Siedlungen des Früh- und Hochmittelalters – Die Siedlungen von Warendorf-Velsen und Olfen-Kökelsum

Settlements in rural areas traditionally belong to the research focus of Außenstelle Münster. And that's why it's not surprising that two of these settlements are presented here, which could have been excavated last year and produced great results. I will now start with the early-medieval settlement of Warendorf-Felsen and then my colleague Marta Zurschepers will continue with the settlement in Olfenkirkelso. Yes, we are in Warendorf and, as you can easily see here on the picture, we are not in the pulsating center, but 2.5 km away in the farmers' village of Felsen. It was already in 2021 that the area began to be excavated. The reason for the measure was that the area was completely demolished by the company Steinkamp. At present, we have excavated an area of ​​12,000 square meters. Due to the increased interest in research, this measure was not carried out by an excavation company, but our own employees voted in favor of the measure. The good findings, which were already indicated in 2021, led to the fact that our assistant Natalia Melian-Esser was able to carry out her excavation on this area. In advance of the excavation, we wished that all methods of archaeology should be carried out again, which allow a systematic approach that could be incorporated into this excavation. Among other things, geomagnetics. At first, Joris Kohlen from our department did not give me much hope. The high ash deposits on the fields lead to the fact that we can hardly generate results in geomagnetics. Nevertheless, after many whining and begging, this measurement was carried out in the summer and a big surprise came out. Namely, the geomagnetic measurement worked. And better than we all expected. As you can see now, we have these rectangular squares here. These are pit houses. But we also see postage stamps of large buildings. The research of the site is still at the very beginning. That means, I can already tell you that these larger residential buildings that we see here on this area can be found on other settlements at the same time in Neuwarendorf or Warendorf-Milte. If you look at the area, it becomes obvious that the pit house represents the largest amount of finds in the find. And we were able to dig up 35 pit houses here and examine them more closely. If you look at the entire area, other things become obvious. So we definitely have a worse preservation here in the east than in the west of the area. And the pit houses all orient themselves in the same way. Just as a side note. The finding expectation is also shown here after the removal of the topsoil. That means, the dark spots in the light sand are the typical findings that we can expect in Münsterland. The following can be said about the temporal depth. We have a so-called palinset situation here, which is nothing special for Münster-Araner finds. The site is located on the lower truss, high water-free and has always been suitable for settlement. And this is also reflected in the finds. That means, we have the first indications here that there was already a settlement in the Iron Age, which manifests itself through pits. But here, based on the ceramics, especially this finger-tipped ceramics, you can also see that this site was also visited during the imperial era. However, the size of the ceramics dates back to the 7th century. It is mainly small-sized ceramics or really ceramic of the local kind, which is found here in the finds. Imports do not occur. Here are a few pit houses, i.e. no meeting without a pit house, which may seem a bit unusual in this site. Here, for example, we have a pit house with a base area of 7 square meters, with a four-piston in the middle. And in the profile you can see a very dark layer, from which a large number of huts could be taken, from which also a flat work was visible. That means, the finds also give us a hint of the construction of this economic building. The fact that this site was used over a longer period of time also shows the multifacetedness of building structures, as you can see here in this pit house 662 and 61. Here you could see nicely in the profile that we can capture a multitude of strong umbolic traces. That means, we had a bowl construction here, in which the bowls formed the hand of the house vertically. As I said, in these small house structures, a house craft was carried out, which the finds also prove, which are not surprising. Here we have, for example, a round web weight or small cobwebs, which we have often encountered in the pit houses. Here again as an example, the last type that we can capture. It looks like a pit house from above, but if you look closer at the profile, it is more of an earth cellar with a stair-shaped entrance. Finally, it is to be said that the high commitment of our employees is led to the fact that we can already deliver the first results at an early stage. Of course, the research on Warnendorffelsen is still at the beginning. And everyone who wants to be a part of it, to continue to explore this settlement, is always welcome at the outside. I will now present to you the results of the archaeological investigation in Olfenkökelsum. The excavation carried out by the archaeological company Eigenstein Exca took place from May 2021 to March 2022. After already in the south, in the area of ​​today's Olfener Naturbads, in the years 2008 to 2009, in archaeological investigations of the LWL, bronze and iron-timber, as well as later first medieval finds in the northwestern excavation area, have come to light. This western excavation area I am talking about is located here. As you can see on the map, our medieval finds, which we found, are mainly concentrated here in the west. A total of 677 medieval and medieval finds could be documented in our excavation. The medieval finds, as I said, are concentrated in the west, in the purple shades. These are two pit houses, two wells, 111 pits, and 191 post pits, which can be reconstructed with at least seven house foundations, where four different types of foundations can be seen, which I will go into in a moment, at least a small selection of them. There are two main directions on the main buildings, a north-south direction in the southwest and an east-west direction in the northern area of the main foundations. The buildings are at least 10 by 6.5 meters in size, which is 65 square meters. At one point it can be seen that two house foundations are located in the same direction. Here in front. Here, based on the location, it can be assumed that there was a fire in which the building was destroyed and was rebuilt at the same place. Chronologically, this medieval settlement can be dated to the Late Early Middle Ages to the High Middle Ages. Now we come to a selection of the house foundations. Here is a ship-shaped foundation that we found. With all the post foundations that are available here in Olfenkökelsum, it is mainly earth-based post structures. This ship-shaped foundation is oriented north-northwest, south-southeast. Due to the border of our research area, we cannot be sure that we have fully grasped this foundation. It is at least 13.5 meters long and 5 to 7 meters wide. No interior construction could be determined and the inner posts are missing on the narrow sides. The posts are quite massive, with a diameter of about one meter. It is unclear here the connection of the oblique three-post series in the north. The ship-shaped house foundations appeared in Westphalia as early as the 9th century. Usually, however, they can be found from the 10th to the 12th century. As a second example, I have chosen a rectangular foundation with a front entrance, which is reminiscent of the type Oelde. This building is oriented east-west and the front building is located on the south side. This foundation has a size of 19 by 6 meters and is quite large with 114 square meters. There is no systematic interior construction and it is questionable whether the inner posts belong to the house. The entrance area is about 1.80 meters and reconstructed here with 2.5 meters. The house type Oelde usually shows a period from the 9th to the 10th century, so a very short period of time. In our archaeological investigation in Olfen, we were also able to document two wells. These are about 30 meters apart and both indicate a square wooden box setting. Some of the wood was preserved. These were mainly roundwoods and spruce boulders. At the excavation in 1991, here on the left, two phases of use could be observed. Here on the photo we see the older phase of use, where the wooden box is actually preserved in situ. It was moved about half a meter later. This could be repair measures. As for the finds that we usually found in Olfen, these are typical settlement finds. There was a millstone fragment, iron nails and slag, which, for example, indicate that individual smaller forge works were carried out on site. And, of course, ceramic fragments. These are self-made ballpipes, which, as you can see in the photo, date from the 9th to the 13th century. We also have a few fragments of kymphs, which are typical for the early Middle Ages. Imported goods are actually also found in Olfen. These are mainly imported goods from the Rhineland. The typical yellow-toned Baardorfer goods with rat stamp decoration, dog-skin ceramics with their typical red finger painting, which can then be classified into the 8th to 9th centuries, and Pinxdorfer goods with their typical swinging paintings in red and dark color, which belong to the High Middle Ages. The excavation site is currently being worked on in a master's thesis at the University of Münster, by Isa Falkenburg. And I hope that Isa Falkenburg will actually find out some exciting results. Thank you for your attention.