Die metallbeschlagenen germanischen Holzeimer der römischen Kaiserzeit

Abstract

This is a study of Germanic wooden buckets with metal fittings dating to the Roman Principate. Wooden vessels with handle and fittings from copers distributed in the region between Scandinavia and South-East Europe, are analysed in view of chronology, distribution and cultural-historical meaning.
Wooden buckets with metal fittings are widely distributed in the Germanic area, but show different conglomerations (map 1). They come exclusively from graves. Fittings and handles are usually made of iron, bronze and in exceptional cases of silver. The combination of these materials on one bucket is rare. As far as the type of wood could be analysed the wood of yew trees was usually used. In the late Roman Principate two large distribution areas can be recognised: in the North-West only bronze bucket-fittings, in the South-East only iron bucket-fittings appear (maps 4 and 5). The typological classification is based on the different shapes of handle attachments, handles and handle-terminals. This results in centres of distribution which partly correspond with
the regions of the different materials of the fittings. The clearly established group of buckets in the area 454 A. Becker · Metallbeschlagene germanische Holzeimer der römischen Kaiserzeit between central Elbe river and central Oder river can doubtlessly be assigned to the distribution of the Burgundians.
In the two distribution areas also the size of the buckets differs clearly. Whereas in the North-West a structured system of sizes can be suggested the Burgundian buckets are produced more or less of the same size. Wooden buckets with metal fittings form a part of richly furnished graves in numerous cases. However, they themselves present a status symbol. Several princely graves of the late Roman Principate contain wooden buckets. Inter-regionally these resample each other by special size, choice of material and typological similarities. The use of wooden buckets with metal fittings for grave furnishing can especially be observed in the late Roman Principate. In the directly following period these vessels appear with much less frequency and hardly
in the original distribution centres. This chorologically and chronologically restricted phenomenon indicates that the use of wooden buckets in graves was no common Germanic rite, but that a regionally and socially closed group followed this custom only for a limited period.