XV. The Graves of the Alemanni at Oberflacht in Suabia

W.M. Wylie Esq.

doi:10.1017/S0261340900012972

XV. The Graves of the Alemanni at Oberflacht in Suabia

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2012

W.M. Wylie Esq.

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It is pleasant to refer to the archæological opinions of the last century in England, when antiquarian alchymy could transpose the ornamental beads of the Saxon tomb into “Druid snake-eggs,” and throw a Roman halo round relics it was too impossible to ascribe to the Celts. Nor were matters better in France. Every sepulchral discovery was classed as Gaulish, or Gallo-Roman; and even Montfaucon could assume the ponderous belt-buckle of a Merovingian warrior to belong to female head-gear. At this time, indeed, the Saxon and Frankish periods seem to have been altogether ignored; but archæology has at length cast off such erring traditions.

Type: Research Article
Information: Archaeologia , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , 1855 , pp. 129 - 160

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261340900012972 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1855

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^{page 129 note a} Antiquité Expliquée, torn. v. p. 192, planche 137.

^{page 129 note b} Nenia Britannica.

^{page 129 note c} Normandie Souterraine, 2^e edition, Paris, 1855.

^{page 129 note d} “Recherches Historiques sur les Peuples de la Race Teutonique,” in vol. x. of the Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de Picardie.

^{page 129 note e} Das Germanische Todtenlager bei Selzen, Mainz, 1848.

^{page 129 note f} To our learned colleague Mr. Roach Smith we owe a valuable commentary on these works in the second volume of his Collectanea Antiqua.

^{page 130 note a} It is quite worthy of attention how frequently the vicinity of water has been selected for the sites of Teutonic burial-places. We notice the fact at Selzen; at Envermeu, Londiniéres, Douvrend, in France; and in England, at Wilbraham, Fairford, Harnham, and Wingham. Further inquiry would, perhaps, enable us to cite many other spots.

^{page 130 note b} This swelling hillock was once probably very much higher. It seems to resemble that at Lin ton Heath, opened by the Hon. R. C. Neville, and found to contain so many Saxon interments. (Journal of Archæol. Institute, vol. xi. p. 95.)

^{page 131 note a} Virgil. Æneid. iv. 1. 242.

^{page 139 note a} It was probably one of the amuletic beads we find in Anglo-Saxon graves under similar circumstances.

^{page 140 note a} Analyses de plusieurs produits d'art d'une haute Antiquité. 2^e Mémoire, par J. Girardin, Professeur de Chimie, de la Ville de Rouen.

^{page 140 note b} Pages 5 and 499.

^{page 141 note a} “Die, wegen ihres wohlerhaltenen Holzwerkes, so merkwürdigen Graber von Oberflacht.” Lindenschmit, Germ. Todtenlager.

^{page 141 note b} Cochet's Normandie Souterraine, p. 227.

^{page 141 note c} Leg. Salic. Tit. xvii.— “In noffo, ant in petra, quæ vasa ex usu sarcophagi dicuntur.”

^{page 141 note d} Hist. 1. v. c. iii. M. Victor Simon is strongly of opinion that this mode of burial was common among the Franks at a very early period, in confirmation of which he pointed out to me this passage in Gregory of Tours.

^{page 142 note a} In a letter of Maurice, Archbishop of Rouen, in 1238 (D' Achery's Spicilegium, torn. 11, p. 522), we may observe a reminiscence of the old custom. His words are, “Sepeliri vel in terra, vel super terram, in plastro, vel in trunco, vel aliocunque modo.” Truncus, taken here for any wooden coffin, undoubtedly had its origin in the old mode of tree-burial.

^{page 142 note b} Ducange, Gloss. Pithoei.— Naufo, Sarcofago ligneo, quibusdam quod ncvis formam referat, quæ Francis nostris olim nau dicta.

^{page 142 note c} Nau, biere, cercueil. C'est ainsi que nos anciens appellaient un bateau. Ménage, Diet. Etymologique. Mr. Akerman has directed my attention to a parallel instance in our own language. He observes that in the south and west of England a trough is called a trow = A. S. τpeop (a tree) from which a trough was made by cutting the trunk in halves and hollowing them out. Such were the canoes of the primitive inhabitants of these islands, of which more than one example is known. There is one in the British Museum —and the long, attenuated barges on our canals are still called Trows.

^{page 142 note d} Deutsche Myth. p. 790, Überfahrt. Compare Dante, Purgatorio, Canto ii. 1. 16.

^{page 142 note e} Gisla Surssonnar Saga. The custom of boat-burial is said to still exist among the Greenlanders.

^{page 142 note f} Lapponia, c. xxvii. p. 314, ed. Franc, M.DC.LXXIII. Compare also account of the barrow of Thyre Danebrod, in Jutland, with its sepulchral chamber of wood. Worsaae's Primeval Antiquities, p. 163: also, see Gretla Saga.

^{page 143 note a} Ils vous prennent un gros arbre, et du tronc le plus gros et massif; ils en taillent une piece capable pour la longeur, puis la fendent en deux, creusans tant que le corps y puisse entrer à l'aise avec une partie des dons que les parens et autres luy auront faict: et, ayant mis le corps dedans le creux de bois, le posent au lieu ordonné pour la sepulture, où se trouve grande multitude de gents, qui luy dressent la tombe, á scavoir un grand mōceau de terre cōme un haut tetre.” Funerailles, et diverses manieres d'ensevelir, descrites par Charles Guichard, Lyon, CIɔ.Iɔ.LXXXI. Livre iii. pp. 408–9.

^{page 143 note b} Saxo Gramm. lib. ii. and vi. Beowulf, passim.

“Pinge duos angues, pueri, sacer est locus.”

Persii sat. i. ver. 113.

From this line of Persius we gather that it was the custom at Rome to paint two snakes on any wall it was wished to preserve from defilement, just as the modern Romans paint a cross with the same intent, and, probably, the same success.

^{page 143 note c} W. Müller's Geschichte und System der altdeutschen Religion, Göttingen, 1844, p. 206.

^{page 143 note d} Keysler, Ant. Sept. 136–8.

^{page 143 note e} Macrobius, Satumal. lib. i. c. 20.

^{page 143 note f} “Langobardi qui viperam auream et quasdam arbores adorabant.” Cronica di Milano, in vol. xvi of Rer. Ital. Scriptores of Muratori; also see Vita di S. Barbato, in Acta Sanct. 19 Febr. p. 139.

^{page 143 note g} “Dracones adorant cum volucribus.” Adam. Bremen, lib. iv. 17.

^{page 144 note a} Æneid. 1. iv. 242.

^{page 144 note b} The serpent indeed was formerly an object of worship in some parts of India.

Dr. Menzel's remarks on some of the German superstitions in connection with our subject are very interesting. “A white crowned snake, dwelling beneath a hazel-bush, plays its part in German superstition under the name of the hazel-worm. But it elsewhere appears under the same tree in human form clothed with white, like a beneficent fairy which favours the sleeper beneath the hazel-tree with prophetic dreams, &c. Compare Prätorius's Glückstopf, 21; Bechstein's Thuringischer Sagenschatz, ii. 108; Gödsche's Schlesischer Sagenschatz, 103. The pagan fairy beneath the hazel-bough was changed in the popular tradition of the later period into the Christian Madonna. Compare Curiositaten, vi. 41; Gumpenberg's Marianischer Atlas, i. 47. The numerous hazel staves, and hazel nuts, are possibly in relation with this serpent symbol.” Jahreshefte des Wirtenbergischen Alt. Vereins. iii.

The hazel staves had some mystic import. In the Eigil Saga we find the judges at a solemn trial fenced in from the crowd by a circle of hazel rods, or staves.

^{page 144 note c} The hilt of the sword from grave 31 resembles in its construction that found in Kent, figured in Akerman's Pagan Saxondom, PL xxiv.

^{page 144 note 4} See also the Rigsmaal-Saga.

^{page 145 note a} Aspicis et mitti sub adunco toxica ferro,

Et telum causas mortis habere duas.

Ovid, ex Ponto, 1. iv. ep. 7, v. 7.

^{page 145 note b} Siquis cum toxicata sagitta alicui sanguinem fuderit, cum xii. solid, componat.—Tit. xxi. Leg. Baiorum.

^{page 145 note c} Tit. xx. 2.

^{page 146 note a} Greg. Turon. Hist. 1. ix. c. 28.

^{page 146 note b} Concil. Arelatense II. a.d. 452.

^{page 146 note c} Baluze, Capit. L. vii. 316.

^{page 146 note d} Worsaae's Primeval Antiquities, p. 100— “König Ring liess den König Harold in einem grossen hügel beisetzen, das pferd tödten, auf dem er in Brävallaschlacht geritten hatte, und den sattel mit begraben, dass er nach Walhalla reiten konne.” —Grimm, D. Myth, p. 796.

^{page 146 note e} De Mor. Germ. 27. This fact is remarkably exemplified in the interments of a Teutonic tribe which settled themselves on what is now the Würtemberg shore of the Lake of Constance. Their large tumuli are found to contain skeletons, buried in the plain earth after the manner of the Anglo-Saxons; long and broad iron swords, spear heads, iron finger-rings, umbones of shields in unusual number, spurs occasionally, and ordinarily bridle ornaments, with other parts of horse-trappings in bronze.

Compare also Marco Polo's account of Tartar usages, p. 127 (Bonn's edit.); Tooke's account of ancient Tartar burial-places, Archaeologia, vol. vii. p. 224; Cochet's Nonnandie Souterraine, p. 375. For instances of the custom in England, see Journal of Arch. Inst. vol. vii. p. 36; and Archæologia, vol. xxxiii. p. 334. Lindenschmit's valuable work furnishes many instances of the occurrence of remains of horses, or their trappings, during sepulchral researches in Germany.—Germ. Todtenlager, p. 28.

^{page 147 note a} “Horses ornamented on the cheek … on one of which stood a saddle variegated with work, and rich with treasure: that was the war-seat of a lofty king.” —Kemble's Beowulf, 1. 2066.

^{page 147 note b} “And turn the adamantine spindle round.”

Milton's Arcades.

— teretem versabat pollice fusum.

Ovid. Met. vi. 22.

^{page 147 note c} Codex Diplom. Ævi Saxon, vol. ii. p. 116.

“Hæreditas ad fusum a lancea transeat.”

In lege Angliorum et Werinorum. Tit. vi. 8.

^{page 148 note a} Speculum Saxonicum, lib. iii. art. 15, sec. 3.

^{page 148 note b} Collectanea Antiqua, vol. i. pl. xxxvi. fig. 6.

^{page 148 note c} Pagan Saxondom, pl. xii. and xxi. Saxon Obsequies, pl. xviii. to xxi.

^{page 149 note a} Fairford Graves, p. 33.

^{page 149 note b} Vita S. Eligii, 1. ii. c. 15.

^{page 149 note c} “Dieunt quoque se vidisse ibi mulieres pagano ritu phylacteria et ligaturas et in brachiis et cruribus ligatas habere.” Epistle from St. Boniface to Pope Zachariah.

^{page 149 note d} Pagan Saxondom, pl. v. Collect. Antiqua, vol. i. p. 105.

^{page 149 note e} Saxo, viii. 165. “Urn einen spukenden zu vertreiben muss man mit stahl und stein funken schlagen.” Mark. Sagen. s. 385.

^{page 149 note f} Seheffer's Lapponia, c. xxvii. Mallet's Northern Antiquities, c. x.

^{page 149 note g} Deut. Myth. p. 568.

^{page 150 note a} Todtenlager bei Selzen; Sepultures à Remennecourt, in the 3rd. vol. of Mémoires de la Sociéé Philomathique de Verdun; Mémoires of the Luxembourg Society, vol. vii.; Cochet's Normandie Souterraine, p. 258.

^{page 150 note b} Archæologia, vol. XXXV. p. 259.

^{page 150 note c} W. Müller, Geschichte, p. 243.

^{page 150 note d} Sunt etiam qui in festivitate cathedra domini Petri Apostoli cibos mortuis offerunt, et, post missas, redeuntes ad domos proprios, ad gentilitium revertuntur errores, et post Corpus Domini, sacratas dæmoni escas accipiunt.” Second Conncil of Tours, Can. 22, a.d. 567.

^{page 150 note e} Vita S. Eligii, lib. ii. c. 15, in D'Achery's Spicilegium.

^{page 150 note f} Ep. S. Bonifac. 44 and 84. Also Serin, vi. de peccatis mortalibus. Third Cone. Germ. (742). Cone. Leptin. and Indiculus, Can. 1 and 2.—From a passage in a letter from the Pope Zachariah to St. Boniface, it would seem that some of the ignorant German clergy had encouraged the error among the Thuringians. Burchard, Decret. x. 38. “Non licet Christianis prandia ad defunctorums epulchra deferre, et sacrificare mortuis.” Capitul. vi. c. 197. Compare Joh. Beleth. c. lxxxiii. and Durandus, Rat. 1. vii. c. 8.

^{page 150 note g} “Thou needest care no further than this about my corpse-feast.” Beowulf, 1. 895. In Gisla Sursonnar Saga, we read that Vestein's lyke-wake lasted for several days.

^{page 151 note a} Seheffer's Lapponia, c. xxvii. p. 317.

^{page 151 note b} Cochet's Normandie Souterraine, p. 413. Durandus, Rat. 1. vii. c. 35. Notices sur les Tombes Gallo-Frankes, in vol. vii. of Mémoires of Luxembourg Arch. Society.

^{page 151 note c} Collectanea Antiqua, vol. ii. pl. lii.

^{page 151 note d} Nenia Britannica; Pagan Saxondom, pl. xvii.

^{page 151 note e} Normandie Souterraine, pl. x. fig. 3, p. 328. The Abbé cites other examples found in various parts of France.

^{page 152 note a} Germ. Todtenlager, p. 28.

^{page 152 note b} Grimm, Deut. Myth. p. 795; W. Muller's Geschichte, p. 408.

^{page 152 note c} Keysler, Antiq. Sept. p. 170; Muller's Sagabibliothek.

^{page 153 note a} In the notes, Scott, on the authority of Ritson, gives the following illustrative citation from a MS. in the Cotton Library, which unfortunately we cannot trace. The reference given by Scott is incorrect;—

“When any dieth, certaine women sing a song to the dead bodie, recyting the journey that the partye deceased must goe; and they are of beliefe (such is their fondnesse) that once in their lives it is good to give a pair of new shoes to a poor man, for as much as, after this life, they are to pass barefoote through a great launde full of thornes and furzen, except, by the meryte of the almes aforesaid, they have redemed the forfeyte; for, at the edge of the launde, an old man shall meet them with the same shoes that were given by the partie when he was lyving; and after he hath shodde them, dismisseth them to go through thick and thin without scratch or scalle.”

^{page 153 note b} Deut. Mythol. p. 795.

^{page 153 note c} Collect. Ant. vol. i. pl. xliv. p. 123.

^{page 153 note d} Normandie Souterraine, pp. 49 and 63.

^{page 154 note a} Div. Off. Explicatio, c. clix. “Habeant et soleas in pedibus, quo significent ita se paratos esse ad judicium.”

^{page 154 note b} Rationale, lib. vii. c. 35.

^{page 154 note c} Superstates adhuc e corio rubeo calcei utrumque pedem contegebant; iidemque ligneam quisque soleam, hino inde coriaceis insutam habebant.” Puricelli, Monum. Basil. Ambros.

^{page 154 note d} Archæologia, XXXIV. p. 403.

^{page 155 note a} In the cathedral of Aachen, for instance. Samuel i. c. vi. 5.

^{page 154 note b} De Vita Patrum, c. vi.

^{page 154 note c} Pedum similitudines quas per bivia ponunt fieri vetate, et ubi inveneritis, igne cremate.” Vita S. Eligii, 1. ii. c. xv. The temples, or rather altars, of the heathen Teutons were mostly at the junction of cross-roads. Hence the place of execution was there, criminals being sacrificed to the gods; hence, too, suicides were buried at the cross-roads to give as strong an impression as possible of a heathen burial.

^{page 156 note a} One would not expect that corruption should still be at work after the lapse of a thousand years; but the Abbé Cochet observes of graves (p. 226, Nor. Souterraine), “J'en ai même rencontré qui exhalait une forte odeur.” The Same circumstance was noticed on opening some of the graves at Fairford.

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XV. The Graves of the Alemanni at Oberflacht in Suabia

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