Archaeologists discovered land ditches approximately 3,000 years old west of Leipzig during excavations carried out in preparation for the construction of a district heating pipeline. The 19-kilometer-long pipeline is intended to connect the industrial site of Leuna in Saxony-Anhalt to the heating plant in Kulkwitz near Leipzig.
Harald Stäuble, an archaeologist and department head at the Saxony State Office for Archaeology in Dresden, provided details about the findings. "So far, we have uncovered six different ditch systems, of which two have been excavated so far," he said, according to n-tv. The ditches range from 1 to 1.5 meters in depth. Their upper sections measure between 2 and 3 meters in width, while the bottoms are about 80 centimeters wide.
The exact purpose of these land ditches remains uncertain, and researchers are exploring theories regarding their function. "Characteristic of these ditches is that they contain nothing," Stäuble noted, pointing out the absence of artifacts or organic material within them. This lack of contents makes it challenging to determine their precise use.
One hypothesis suggests that the ditches served to demarcate large agricultural areas during a time of increasing population. At the end of the Bronze Age, up to about 800 BCE, there was a rise in population in the region. "The increase in population made it necessary to demarcate properties from one another," Stäuble explained. He added, "The land ditches could possibly have separated large agricultural areas from one another."
Alternatively, the ditches may have played a role in land improvement and water management. "Perhaps they served to drain water, an early system of land improvement," Stäuble speculated. This suggests that the ancient inhabitants might have constructed the ditches to control water flow across the landscape.
The construction and layout of the ditches provide further insights. "In general, these linear ditch systems can be expressed as continuous ditches, interrupted ditches, or as series of pits," Stäuble said. "Two of these ditch works overlap at a sharp angle, with one ditch leading into the other," he remarked.
Similar land ditches, dating back around 3,000 years, have been found in Great Britain and Central Germany. "The alignment of pits was first discovered in Great Britain and is also known here under the English term 'pit alignment,'" Stäuble explained. This phenomenon indicates a possible connection or similar practices across different regions during the Bronze Age.
The excavations have so far revealed sections of the ditches extending up to 30 meters in length each. The ditches themselves are several kilometers long. "The system of land ditches was in use for about 500 years," Stäuble said.
Because the absence of materials within the ditches offers limited clues, there are only hypotheses about their function. "The purpose of the kilometer-long lines of land ditches is still speculated upon today," Stäuble acknowledged.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.