherfelde, founded in 1140 by the Bishop of Paderborn, Bernhard I, as the first Cistercian abbey on Westphalian soil. A flourishing period in the 13th century followed a phase of decline during the Reformation and during the Thirty Years' War. After that, consolidation and comprehensive reconstruction from around 1680. Here you can see a view of the baroque layout from 1802. As a result of the secularization, from around 1812, the west wing of the cloister was also demolished next to the monastery church, with the exception of the crosswalk. This is where a new building was to be built, which is why a factual investigation was necessary. This promoted spectacular things to date. From the former basement of the wing used by the converts, standing wall works of up to 2.20 meters in height were preserved. Apparently, only the vaults had been brought to the crash and the whole story was planned. The preserved wall trains, pillars, belt arches and approaches of cross vaults allow a complete reconstruction of the baroque-time building condition. This reveals three phases of construction, the first of which is based on workpiece forms and considerations for the construction history of the entire cloister in the years around 1250. Obviously, one had first invested in the monastery church. After the foundation had proven to be economically sustainable, one began with the construction of a generously dimensioned, fully designed cloister. Today's baroque construction probably fully relied on this layout of the 13th century. Smaller, building-accompanying investigations took place in the monasteries Herzebrock and Arnsberg-Ölinghausen, as well as in Kappenberg, which required our attention because of a general renovation for the 900th anniversary of 2022. Even the smallest ground interventions, such as this pipe ditch west of the Stiftskirche, show that they can produce amazing results. On full length, the undisturbed surface of the Grafenburg, the 14c data confirm this, could be traced. It is quite certain that since the excavations by Hermann Busen in 1940-41, there has been no postulated west construction. In Coesfeld, the modified municipality and architect of St. Lamberti, the original construction project, after consideration of the LWL archaeology. In the church founded by St. Jutga in 1809, only the late Gothic choir extension was affected, but in the westernmost entrance area, foundations could be found, which are very likely to be interpreted as the east wall of a choir closed with a semicircular apsis, which should have belonged to a predecessor of the late Romanesque Stufenhalle. The fact that the music is played in the area of the Langhaus was already revealed by a leitungsgraben in 1974. We place great hopes in geophysical investigations, which our colleague Kohl will be able to carry out this year. With a bit of luck, we will track down the predecessors dating back to the Lutheran era. In Borkenweseke, the old church had been torn down in 1894 and replaced by a neo-Gothic new building. In the course of the heating and floor renovation, it could now be found that under the new building still rising walls of the Langhaus tower and the younger choir closure of the old church have been preserved. The base profiles of the belt arches and vault services confirm the dating of the monumental inventory, which is also due to the delivery of the old foundation and a view. Subsequently, around 1400, a simple vaulted hall church with a west tower was created, which in the first half of the 16th century a new choir with five-eighths closure and a side chapel were added. In the Kirchpfeilstädter Pfarrkirche St. Servatius floor and heating system were to be renovated. Documented was an early modern platen floor with various tombstones in the church ship as well as remains of a semicircular apsis of the predecessor building. A tombstone belonging to the younger sanctuary disturbs the older apsis and could have been part of the new church building. Possibly a Bilsteiner, which until 1363 had the patronage right. In Attenlohren, around the Urpfarrkirche St. Johannes-Baptistus, graves of a late Middle Ages to modern-day burial horizon of a new surface design had to be removed. Graves of older burial phases were preserved and were not examined. The team around Sebastian Lucke from Archäologie am Helweg. In the north and east of the church, the cover of the older church yard edge construction was achieved. Although we had a simple half-timbered construction in the north, in the east of the choir, however, had to do with a high-quality stone construction. Their task is very likely to be related to the Gothic choir expansion in the second half of the 14th century. We stay at the churches and switch to St. Victor in Herzendülmen. Here, in the course of redesign work, the archaeological company Jenkens and partner archaeology with the excavator Dr. Gerd Jenkens were active. At the churchyard, under the graves, there were also modern-day special burials outside the churchyard wall, which can be seen here. With the modern-day burials, it is regularly observed in Dülmen, the unmarried deceased with filigree brass jewelry, such as dead crowns, to be equipped. It should be noted that even up to the High Middle Ages there were sufficient burials, for example below a Latin school mentioned for the first time in 1313. The foundations of this Latin school could be excavated and preserved. In the course of redesign, their course is recorded and thus also permanently visible. Numerous burials were also in the redesign of the marketplace in Gesicke. Here, the excavation company Eggenstein-Exca with the excavators Ralf Merhütter and Friedrich Heinze were active. The Christian graves found here were in up to four layers and date from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. From a grave pit, a coin from the Spitzer and a coin from the late 11th or early 12th century. Up here on the left in a restored state. Up here on the right you can see a superimposition of information from the Westphalian city atlas directly on a current site photo. From this it is clear that in the area of ​​the marketplace also the former town hall and a pastorate were located. Their foundations could also be found in the archaeological excavations. Up here on the right you can see the foundation of the pastorate completed in 1528. On the drone shot below, the remains of the former town hall. The town hall was first mentioned in 1217 and demolished in 1851. Blue and red are highlighted the phases of construction of this building. In the red area are also three brickwork of a former half cellar from the 13th and 14th century. This found spectrum is supplemented by various settlement pits. One of these grottoes contained a large number of ceramics from the 5th to 1st century BC. So you can say that the area of ​​the Giesecker Marktplatz was already inhabited over 2,000 years ago. Just as far into the time before the city was founded, Iron and imperial-time dog material, which was found during a city core excavation in the center of the city of Hamm. Here was the specialist company Eggenstein Exca with the excavation manager Thysse Evers active. They were also able to prove massive traces of a fire event around 1300. These traces can be found in larger parts of Hamm. So we have to do with a real city fire or the remains of it. Particularly impressive are the massive and partly representative modern construction traces at this excavation site. Let's stay at the city center and switch to Borken. At the Borkener Marktplatz, the archaeological specialist Am Helweg E.G. with the excavation manager Dr. Ulrich Holtfester active. The 110 square meters of large survey area is marked here with the red dot in the center of a square, which was built on a once very densely built, but in the Second World War on a large area destroyed district. The archaeological finds were found here directly under the layers of the square. Especially noteworthy is a massive foundation ditch, which is also right-angled at the top, with partially preserved brick wall, to be seen down here. Basically, these structures probably go back to a massive stone building. In the former interior of the building a late medieval clay estuary could be found, highlighted in red on the top left. Also from this area of ​​the building comes the fragment of a in Westphalia so far unique floor plate, which Dr. Bernd Thier from the Stadtmuseum Münster could classify. In the decades around 1500, with the help of a wooden model, are at this object especially the two fragmentary fonts to highlight. In Gothic minuscule we read here Low German words. Down here, maybe, be careful. On the other hand, probably a corresponding opposite expression. Not far from the market square, in 2020 and 2021, by employees of the specialist council, also archaeological investigations in the area of ​​the Borkner mill district took place. In addition to the broken grain mill in the 1970s, here was also the former city fortification in the focus of the latter. And last but not least, here in the immediate vicinity of the excavation, the Kuhn tower, the excavation area. Let's talk about the mill first. A running horizon from the mill interior entailed finds of the 15th to 19th century and is therefore not yet with the ensured first mention of the grain mill in the year 1257 to connect. In this late medieval time horizon, however, there are powerful filling layers, which among other things contained various remains of millstones, brick fragments, made of basalt lava, i.e. imported material. Let's turn to the excavated remains of the city fortification. In particular, the 1829 demolished mill tower can be seen. The wallwork of the city gate with a magnitude of 2 meters can be seen here on the excavation plan. Wood from the sub-construction of the mill tower dates back to the year 1300 and thus specifies the written first mention around 1328. Basically, in the area of the entire construction site various woods with partly enormous dimensions could be stored. Of over 1,000 woods, a representative number of over 200 samples was selected and given to the dating in the Centroarchaeological Laboratory of the University of Cologne. The so far evaluated dates range from the 12th to the 17th century and will hopefully provide further insights to the genesis of this area in further evaluation. Let's stay with the fortifications, but now switch to the topic of the castle. As the town name Nienburg already reveals, we are in this part of the town of Heg on the area of a former castle complex. Divided into Ober- and Unterburg, there used to be an important stronghold of the Bistum Münster, especially in the period from the 13th to the 16th century. When a building with additional cellars was supposed to be provided in the vicinity of the castle gate that still exists today, it was clear that this location of a former castle tower must also be archaeologically examined. As you can see here, the employees of the LWL-Archaeology quickly found it. We recognize the foundations of the castle tower mentioned for the first time in 1551. It has been preserved very well with a wall thickness of approx. 1.40 m under the existing building. An essential feature of a castle is of course also the castle wall. We see it down here on the right with a height of up to 2 m still integrated into the building below the existing building. The castle wall from the 13th century was built on a higher level with a total height of 3.80 m. The current developments are also pleasant, in which both the tower relics and the remains of the castle wall should be integrated into the new use of the area. Let us now switch to the latest time horizon, which is supervised by the specialist report, the Modern Archaeology, i.e. the remnants of the 19th and 20th centuries. This is the synagogue in Gronau-Epe. This former Jewish temple was demolished and set on fire in the Reisprogromnacht in 1938 and subsequently a re-functioning of a fire department took place. In the case of archaeological investigations, which were necessary in the course of a renovation, a two-phase mikveh could be uncovered, in the former prayer room on protective layers that are to be connected with the destruction of the Reisprogromnacht. In addition to various objects, the burnt remains of a book with Hebrew writing could also be saved from the fire and demolition. The first interrogations were about a book of the Psalms, an archaeological find, which contains a highly impressive statement due to its found context. Finally, we would like to thank you for your perseverance. This perseverance was also attributed to two esteemed colleagues on the day we had to say goodbye to the Ruhestand in 2021. On the one hand, Rudolf Bergmann, who for decades shaped the Westphalian desert research. On the other hand, our long-term reporter Hans-Werner Peine, whose great merits for medieval archaeology and for listening to us. Thank you very much.