idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

Nachrichten, Termine, Experten

Grafik: idw-Logo
Science Video Project
idw-Abo

idw-News App:

AppStore

Google Play Store



Instance:
Share on: 
09/06/2024 10:15

Archeological excavations at the gallows hill of Quedlinburg provide insights into an early modern place of execution

Dr. Oliver Dietrich Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt - Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte

    Archaeological excavations conducted by the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology (LDA) Saxony-Anhalt are currently taking place on the former gallows hill (Galgenberg) in Quedlinburg. The place of execution is documented in written sources since 1662. Numerous finds of human skeletons and skeletal parts prove executions at this site, which was abandoned only in 1809.

    During the Middle Ages and the early modern period, public execution sites where corporeal punishnment and death sentences were carried out were common throughout Central Europe. The archaeology of execution sites is concerned with researching material traces of such places of capital punishment, such as the locations of historically known gallows or human remains that were often buried directly on these sites. The study of such places provides remarkable insights into penal practices in the Middle Ages and early modern times. In the past two years, teaching and research excavations have been carried out in the area of the former gallows hill in Quedlinburg. This execution site is attested starting from 1662 and was abandoned only in 1809. Due to the numerous findings and finds, the investigations by the LDA Saxony-Anhalt were continued and intensified this year.

    Among other things, it was possible to document a burial in a wooden coffin. Coffins are very rarely found in places of execution. The skeleton lying on its back in the coffin with its hands folded on its stomach area and a rosary chain was very well preserved. This comparatively dignified burial suggests suicide rather than execution as the reason for the place of the burial. Suicide would have excluded a person from a burial in a regular cemetery. The burial of a man lying on his back with a large stone on his chest on the other hand may be a so-called 'revenant grave'. For fear of the dead man's return, his body was weighed down and tied up in the grave.

    In addition to complete human skeletons, two bone pits were uncovered already in 2023 and will be further investigated this year. The finds from these pits represent the body parts of those who were hung or wheeled and likely exhibited for some time as a deterrence on the gallows hill, which would have been widely visible at one of the main roads leading into the city. As part of periodic clean-up work, the execution site was cleared by the executioner and his assistants and body parts disposed of in pits. Archaeological research at Quedlinburg thus provides interesting insights into the routines of an early execution site, usually omitted from written accounts.


    Images

    Coffin burial from the gallows hill in Quedlinburg.
    Coffin burial from the gallows hill in Quedlinburg.
    Jörg Orschiedt
    State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt

    Burial of a man with stones on his upper body on the former gallows hill in Quedlinburg.
    Burial of a man with stones on his upper body on the former gallows hill in Quedlinburg.
    Jörg Orschiedt
    State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt


    Criteria of this press release:
    Journalists, Scientists and scholars
    History / archaeology
    transregional, national
    Research projects
    English


     

    Coffin burial from the gallows hill in Quedlinburg.


    For download

    x

    Burial of a man with stones on his upper body on the former gallows hill in Quedlinburg.


    For download

    x

    Help

    Search / advanced search of the idw archives
    Combination of search terms

    You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.

    Brackets

    You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).

    Phrases

    Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.

    Selection criteria

    You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).

    If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).