Ein frühmittelalterlicher Depotfund vom Schanzberg von Thunau (Bez. Horn / A)

Abstract

In 1988 a flat pit with iron artefacts was discovered at the margins of the so-called manor area at the Schanzberg close to Thunau in Lower Austria, an Early Medieval fortified central place. The pit contained three spurs, two fittings (of an associated spur set), two sickles, two narrow axes, a broad axe, an adze and two oblong objects which could be reconstructed as a kind of lance head. Apart from the spurs the type of which belongs to the second half of the 9^th century and appears as a progressed shape in one spur, the artefacts cannot be dated closely. Therefore, the deposition of the hoard is suggested for the last third of the 9^th century or later. In the late 9^th century or around 900 male graves in the cemetery of the settlement from Thunau (increasingly) seem to present an elite; the hoard appears to follow a similar agenda if interpreting the accumulation and deposition of valuable objects as a possible attempt to consolidate social status.