by Monika Griebl (monika.griebl@oeaw.ac.at)
The project ‘Resource management, power and
cult at Stillfried (900–750 BC)?’, funded by the Austrian Research Fund from
1.11.2015 to 31.10.2018, is lead by Michaela Lochner and conducted by Monika
Griebl with the help of Benedikt Biederer and Tanja Jachs at the Institute for
Oriental and European Archaeology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna.
The project aims to answer the question
whether the hillfort of Stillfried in Lower Austria functioned as a centralized
storage site for grain during the Late Bronze Age Urnfield Culture. The impetus
for these considerations was provided by the noticeable high density of at
least 100 pits with characteristic trapezoidal profile discovered in the course
of archaeological excavations between 1969 and 1989 at the highest elevation of
the fortified area. These features, measuring 4 m3 on average, were dug into
the loess and display a horizontal bottom and a bottleneck opening. According
to our hypothesis all of these pits were used as grain storage facilities (granaries)
in their primary function. Feature No. V0643 at Stillfried is representative of
such a function since a layer of grain was preserved on the bottom level of the
pit. In the course of their abandonment, the pits were filled quickly and
intentionally as shown by their stratigraphy. The stratigraphy plays a crucial
role in answering the question of whether depositional patterns existed. We
systematically record the complete history of the pits: findings from the
primary construction phase of the storage pit (e.g. wall plastering), the
utilization phase (e.g. impressions of climbing trees used as ladders), the
deliberate infill (finds, find-combinations, location) and perhaps later
interventions. Using these data, Tanja Jachs displays the profiles of the pits
in a new way, subdivided into pit horizons (bottom, deposition-horizon, upper
pit filling), with pictograms of the finds.
Ethnographic observations provide valuable
information on the wide and differentiated use of storage pits. One of the core
findings is that recovering only part of the stored cereal from such large
storage pits, sealed under air-tight conditions, is not possible since the
quality of the remaining quantity suffers. Numerous scientific analyses are
carried out in the course of the project to support the investigations
(Sr-isotopes, C14, botanical, zoological and anthropological analyses).
Field of barley (©Monika Griebl)
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