The graves of the Fallward cemetry in the mirror of their organic objects - research on the funerary customs of the late Roman and Migration Period in northwestern Germany

20世纪90年代，在库克斯黑文（Cuxhaven）地区的Wurt Fallward北部，发掘了200个4世纪和5世纪的火葬和60个人葬坟墓。它们属于一个墓地，该墓地位于下威西河的海滩山脊地区。在沼泽粘土化石的深处挖出了一些墓穴。在这里，厌氧环境为有机材料的保存提供了最佳条件。除了骨头，木制的坟墓结构，以及由木材和纺织品制成的完整的坟墓用品清单，以及埋在坟墓里的植物遗骸，都或多或少地保存完好。因此，长期以来，对这一重要墓地的详细评估和出版一直被视为研究的迫切需要。该项目自2020年以来一直由DFG资助，目前已在该项目中实施。迄今为止，对这些坟墓的研究在中欧北部是无与伦比的，为重建古代蛮族聚居区的埋葬传统开辟了一个独特的视角。此外，还可以评估易北-威西三角地区各种当代遗址的超区域联系是否也反映在Wurt Fallward的当地埋葬仪式中。在项目的第一阶段，调查集中在六个保存最完好的墓葬上。其中，有未经加工的有机文物和发现层，其中一些已被块提升保护。考古学、纺织品考古学、树木年代学、人类学、古遗传学和古植物学等跨学科的研究方法是研究的支柱。它们的结合应用已经为社会经济和社会文化地位以及当地葬礼社区的跨区域联系提供了许多新的见解。在目前申请的第二个项目阶段- -也计划进行36个月- -将继续和加强成功的跨学科研究。初步完成对上述墓葬的研究。但那些保存较差或装备较少的墓葬，以及尚未处理的火葬坟墓，将成为考古学、纺织品考古学和考古植物学调查的重点。调查将再次包括对骨骼的人类学和dna分析，但还将包括对动物骨骼的考古观察。随着考古分析，特别是对阿尔卑斯山北部地区独有的木制配件上可见颜色的全面调查，以前的研究将经历一个重大的扩展。总之，可以预期，这项研究将大大有助于理解罗马帝国时期和移民时期德国西北部的定居历史和社会史。

North of the Wurt Fallward, district of Cuxhaven, 200 cremation and 60 inhumation graves from the 4th and 5th centuries were excavated in the 1990s. They belong to a burial place that was laid out in the area of a beach ridge of the Lower Weser River. Some grave pits were dug deep down into the fossil marsh clay. Here, the anaerobic environment offered optimal conditions for the preservation of organic materials. In addition to the bones, wooden grave structures as well as complete inventories of grave goods made of wood and textiles but also remains of plants laid into the graves were more or less completely preserved. The detailed evaluation and publication of this important graveyard has therefore long been regarded as a desideratum of research. This is now implemented in the project, which has been funded by the DFG since 2020. The research done so far on the grave inventories, which are unparalleled in northern Central Europe, opened up a unique perspective for the reconstruction of burial traditions in a late antique settlement region of the Barbaricum. In addition, it may be evaluated whether the supra-regional contacts postulated for various contemporary sites in the Elbe-Weser triangle, are also reflected in the local burial rites of the Wurt Fallward. During the first phase of the project, the investigations focused on the six best-preserved burials. Of these, there are unprocessed organic artefacts and find layers, some of which have been secured by block-lifting. An interdisciplinary bundle of methods used in archaeology, textile archaeology, dendrochronology, anthropology, paleogenetics and paleobotany is the backbone of the investigation. Their combined application has already enabled numerous new insights into the socio-economic and socio-cultural status as well as to the supra-regional contacts of the local funeral community. In the now applied second project phase – also designed to run for 36 months –, the successful interdisciplinary research will be continued and intensified. Initially, the research on the above-mentioned graves shall be completed. But also the poorly preserved or less extensively equipped burials as well as the cremation graves that have not yet been processed, will be in the focus of the archaeological, textile-archaeological and archaeobotanical investigations. The investigations will again include anthropological and aDNA analyses of the skeletons, but shall additionally comprise also archaeozoological observations of the animal bones. With archaeometric analyses, in particular a comprehensive investigation of the colours visible on wooden accessories, which are unique for the regions north of the Alps, the previous studies will experience a significant expansion. Altogether, it is to be expected that the research will contribute considerably to the understanding of the settlement history and social history of north-western Germany in the time of the Roman Empire and the Migration Period.