Project Oberding

DFG-Project: ME 3372/9-1

"The Early Bronze Age bar hoard from Oberding, Erding district, and its surroundings. Comprehensive archaeological and scientific evaluation."

Project management: Prof. Dr. Carola Metzner-Nebelsick

Project collaborator: Sabrina Kutscher MA

Archaeology: Prof. Dr. Carola Metzner-Nebelsick, LMU Munich,
Sabrina Kutscher MA, LMU Munich

Archaeometallurgy: Prof. Dr. Ernst Pernicka and colleagues, Curt-Engelhorn-Zentrum Archäometrie gGmbH Mannheim, University of Heidelberg (CEZA)

Palynological investigations: Dr. Philipp Stojakowits, Institute of Geography, University of Augsburg, PD Dr. Michael Peters, LMU Munich

Archaeozoology: Silvia Eccher, M.A., LMU Munich and Trento; recording of paleopathological abnormalities in animal bone material: Prof. Dr. Wolf-Rüdiger Teegen, LMU Munich

14C-AMS dating: Dr. Ronny Friedrich, Curt-Engelhorn-Zentrum Archäometrie gGmbH Mannheim

Cooperation partners:

Erding Museum: Harald Krause, M.A.

Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments: Coordination: Prof. Dr. C. Sebastian Sommer, Dipl.-Rest. Stephanie Gasteiger, Metal Analysis: Central Laboratory of the BLfD

Funding organization: DFG

Project start: February 2019 (expected project duration 15 months)

Brief description:

Enlarge

The project aims to comprehensively process, analyze, and publish the largest deposit of ingots ever discovered, dating from the late Early Bronze Age in Oberding, Upper Bavaria, with a total of 796 ingots weighing almost 82 kg, and its micro-regional and wider cultural context. Extensive preparatory work, in particular a complex restoration and initial metallurgical analyses, has already yielded important findings that underscore the outstanding significance of the discovery made during an excavation. Previous ideas about Early Bronze Age weight units of bars are being revised; the copper used indicates several deposits, documenting the significance of the hoard at the interface between Early and Middle Bronze Age goods transfer and the changing cultural contacts associated with it. The DFG project will focus on the archaeological investigation of the immediate context of the find, as well as on gaining further insights into the immediate surroundings and the nature of the hoard's deposition with the help of supplementary scientific investigations. The final publication of all new and previous research results promises to provide considerable insights into changing areas of contact in the course of raw material trade and goods transfer in Central Europe during the first quarter of the 2nd millennium BC.

Previous project:

The project follows on from a previous project, which was carried out and financed between May 2015 and July 2017 as a cooperation project between the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation, the city of Erding, and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, entitled "The Early Bronze Age bar hoard from Oberding, Erding district."

Persons and institutions involved in the predecessor project:

Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments: Conservation, restoration: Jörg Stolz, M.A., Head: Stephanie Gasteiger, M.A., Metal analysis: Central Laboratory of the BLfD

LMU Munich: initial archaeological evaluation: Master's thesis by Sabrina Kutscher MA, university project management and supervision of the thesis by Prof. Dr. Carola Metzner-Nebelsick; archaeozoology: Silvia Eccher M.A., recording of paleopathological abnormalities in animal bone material: Prof. Dr. Wolf-Rüdiger Teegen

outside Munich:

Metal analysis: Prof. Ernst Pernicka, Curt Engelhorn Center for Archaeometry gGmbH Mannheim/University of Heidelberg

Archaeobotany: Barbara Zach, Dipl.-Biol., Zach Archaeobotany Laboratory, Bernbeuern

Geoarchaeology: Britta Kopecky-Hermanns, Office for Soil Science and Geoarchaeology, Karlshuld

Micromorphology: Dr. Dagmar Fritzsch, Goethe University Frankfurt

Soil analysis: TUM Weihenstephan

14C AMS dating: Dr. Ronny Friedrich, CEZA Mannheim

Lipid analyses: Dr. Jun.-Prof. Cynthianne Spiteri, University of Tübingen

3D computed tomography: Nils Reims, Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS Fürth

3D printing of small block recovery/Structure from Motion for small and large block recovery: Formwerk3D Hannover, Archaeological Illustrations