Over 2,000 years of ritual landscape and settlement near Pömmelte
Investigating the hinterland of a timber henge in Germany has revealed a remarkable prehistoric landscape. Franziska Knoll shares the findings from an intriguing concentration of ritual monuments and settlement.
Between fields of grain and potatoes in the middle of Germany, about 18km south east of Magdeburg, near the town of Schönebeck, lies one of the most important archaeological landscapes in Germany. The ring sanctuary of Pömmelte, built towards the end of the 3rd millennium BC – placing it on the threshold between the late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age – is now a visitor magnet, with the reconstructed monument attracting an average of 40,000 people per year. But it is not the only spectacular discovery that archaeologists have made in this exceptional prehistoric landscape over the past 20 years.
It is now clear that ritual facilities, funerary monuments, burial grounds, and settlements once stretched for almost 1.2km along a low terrace in the former River Elbe floodplain. Activity peaked during the second half of the 3rd millennium BC, at the time of the Bell Beaker culture and the emerging Early Bronze Age, which in the Pömmelte region is associated with the Únětice culture. The earliest prehistoric findings, though, stretch back to the 4th millennium BC, while the most recent belong to the Iron Age, and, more specifically, to the end of the 1st millennium BC. Since then, with the exception of an abortive attempt at coal mining in the early 20th century – and the more recent creation of a runway for gliders belonging to a local flying club – the area has been given over to agriculture.
History of research
The circular ditches of the Pömmelte ring sanctuary were first discovered in the early 1990s, thanks to systematic aerial survey. So-called ‘circular ditch systems’ were already known in central Germany by then, with most examples dating to the early Neolithic period. The most renowned of these early sites is a timber circle at Goseck, a good 90km further south, and another monument that has now been reconstructed. After it became clear that the enclosure discovered at Pömmelte was rather later in date, a research project was initiated.
Complete excavation of the Pömmelte ring sanctuary was funded by the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, or German Research Foundation), and conducted from 2005 to 2008 (before being published by André Spatzier in 2017). In 2014, preparing the site for visitor access led to areas lying beyond the circle receiving archaeological attention. This revealed graves belonging to various periods and the remains of several buildings, indicating prehistoric activity across a wider area. As these relatively subtle features had not appeared in either the aerial photographs or the geophysical surveys, it was clear that understanding the Pömmelte ring sanctuary and its environs would only be possible via large-scale excavations. As such, from 2018 to 2024, further projects funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM), as well as the State of Saxony-Anhalt, focused on the immediate hinterland of the Pömmelte complex. With hindsight, it can also be seen that an initial step towards exploring this wider prehistoric landscape had already been taken in 2011, when excavations first targeted the almost identical but smaller ring sanctuary at Schönebeck, just 1km to the north-west of Pömmelte.
What is a ring sanctuary?
The ring structures at Pömmelte – which comprise circular and segmental ditches, an external rampart, and several rings of internal timber uprights and palisades – fall within the category of ‘henge monuments’. When discussing such structures, Stonehenge inevitably springs to mind. This seems apt, as Pömmelte displays several characteristics comparable to the celebrated monument on Salisbury Plain, including sharing both the same external diameter of around 115m to 118m and a complex arrangement of internal circular structures. The similarities do not stop there. Although the earliest monument at Stonehenge was established around 3000 BC, it was only c.2500 BC that it took on the scale and form more familiar to us today. This reconfiguring of Stonehenge is not far off the construction date of Pömmelte, which was built around 2350 BC. Instead of monolithic stones, though, the uprights in central German ring sanctuaries were fashioned from oak trunks, as has been demonstrated by the analysis of numerous charcoal samples. This wood could have been sourced from either the nearby Harz Mountains to the south or – even more efficiently from a transport perspective – floated down the Elbe from the Ore Mountains to the west. An abundance of timber can be contrasted with the scarcity of suitable rock for megalithic structures, perhaps explaining the reliance on wood.
Why there?
Today, the wealth of this region stems from its location on the north-eastern edge of the Magdeburg Loess plain: an area of incredibly fertile black soils that can be counted among the most productive in central Europe. Little wonder, then, that the first farmers would have been attracted to such a region. These pioneers advanced westwards along major rivers, such as the Elbe. Although no traces of them have been found over the 15ha investigated at Pömmelte, a settlement belonging to this period (c.5450-4775 BC) and associated with the Linearbandkeramik culture (Linear Pottery Culture, LBK) is known about 2km further down the Elbe.
So-called ‘white gold’ might also have influenced the choice of site. In nearby Bad Salzelmen, the 18th-century brine tower bears witness to the former saltworks that once exploited underground deposits nearby. Salt is known to have been important, too, to the Early Bronze Age Únětice culture, who produced specialised pottery vessels to extract salt from brine, which was then used to preserve food such as meat.
Despite these advantages, the decisive factor may have been a prime geographical location directly beside the Elbe: the key east–west connection of its day. Indeed, 5,000 years ago the river probably flowed rather closer to these monuments than it does now. Examining a digital terrain model of the site reveals that the known structures are concentrated along a length of terrace between two oxbows formed by the river. In the 3rd millennium BC, floods would have periodically trans formed this strip of land into a naturally protected island.
πάντα ῥεῖ (‘everything flows’)
Although the precise role that the Elbe played within the ritual landscape has yet to be clarified, it is tempting to see parallels with the River Avon and Stonehenge. In that case, the river connected Stonehenge to the monuments at Durrington Walls via the Cursus, and it is conceivable that the Elbe acted as an integral part of the sacred landscape too. As well as these fluid links, it is noticeable that Neolithic and Bronze Age burial mounds also played a role in shaping both landscapes.
Despite centuries of research, the UNESCO World Heritage Site prehistoric landscape in southern England is still capable of springing fresh surprises. While study of the Pömmelte and Schönebeck landscape got off to a much later start, the landscape around these ring sanctuaries can be considered – after 13 campaigns lasting several months – the more extensively excavated.
There is another notable difference between the hinterlands of Pömmelte and Stonehenge: apart from the buildings at Durrington Walls, which were probably used temporarily and most likely served as a ‘workers’ settlement’ for the builders of Stonehenge, no houses have been discovered in association with the southern English monuments. One would expect such structures, though, both to house those maintaining the monuments, and to cater for what would surely have been seasonal influxes of visitors.
Because of this need, a settlement was specifically sought in Pömmelte, ultimately producing traces of some 140 houses – more than the archaeologists had dared to hope for. Before we examine these buildings in more detail, let’s set the scene by taking a quick ride through the millennia…
Further information
Today, the ring sanctuary in Pömmelte, which was rebuilt in 2016 on the original site, can be experienced all year round and free of charge. The tourist information centre, which opened in 2023, replicates the shape of the Únětice longhouses. It is built from (rammed) earth, the oldest building material in the world, which was also used in the Early Bronze Age buildings.
The Pömmelte ring sanctuary is also part of an archaeotourism route called the Himmelswege (Sky Paths, https://www.himmelswege.de/en), which connects the site where the Nebra Sky Disc was found with key monuments of astronomical importance.
This is an extract of an article that appeared in CWA 131. Read on in the magazine (Click here to subscribe) or on our website, The Past, which offers all of the magazine’s content digitally. At The Past you will be able to read each article in full as well as the content of our other magazines, Current Archaeology, Ancient Egypt, and Military History Matters.
