A team of archaeologists from Kiel University’s Institute of Pre- and Protohistory investigates the history of a causewayed enclosure in Büdelsdorf and its relation to megalithic tombs in nearby Borgstedt.

These shards are among the first finds at the excavation in Büdelsdorf.

Both are sites of the northern Funnel Beaker Culture in Southern Jutland. This summer, the focus is on Büdelsdorf in the vicinity of Rendsburg. A ditch of 45 meters has been dug in the wood by the Eider to find remains left behind by the people who once built and used the enclosure, be it as a settlement or as a ritual place. The excavation, which is directed by associated Graduate School members Franziska Hage and Hauke Dibbern, is part of the research activities within the DFG priority program 1400 “Early Monumentality and Social Differentiation”.

Further excavations by Graduate School members this summer take place in the Linear pottery settlement Vrable (Slovakia), headed by Martin Furholt, and in the Tripolje settlement Majdaneskoje (Ukraine), under the guidance of Johannes Müller, Robert Hofmann and Carsten Mischka.

More information about the Büdelsdorf/Borgstedt project is available here:
www.monument.ufg.uni-kiel.de/en.

The excavation site in Büdelsdorf.

Text and photos: Jirka Niklas Menke