The younger Bronze Age hoard of basins from Norderstapel (Kr. Schleswig-Flensburg)

Abstract

A deposition comprising four bronze basins was discovered by a detectorist in July 2010 at Norderstapel. They are four basins with cruciform handle attachements which were deposited upside down in a pit measuring 60 cm×50 cm. All of them can be characterised as type B2a after G. von Merhart dating to the period Ha B2/B3 (period V in the North). Most likely, they are produced directly in the Carpathian arc or in the adjacent regions to the North and transported from there to the North. As no bronze vessels of the periods IV and V had hitherto been known in Schleswig-Holstein these new finds close a gap in our knowledge. The site of discovery is situated on a geest ridge surrounded by the rivers Eider, Treene and Sorge. This geographical feature may well have played an intermediary position in the land-based trade along the western coast of Schleswig-Holstein between Ditmarschen and North Frisia and would thus be reflected by the presented hoard.