Tumulus cemetery – Buchkogel/northern slope

At the request of the landowner, an archaeological investigation was carried out in 2006/07 by Kulturpark Hengist in the Buchkogel/northern slope tumulus field. The choice fell on Tumulus 4, located just northwest of the large burial mound 6. With a base diameter of about 12 m and a still preserved height of 0.70 m, tumulus 4 was one of the smallest mounds in the burial field and therefore the ideal target for a manageable discovery excavation in terms of time and finances. The mound, which had already been disturbed by treasure hunters in the 19th century, contained a decentrally located, north-south oriented rectangular stone setting or stone chamber with external dimensions of 3 by 3.50 m, which was constructed from one or two layers of large, on-site Leithakalk limestones (0.20 to 0.40 m).
In this chamber the impressive grave inventory of a 19 to 40 year old woman of elevated social position from the developed Hallstatt period (Ha C2, 670 to 600 B.C.) could be documented. 15 pottery vessels, differing strongly in their state of preservation, are present, which impress by their extraordinary quality. Particularly striking are two vessels with cone-shaped necks and Basarabi decoration; furthermore, an undecorated vessel with cone-shaped neck and a thorn-like knob on the vessel shoulder, a situla (bucket) with Basarabi decoration, three lids with rounded ribbon-shaped handles, a feed bowl (“Einzugsschale”), a bowl and a handle bowl as well as fragments of five vessels whose shape has not yet been determined. As evidenced by several drops of fused non-ferrous metal, the dress components were also burned at the pyre; only one small fragment can be clearly attributed to a small boat brooch. Remarkable is an unburned small bronze meat hook, probably an imported piece from the Italian region.

The two vessels with cone-shaped necks and the situla have shiny metallic graphitized surfaces and show luxuriant three-dimensional decoration, among others with spiral and hook motifs. Thus they show a proximity to the so-called Basarabi complex whose cultural core area was in the region of the lower Danube in Oltenia (Little Walachia) and which spread into the Eastern Hallstatt culture area. Isolated contacts to the southeast can be proven in Styria already for the 8th century B.C. The impulses from the Basarabi culture reached the Southeast Alpine region along the Danube-Save-Drava-Mur river system which was important for traffic and trade.
The finds in Styria are most likely not imported pieces, but locally interpreted variants of this characteristic southeastern European motif. This is definitely true for the grave vessels from Tumulus 4; we know that such vessels were bore a certain exclusivity. The situla with basaraboid decoration in particular illustrates this, as it represents an indigenous eastern alpine bucket form decorated with elements borrowed from the basarabi complex. Sculpturally executed patterns, on the other hand, are foreign to the Basarabi culture.

Tumulus 4 in the Buchkogel barrow cemetery testifies to the far-reaching influences and connections that characterize the finding-place of Wildon as a central location. Already for the Late Bronze Age Urnfield Culture, which precedes the Hallstatt period, numerous foreign goods and the adaptation of foreign forms to locally existing traditions can be proved from the cemeteries around the Wildon Schlossberg. They suggest an involvement of at least the elites in a network of relations. They maintained contacts to the north and south but were also connected to chronologically parallel cultural phenomena in the west and east and thereby possibly played a mediating role.