Archaeological documentation of a place of execution: “The Court” – a Medieval Gallows Hill near Alkersleben (Germany)
p. 101-119
Texte intégral
1In Germany there is not a long history of analysis of execution sites by medieval and modern-age archaeologists. Nevertheless, with increasing interest in medieval city development, the progress of legal systems has become a scientific focal point. During recent years, several extensive publications that (partially) captured unearthed sites of medieval, as well as modern day jurisdiction, have been released. This scientific branch, with its archaeological, anthropological and historical results, remains on the verge of establishment however. To begin with there is a lack of sufficient comparable finds, or a completely unearthed site of execution. This is especially true for the early and high Middle Ages. Individual places of justice were accidentally revealed during construction works and archaeologically documented afterwards. German publications concerning these sites are limited to short articles1. So far, only one German execution site in Alkersleben/Thüringen, has undergone complete archaeological coverage2.
2Nevertheless, these publications, especially the one concerning the execution cemetery in Alkersleben, have already increased sensitivity to findings related to legal archaeology during rescue excavations. For instance, during excavations in the city centre of Regensburg in 2013, round masonry had been discovered and correctly interpreted as a place of execution3. The excavation therefore focussed mainly on legal-archaeological records. The corresponding paper will be published shortly.
3Execution sites, with their architectural and skeletal remains, constitute a vocal testimony of German exercise of justice. The author has made it her scientific objective to locate these sites in a selected region (Brandenburg/Prussia), to analyse them using geophysical methods and to examine them anthropologically as well as archaeologically in order to summarize them in a consultable register of execution sites in Brandenburg. This research project takes place at the Europa-University Viadrina of Frankfurt/Oder in cooperation with the Humboldt-University of Berlin4.
4By merging sources from legal history and practice, this work should provide a fundamental catalogue of execution sites in the Brandenburg-Prussia region, and may, hopefully, also serve as a basic corpus for archaeologists in Germany and beyond. To date, three execution sites have been archaeologically surveyed (Bad Belzig, Fürstenwalde, Mötzow)5. A fourth gallows hill will be documented in the summer of 2017 during an educational/scientific dig in Perleberg.
5The results of the excavation in Alkersleben are briefly presented below, the main focus being the anthropological and archaeological evidence for jurisdiction6.
The Court – a medieval Gallows Hill near Alkersleben
6Alkersleben is located in the Thüringen basin, by the Wipfra valley. “The court”, more commonly referred to as Gallows Hill, is roughly 1.5 km from Alkersleben (fig. 1). Situated in Alkersleben’s northwest, by the “Alte Nürnberger Geleitstrasse” near the A71 highway, “the court” is approximately 15 km from the city of Erfurt (fig. 2). The label “court” can be traced until the 19th c. and reinforces the hill’s use as a place of criminal jurisdiction.
Fig. 1. Topographische Aufnahme des Kgl. Preuss. Generalst. 1855. (Detail) E. E .Schmidt 1880, Blatt 11. Osthausen.

Fig. 2. Location of Alkersleben.

Previous Excavation (1971)
7When digging holes, farmers came across a complete skeleton in a supine position, with a golden ring on a finger. When archaeologists arrived, the skeleton had been destroyed and the ring was gone. The Weimar museum for pre-and early history initiated a rescue excavation in the summer of 1970. The excavation was very poorly documented. Findings were lost, skeletons are difficult to locate and drawings, pictures and measurements are incomplete or were not produced.
8The results were the following. The crest of the hill was skimmed off (c. 7,5 m x 7 m) and a ring-shaped stone border became visible (fig. 3). After the removal of the top layers of ground, the excavators discovered many skeletons (fig. 4), none of which were drawn to scale, and of which only a few were documented photographically. The excavators mostly paid attention to finds dated earlier, below the medieval level, such as a bronze-age barrow. There is extensive photographic evidence for prehistoric stone packing. Furthermore, a long, deep chute containing no finds was revealed. Newer geomagnetic prospections place it only two meters from the bronze-age burial. The excavations revealed a total of 42 graves and 69 individuals.
Fig. 3. Excavation 1971 © TLDA Weimar (Dok.Nr. 006/1-14).

Fig. 4. Excavation 1971, ground 2 © TLDA Weimar (Dok.Nr. 006/1-14).

New Excavations (2009-2011)
9Archaeology is capable of providing important information and complementing written sources concerning events related to the execution of the death penalty. Therefore, the latest excavation of the gallows hill in Alkersleben was carried out with an emphasis on these points. We executed the project as a research excavation, residentially at the Humboldt-University of Berlin. The research project, results and publication are currently the graduate thesis of the author.
10During the first excavation in 2009, two test trenches were established west and east of the assumed location of the previous excavation. The eastern test trench was dug on the peak of the hill. On the south side, the area was confined by a still fertile field. Towards the north, the hill sloped down into a mainly harvested field, which eventually became a fallow field. This is where the survey accompanying the excavation took place (fig. 5).
Fig. 5. General arrangement drawing © M. Genesis.

11The area examined in 2010 connected westward to the eastern test trench and continued descending westward. Three grid squares (5 x 5 m) were established. The entire area was covered in modern humus. The humic layer was removed using an excavator. Partly very close to the plough horizon (0.15 – 0.3 m), in grid square 1*, was a solid layer of seashell limestone, on which lay two individuals.
12During the last campaign, a long test trench from north to south was opened. This time the breach to the previous excavation from 1970 could be made (excavation protocol). A total of 0,72 hectare was recorded and gauged using an FM256 and geoscan research. The result was a circular structure (40 m diameter), which in its center contained a rectangular positive anomaly (6 x 8 m) with a magnetically negative yard (fig. 5). These were the records of the Bronze Age barrow.
13The latest campaign not only managed to verify the location of the previous excavations, it also documented the recent discoveries with modern scientific methods. We located nine graves, twelve individuals and one cremation, and recovered dated finds (fig. 6). Architectural features, such as postholes or masonry, which could hint of a gallows or scaffold, could not be found throughout the entire excavation. When reprocessing and merging the previous excavation with the latest campaign, several radiocarbon datings could be made and the material of some of the pottery and metal finds could be determined. This suggests a pre-historic usage (Bronze Age barrows and Iron Age secondary burials), as well as usage from the 10th till the 14th c.
14The entire execution site contained 51 graves and 81 individuals. Only a few of the skeletons uncovered in 1971 underwent anthropological analysis, since most of them were lost or were not numbered, making it impossible to relate the bones.
Alignment and body position
15To differentiate a cemetery and an execution site, the alignment and position of the bodies is important. A divergent alignment of the individuals is often found7. However, in Alkersleben many individuals were found in a position suggesting Christian burial. Fifty-one graves were aligned from west to east and only six graves were divergent (fig. 6).
Fig. 6. General arrangement drawing, Detail © M. Genesis.

16Most individuals were aligned heads towards the west. It can thus be assumed that this was a very early place of execution, perhaps from the 10th to 14th c. People executed during this period were probably not disgraced by receiving non Christian burials.
17It is commonly assumed that burials at places of execution were rather chaotic. Another possible explanation for this may be that these were not executions, but perhaps suicides, people who died after excommunication, after medical or social salience or who suffered sudden “wicked death”, where they were not granted a Christian burial because they could not confess a last time before dying. These people were buried alongside criminals at places of execution. There is archaeological proof for this at Walkington Wold (Great Britain)8.
18When analyzsing the body position of the individuals, it is important to take possible dislocation of limbs after burial into account. The position of some of the skeletons from the previous excavation could not be reconstructed. Noticeable was one extremely contracted position (grave 58). The skeleton was lost, an anthropological analysis was omitted (fig. 7). The individual, an adult woman, from grave 41 deviated from the normal supine position (fig. 8). She was in a lateral position.
Fig. 7. Grave 58 (1971), Contract position © TLDA Weimar (Dok.Nr. 006/1-14).

Fig. 8. Grave 41 (1971), Lateral position © TLDA Weimar Dok.Nr. 006/1-14).

19All in all, there were 34 individuals in a supine position, two in a lateral position, six were prone and one in a contracted position. Thirty-eight were impossible to determine.
Hints of shackles
20Another important aspect in studying executions is the position of the arms9. Some of the victims were shackled, which indicates that they have been judged. The position of the arms of the individuals from Alkersleben is very variable. Some of the arms were stretched at the side of the body, some were lying over or next to the pelvis. Some arms were bent to the right or left, the position of the hands varying, above, below or next to the pelvis. Some arms were situated below the spine (fig. 9).
Fig. 9. Grave 31 (1971), Captivity and mass grave © TLDA Weimar (Dok.Nr. 006/1-14).

21The aforementioned features are significant at a place of justice. There is evidence of captivity for a total of seventeen individuals, seven male, four female and six unverifiable.
Multiple burials and bone pits
22A further record at places of execution are mass burials and bone pits, which provide. evidence of simultaneous or prompt execution and burial in a gravepit. They also indicate a long period of hanging or laying on the wheel. As a consequence of decomposition or animals feeding on the carcasses, several parts of a delinquent would fall to the ground. The executioner or his journeymen would infrequently clear the execution place of these remains. The bones were picked off the ground and thrown into the pits.
23When recording the burials in Alkersleben, it was noticed that a large number of individuals were buried together in a larger burial pit (fig. 9).
24When dealing with executed delinquents, multi-burials occur in varying forms. To date, inspections of archaeologically recorded places of execution show next to single burials can be found double, triple, and quadruple burials, which also served as bone pits10.
25Of the 81 found in Alkersleben, 28 individuals were in an isolated position, and 27 individuals in multi-burials (seven double burials, one triple burial, one quadruple burial, two mass burials). The position of 26 skeletons could not be located, due to poor documentation. It is conspicuous, that four of the seven double burials were made up of individuals of the same sex. The burials 37, 37a, 39, 40, 5* and 6* are all male, the burials 11 and 12 all female. It is possible that the burials 18 (indeterminate) and 19 (male), as well as burials 23 (female) and 24 (indeterminate) are also concerned. Burials 35 and 36 are respectively filled with a male and female individual.
26A peculiarity is the prone position of burial 12. It contains a female whose body lay directly on top of the chest of the woman beneath. Her head was lying sideways and pointed towards the north, while pillowed on a smooth stone that was placed on the chest of the female from burial 11. This indicates a simultaneous disposal of the two individuals.
Age and sex (graph. 1)
27The sex and age of the individuals was assessed using standard osteological methods, with particular attention being paid to evidence for peri mortem trauma, which might shed light on the circumstances of death. It was possible to analyse the age of 71 individuals, as well as the sex of 54 individuals. Most were men aged between 20 and 40 years. The masculinity index was 223,5, Iwhich corresponds with the historical statistics of crime11.
Graph. 1. Gender and age distribution at Gallows Hill Alkersleben.

28Noticeable was the evidence of two infantile individuals, children between 7 and 12 years old.
29Bone samples from one child were chosen for radiocarbon dating. The child died between the 5th and 8th c. B.C., and is therefore not a victim of justice. It was impossible to date the bones of the other child12.
Pathological records
30The individuals from Gallows Hill had sparse pathological traces. The old excavation was poorly documented, some bones and skeletons were lost completely. However, it could be proven that six individuals had fractured skulls. This might be the result of a typical middle age private punishment, the feud (Fehde). For the first time it was possible to prove the act of hanging anthropologically. The hangman’s fracture occurs when the vertebra has been broken through hanging, the knot being tied below the chin or at a point of the neck. It can also be broken by a deep fall into the gallows’ slipknot (see below).
31The skeleton was located in supine alignment on the top of the hill. Its bones were poorly preserved. The spinal vertebra shows a broken appendix (dens axis). The fracture ran from the left to the right, the chances being that the knot of the gallows rope was tied on the right side of the neck.
32Examining the pathological records is of great importance for the Alkersleben area. It is essential to observe the possibly lethal traumas on the skeletons, to assess whether Alkersleben was actually a site of execution. Another important factor when answering this question is, whether these wounds were pre-, peri- or postmortal.
Evidence of the punishment “breaking on the wheel”
33Among the male individuals, those from burials 45 and 56 suffered an especially high number of bone fractures. Burial 45, for instance, contains a 24 to 35 year old male, whose position at the time of discovery is unknown. His limbs are broken in several places: twice on his upper underarm, possibly on his left upper leg (not certain, since the fracture is very linear), twice on his left lower leg (shinbone) and on his right hand. The fractures of the lower legs all occur at the same height. Unfortunately, nothing can be said of the arms, the left one being missing. The individual also shows fractures on the upper left side of the skull and the left cheekbone, the ones on the cheekbone surely being perimortal. The edge of this fracture is unsteady. The relatively young man probably succumbed to his skull fractures. It may be that this individual, similar to burial 59, was punished by being broken on the wheel. However, this can not be verified.
34Other individuals show fractures on their postcranial skeletons, exclusively their limbs. The scattered finds of the execution site paint a similar picture. There were 147 cases of perimortal injuries. A right femur for instance, shows three wounds caused by blunt force, and one femur shows a remarkable diaphyseal fracture. The injuries on one left, and one right tibia clearly indicate blunt injuries. Perimortal injuries such as these could have a wide variety of causes. Accidents and violent crime all need to be taken into account.
35Apart from breaking on the wheel, these wounds could also be signs of the victims trying to retaliate against their untimely demise.
Hangman’s fracture – Evidence for death through hanging
36During the excavation in 2009, a male individual with a curious fracture of the postcranial skeleton was found in burial 1*. His skeleton was massively deranged by modern ploughing, in poor condition and just 15-20 cm beneath the surface. The remaining fragments indicated a supine position. The 25 to 45 year old man’s cervical spine was broken at the second vertebra. The dens axis was broken off completely and translocated next to the actual vertebra. To be able to decide whether the fracture was perimortal or caused by hanging, several examinations of the fracture were necessary (fig. 10).
Fig. 10. Grave 1* (2009), Dens axis-fracture, Hangman’s fracture © M. Genesis.

37The assessment of the institute for forensic medicine of the Justis-Liebig-university of Giessen strongly suggested a perimortal injury13. When looked at under the stereomicroscope, the edges of the fractures appeared “radiused and homogenously, brightly discoloured, just as the remaining, uninjured surface of the bone”. Injuries of the cervical spine caused by an execution can include traces of cutting and half-cutting force, as well as fractions. While the first can suggest a decapitation, the latter can occur when the victim is strangulated. The different kinds of strangulation (hanging, strangling and choking), as well as the deviant tying of the knot below the head, all leave diverging impacts.
38What we describe as a “Hangman’s fracture” is a bilateral fracture of the axis arch. This happens because the noose is being tied below the chin. When falling into the noose, the head is exposed to a hyperextension and the body is being dragged down by its own weight. The extension in correlation with the distraction causes a pedial fracture of the second vertebra, which may come alongside fractures of the dens axis14. Examinations by James and Nasmyth-Jones revealed that approximately 20% of the executed show these features15. The fracture runs along the basis of the dens and ascends from left to right. This is the typical localisation that occurs when the dens axis breaks off due to the delinquent falling into the noose (knot needs to be on the right side of the neck).
Battered to death?
39Those individuals who show denting fractures on their skulls pose another mystery. The cause of death can be located neither in the Sachsenspiegel (1220-1230), nor in the Constitutia Criminalis Carolina (1532), and therefore cannot be regarded in a penal context.
40Seven individuals exhibited fractures on their skulls, which may help trace the cause of their deaths. There are five males and two females. Four of the dead attract attention onlybecause of their head injuries, three exhibit fractures on their remaining skeletons. Head injuries that are caused by cutting force are excluded in this count. Some of the skulls feature oval dents that point inwards and have sharp edges – depression fracture. Most of these injuries are blunt injuries on the left side of the skull, strongly suggesting a right handed assailant.
41To try and find an explanation for this the female adult from burial 11 will be used. This female raises the question of the connection between her being shackled and the cause of her death, since medieval penology did not include battering to death as punishment.
42There are two possible explanations. Firstly, she may have been buried with the shackles. The cause of death could then have been hanging, since tied arms suggest this. This would mean that the perimortal injury on her forehead was dealt during her inhumation, for instance by boulders. The layer above burial 11 was not documented, so the existence of boulders that may have caused these injuries, cannot be proven. In addition, the surrounding area is free of stones.
43Another possibility may be that the victim was actually shackled before being battered to death. The blow would have been struck from the left, which suggests purposeful killing, rather than combat, rendering this an act of brutal aggression, rather than a punitive act of jurisdiction. The victim may have retaliated and therefore been shackled to prevent further self defense. Considering that the victim was adolescent and was underneath another female in prone position (burial 12), it could be assumed that she suffered other abuse as well. However, this can no longer be traced anthropologically.
44Comparable records were found on two skulls from the British burial ground for the executed, Walkinkton Wold16. The explanation for these injuries is that the victims tried to defend themselves against their own decapitation, resulting in the executioner having to strike several blows. This possibility can not be ruled out completely at Alkersleben, although the individuals from Walkington Wold exhibited lesions with sharp edges on their skulls. Having said this, all the fractures in Alkersleben were analysed as depression fractures17. In addition, it can be verified that burials 34 and 45 suffered only one single violent impact. The entry points also argue against a multi-attempt decapitation. The injuries on the skulls of the remaining slain are either on the right, the left or, in one case, frontal.
45The medieval private penal law contains a possible explanation for this form of death. The feud developed from the old Germanic laws and was mostly carried out by members of quarreling families. If the honour or the legal rights of a relative were offended, the feud – blood revenge as Ultima Ratio – was cast. The kings of the Franconian period tried their best to abolish private justice, replacing it by an appropriate jurisdiction. Only in 1495, within the peace-of-god movement of King Maximilian 1st, was the feud considered a breach of the peace and eventually abolished. The feud was not limited to a single person, it concerned the entire household. Men, women, children, the freed as well as the unfree were all equally affected. The written lore can be found in medieval cemeteries and is archaeologically verified. There were no rules concerning the nature of killing, it was arbitrary. A grave in Inzingenhofen reveals that even children were affected by the feud. Above an older place of worship, far from any Christian cemetery, a multi burial was discovered, which next to two men, also contained an eight-year-old boy who was struck dead18. Thus feud could be the cause of death for the slain, including the child.
46Anthropological examination of the bone records in Alkersleben revealed many injuries on the head and postcranial skeletons of the victims. To help establish whether or not Alkersleben was an execution site, these results were now reconciled with the archaeological records in an attempt to assign the known regulated death penalties of the medieval and modern age to our findings.
Evidence for decapitation
47It is assumed that the individual from burial 63 (fig. 11) was decapitated. The skeleton was incomplete, but its supine position was apparent. The left lower arm was bent at the pelvis, the hands could have been shackled. The head was twisted, with the frontal bone connecting to the cervical spine. The cervical spine appeared to be in the most likely anatomical position. It is the twisting of the head that suggests decapitation.The atypical positioning of the skeleton from burial 19 (fig. 12) could also suggest decapitation. The skull of the 20 to 30 year old man was found at a great distance from the postcranial skeleton. His head was twisted and found on top of his occipital bone and lower jaw. It lay in a direct axis towards the spine. The detached head was normally buried with the victim, unless it was publicly impaled fas a deterrent. The position varies greatly, from the head being placed next to the left arm or above the shoulders, to being put between the victim’s legs19. Since the actual skeleton was no longer available for anthropological examination, a decapitation can only be verified for the individual from burial 63.
Fig. 11. Grave 63 (1971), Decapitation © TLDA Weimar (Dok.Nr. 006/1-14).

Fig. 12. Grave 19 (1971), Decapitation or hanging? An attempt at evidence for manner of death. Double burial with man and woman © TLDA Weimar (Dok.Nr. 006/1-14).

Evidence for hanging (graph. 2)
48The in situ records of the male individual from burial 19 exhibited elongated cervical vertebrae, which may indicate an extension of the cervical spine, and therefore makes this skeleton a suitable sample to research the consequences of a victim being hung (fig. 12). The position of the body in situ depends on the amount of time the corpse has been hanging, as well as the temperature. The temperature accelerates or slows down the process of the head being detached from the torso. Depending on the delinquents’ bodyweight, this process may take between several days to some weeks, as forensic medicine has proven20. Some written records confirm a longer time of hanging, of up to four weeks21. If the victim was buried immediately, the skeleton can be expected to be in a good condition. The longer the delinquent was left hanging on the gallows, the greater the disturbances of the anatomical context, which can very well lead to an elongated cervical spine. However, to classify an individual as hanged, further indication is required. The deranged vertebrae could also be the result of soil being moved or animals feasting on the body. The superficial interpretation of J. Auler for instance, who claims that the individual found by the parish church in Buttisholz/Switzerland was killed by hanging, is false22. The shifted cervical vertebrae alone are not enough evidence to prove that somebody was strangulated. This often adopted statement is in dire need of a rework and requires cinsultation of further in situ records.
Graph. 2. Number of individuals and the causes of their deaths at Gallows Hill, Alkersleben. 59,2% of the individuals died by force.

49Two case studies from Alkersleben verify this. The skull of the male individual from burial 19 was found twisted and frontally shifted. His lower limbs were in a sharply angled position and dropped to the sides, possibly because the body was stuffed into a burial pit that was too narrow for it. These might be indicators for the victim being killed by hanging. A safe indicator for this kind of death penalty are shackles on the hands of the victim. The male individual from burial 35 also exhibited an elongated cervical spine. In addition, the man was in a stretched supine position, with his arms visibly behind his back. This strongly suggests that he was shackled before being buried. He was part of a double burial with a very young female (burial 36). Her skeleton was in poor condition, but a supine position could be verified. A possible connection and therefore indicator for the cause of death might lie within the concurrent burial, but this cannot be proven.
50The mentioned indicators for burial 19 and 35 suggest the victims died from hanging.
Boulders on the delinquents as a defense against revenants?
51Burials burdened with stones have previously posed questions. Since the 14th and 15th c. historical records describing occult-religious banning rites increased in number. These rites were supposed to prevent the deceased, who were expelled from the Christian community, from reentering the realm of the living23. This included the dead that died an unnatural (through force, without having confessed one last time, ‘wicked deaths’) death and yearned to return to the living. The defense methods against revenants date mostly from the medieval age, but can provide an insight into earlier periods.
52In Alkersleben, there are a total of twelve individuals burdened with boulders on their chests. The weights on the individual from burial 10 were especially elaborate (fig. 13). Shackling of the arms could not be verified, since the only photographic documentation shows the boulders still on the body. The symmetrical positioning of the boulders characterizes it as defensive rather than as the deceased being adored. It seems apparent that the boulders on the 25 to 40 year old man were supposed to prevent him from rising and reentering the world of the living. Similar records have been established at execution sites near Miłków (Poland), Zedlitz, Siedlce and Lubin24.
Fig. 13. Grave 10 (1971), Stones on the individual, a defense against revenants © TLDA Weimar (Dok.Nr. 006/1-14).

Summary
53Given the results of the research-excavation on the gallows hill at Alkersleben, it is possible to demonstrate that separate execution cemeteries emerged in the xth c. They were used continually during the Middle Ages. They possessed several characteristics that set them apart from contemporary cemeteries, including varied burial alignments, unusual burial positions, prone and lateral burials, evidence of decapitation and hanging, or other traumata, evidence of tied hands, shallow undersized graves, evidence of intertwining graves, graves with multiple interments, a location close to a pre-existing barrow hill, local administrative boundaries and proximity to major long distance trade routes. The cemetery excavated at Alkersleben possessed a number of these characteristics: some of the burials exhibited chaotic alignments and diverse body positions, some graves contained two or more individuals, the burials were on top of a bronze-age barrow and the site was near to the Old Nürnberger Geleitstrasse, a medieval road from Erfurt to the south. The hill was also situated on the boundary between two medieval territorial dominions. The great number of individuals that were capturted, decapitated and/or hanged and then buried is also indicative of an execution cemetery.
54“The court” was used as a burial place between the 10th and 14th c. Architectural indications of a gallow or scaffold remain to be discovered.
55The skeletons indicate various causes of death. Twenty-eight individuals appear to have died from hanging. They represented the largest group of deceased on the gallows hill. One individual was decapitated, seven battered to death and twelve individuals died from unspecified, but definitely violent causes. They clearly display the act of justiciable processes, during which the delinquents suffered the death penalty.
56Interestingly, a large portion of hanged individuals was burdened with boulders, or was lying on top of stone packings. This indicates special treatment, which characterizes the superstitions and fear of the ‘unholy’ dead during the medieval period. People were scared of revenants and so they burdened the dead with boulders.
57Several of the punished delinquents were buried with their hands shackled. This seems consistent, since many of the contemporary illustrations depict exactly this. When hanging or decapitating an offender, the hands were shackled behind the victims back in most cases. The impermanence of organic material explains the lack of archaeologically documented shackles. This makes the 17 verifiably shackled individuals one of the strongest indicators of the existence of an execution site.
58The multi burials suggest simultaneous entombments. Since the majority of the skeletons exhibit traces of a forcibles death, it seems evident that multi executions could have taken place here. After the death penalty was carried out, the delinquents were buried in the sites’ soil, with some possibly being publicly displayed on the gallows as a deterrent. However, this cannot have happened for long periods, since the bones lack traces of weathering and there is no evidence for increased humus concentrations between the skeletons.
59Lastly, death rituals provide important evidence of the existence of an execution site on the gallows hill near Alkersleben. The defensive measures complete the overall picture of a place that is deemed ‘eerie’ and on which not only punished perpetrators, but also the insignificant were laid to rest.
60The existence of one of the earliest known execution sites in Germany has been successfully proved.
Bibliographie
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in: Beiträge zur Archäologie in der Oberpfalz und in Regensburg, 3: 371-418.
Manser, J., dir. (1992): Richtstätte und Wasenplatz in Emmenbrücke (16.-19. Jahrhundert). Archäologische und historische Untersuchungen zur Geschichte von Strafrechtspflege und Tierhaltung in Luzern, Bâle, 2 vol.
Manser, J. et al. (1992): “Archäologischer Befund”, in: Manser, dir. 1992, 1, 39-76.
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Notes de bas de page
1 For example: Jungklaus & Kirsch 2014, Loirè 2002, Genesis 2008 and 2010, Codreanu-Windauer & Dallmeier 2013.
2 Genesis 2014.
3 Codreanu-Windauer & Dallmeier 2013.
4 Genesis & Podruczny 2016.
5 Genesis 2016, 146-149.
6 An extensive presentation and discussion of the results is available under Genesis 2014. From 2009-2011, new excavations were carried out by the author: Genesis 2010 and 2014.
7 Busch 2002, 127-136; Manser et al. 1992, 39-76.
8 Buckberry 2008,148-168; Reynolds 2009.
9 Becker & Gillich 2010, 108; Etter 1992, 148.
10 Manser et al. 1992, 39 ff.
11 Schubert 2007, 214; van Dülmen 1988, 177 f.
12 For further details, see Genesis 2014.
13 Verhoff 2011.
14 Brinkmann & Madea 2004, 454.
15 Ulrich-Bochsler & Lanz 2008, 423.
16 Buckberry 2008,148-168; Reynolds 2009.
17 Rohbock 2008, 73.
18 The grave dated 700 AD. Steuer 2012, 25.
19 Busch 2002, 127-136.
20 Ulrich-Bochsler 2008, 423 f.
21 Ruoff, éd. 1935.
22 Auler, dir. 2008.
23 Zander 2005, 118.
24 Grenda et al. 2008, 342-361.
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Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence Licence OpenEdition Books. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.
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