Leubingen tumulus

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• Location: Leubingen
• Era: Early Bronze Age
• Culture: Unetice culture

• Date of creation: ca. 1940 BC
• Date of Excavation: 1877

• 7m tall Tumulus
• 3.90m x 2.10m burial chamber
• 1.70m high burial chamber

This grave consists of a Burial Chamber roughly the form of a hut/house of the time. It has a saddle-shaped roof made out of heavy oaken beams covered in stones with an earthen burial mound on top of the structure. the mound is seven metres high and contains a burial chamber of 3.90m x 2.10m with a maximum height of 1.70m. This is the grave of a member of the Elite (based on rich contents of the burial chamber as well as the presence of metal in the funerary gifts).

In a central position lay the body of a man about 50 years old, draped over his loins at an angle of ca. 40° lies the body of a young woman who was seemingly killed right after the death of the man.

- Aside his right shoulder lies an open bracelet, two pins, two rings and a spiral made out of gold. - At his feet lies a stone battle-hammer which was pierced, a rectangular stone (anvil?), two bronze edge-axes (axe with elevated edges to prevent it from moving too much on the handle it was attached to), three bronze chisels and three bronze daggerblades which were placed in leather and oak bark scabbards. Also found there was the blade of a stapled halberd (Stabdolch). - In a corner of the Burial Chamber stood a big ceramic pot, with brown and black decorations, with little ears on the shoulder.

Dendrochronologic testing has placed the grave at circa 1940 BC. This type of burial is typical for elite graves in the Early Bronze Age in Western Europe.

Between the 8th and 11th century AD, the local (nowadays Slavic) community placed a gravefield (cemetery) of about 70 graves in and around this manmade hill.

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• Grave of Helmsdorf