The Amelungsburg is a former

ringfort Ringforts, ring forts or ring fortresses are circular fortified settlements that were mostly built during the Bronze Age up to about the year 1000. They are found in Northern Europe, especially in Ireland. There are also many in South Wales ...

that is located on the ''Amelungsberg'' hill on the

Süntel The is a massif in the German Central Uplands that is up to . It forms part of the Weser Uplands in Lower Saxony southwest of Hanover and north of Hamelin. Geographical location The Süntel is the eastern extension of the Wesergebirge and run ...

ridge in the district of

Hameln-Pyrmont Hameln-Pyrmont is a districts of Germany, district (''Landkreis'') in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Schaumburg, Hanover (district), Hanover, Hildesheim (district), Hildesheim and Holzminde ...

in the German state of

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

Description

The site is around 15 hectares and lies on the plateau of Amelungsberg, which is 900 metres long and 300 metres wide, and drops away steeply on all sides. The fortifications comprise a rampart on two sides of the terrain with a length of around 1000 metres. Today it has a height of about 1.5 metres and is up to 4 metres wide. On the other two sides only slight traces of ramparts remain. There are the remains of a former entranceway on the southeastern side of the plateau just under 70 metres west of the present day breach in the defences by a forest track. Below the site runs a rough 300 metre long advance rampart and moat which shows evidence of an entrance. This earthwork has a width of around 7 metres and is up to 2 metres high. The moat in front of it is around 4 metres wide and still a metre deep.

Excavations

In 1954, 1955, and 2005, excavations took place on the terrain. These established that in the embankment was a

dry stone wall Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their construction me ...

about 3 metres wide and up to 2.5 metres high. Animal bones that may have been part of the waste left by the construction force, have been

carbon dated Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...

to around 400 B.C. About 300 artefacts, including tools, iron wagon parts and tyres are assigned to the

La Tène period LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figur ...

. The advance rampart is dated to the 8th century. Finds from the

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

period include two

fibulae The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity is ...

spur A spur is a metal tool designed to be worn in pairs on the heels of riding boots for the purpose of directing a horse or other animal to move forward or laterally while riding. It is usually used to refine the riding aids (commands) and to back ...

s, an axe, a knife and a lance head. Anvils, hammers and bronze shavings are evidence of metalworkers.

History

Based on excavations, the fortifications were originally built in the pre-Roman

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

, archaeologists reckoning a construction time of up to six weeks. The site was extended during a second phase of use during the

Saxon Wars The Saxon Wars were the campaigns and insurrections of the thirty-three years from 772, when Charlemagne first entered Saxony with the intent to conquer, to 804, when the last rebellion of tribesmen was defeated. In all, 18 campaigns were fought ...

. In 782 in the Süntel a

Frankish Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages * Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany * East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...

army under the Saxon duke

Widukind Widukind, also known as Wittekind, was a leader of the Saxons and the chief opponent of the Frankish king Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars from 777 to 785. Charlemagne ultimately prevailed, organized Saxony as a Frankish province, massacred tho ...

was annihilated, leading to the

massacre of Verden The Massacre of Verden was an event during the Saxon Wars where the Frankish king Charlemagne ordered the death of 4,500 Saxons in October 782. Charlemagne claimed suzerainty over Saxony and in 772 destroyed the Irminsul, an important object in S ...

. The Amelungsburg was not a battlefield - few weapons have been found here - but could have been part of the Saxon's overall military strategy. File:Amelungsburg Carl Schuchardt 1916.jpg, Location sketch by

Carl Schuchhardt Carl Schuchhardt (August 6, 1859 – December 7, 1943) was a German archaeologist and museum director. For many years, he was the director of the pre-historic department of the Ethnological Museum of Berlin. He was involved in numerous excavations ...

around 1916 File:Amelungsburg Vorwall halbkreis.jpg, The lower part of the forward rampart File:Amelungsburg Wall an Steilhang.jpg, Rampart of the Amelungsburg. Right: the steep slope File:Amelungsburg Wallecke.jpg, Corner of the rampart

Literature

*Hans-Wilhelm Heine: ''Schaumburger Land - Burgenland'', in der Reihe ''Wegweiser zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte Niedersachsens'' (29), Oldenburg, 2010, published by the Lower Saxon State Office for Heritage Conservation (''Niedersächsisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege'') and the Archaeological Commission for Lower Saxony (''Archäologische Kommission für Niedersachsen''), {{DEFAULTSORT:Amelungsburg (Suntel) Iron Age Hill forts in Germany