Leese () is a municipality in the district of Nienburg, in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

History

Leese was one of the earliest settlements in the Middle Weser Region. Around 20 tumulus graves have been found, the oldest dating back to about 1800 BCE. The urnfield graves in the so-called "small field" of Leese were excavated under the auspices of the Landesamt für Denkmalpflege (Lower Saxony Bureau for Cultural Heritage) between 1978 and 1980 turned out to be the largest graveyard of urn burials in the pre-Roman

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

of northern Germany, with 1100 burials. An urn is represented in the lower part of the town's coat of arms. At the time of the early

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

, the area was occupied by the German tribe of

Angrivarii The Angrivarii (or ''Angrivari'') were a Germanic people of the early Roman Empire, who lived in what is now northwest Germany near the middle of the Weser river. They were mentioned by the Roman authors Tacitus and Ptolemy. They were part of t ...

, to the south of the

Cherusci The Cherusci were a Germanic tribe that inhabited parts of the plains and forests of northwestern Germania in the area of the Weser River and present-day Hanover during the first centuries BC and AD. Roman sources reported they considered thems ...

References

Nienburg (district) {{Nienburg-geo-stub