As of: March 29, 2024, 9:02 a.m
By: Andrea Gräpel
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Archaeologist Stelios Choumas, excavation technician Blazej Dabiowski and archaeologist Ines Gerhardt (with Mayor Christian Schiller) will search the site for historical finds until May. © Photographer: Andrea Jaksch
Since November, archaeologists have been searching for evidence of the past in an area measuring around 3,000 square meters next to the St. Nicholas Church in Herrsching. The work will probably last until May.
Herrsching
– Herrsching has been of great interest to archaeologists since 1982 at the latest. During the first cemetery expansion, construction workers came across 14 graves and the foundation of an early Christian church, which led to the founding of the archaeological park. On the property where the Johanniterhaus now stands, the remains of a Roman estate, a villa rustica, were found in 2003 before construction began. And in 2011 it was animal bones, coins and ceramics that the team from Phoinix Archeology from Pöcking in Herrsching found during the second cemetery expansion towards Johanniterhaus. It was therefore no big surprise that discoveries were also made just a few hundred meters away on the site where the municipality is now planning affordable housing. So far, archaeologists and excavation technicians have discovered 16 coins, ceramics and lots of post pits. The team around Stefan Mühlemeier and Ines Gerhardt will be working on the site right next to St. Nicholas Church until May. “Then we hope that it will come to a conclusion,” says Mayor Christian Schiller.
The archaeologist Ines Gerhardt and her husband Stefan Mühlemeier lead the Phoinix team. They founded their excavation company in Pöcking back in the early 1990s. For Ines Gerhardt there is no better job. “My father dragged me to every castle and castle when I was a child,” she says and laughs, because “then he wanted me to become a banker.” Ines Gerhardt chose history – early history. “There are no written sources from this time, there is only archeology.” That alone always makes the search exciting for her.
Schiller has already known the team from 2011, when they came across finds from Roman times during the second cemetery expansion. They have been working intermittently on the area next to St. Nicholas Church since November. There are 471 nails with markings stuck in the ground. The number stands for 471 post pits, which can be recognized by the dark earth color that was created when humus was mixed with gravel during work, explains Ines Gerhardt. She knows that the posts were necessary for the houses, which were not built like half-timbered buildings but like barns. The many post pits can be clearly seen from the air. And if you look closely, you can also see the outline of the narrow but very long courtyard of a person who is probably of higher status. At town meetings, Schiller had joked that someone like the mayor probably lived there.
The coins found are just as big as, for example, a 10 cent piece. © Photographer: Andrea Jaksch
It was a detectorist who tracked down the first coin after just a few minutes at the start of the work. “I thought he was making fun of me,” says Ines Gerhardt. Until she saw the coin. In total, the archaeological team found 16 late antique coins from the fourth century. And ceramic shards. She has brought an object with her and is stroking the surface. “The ceramics are typical of the early Middle Ages.” After the Romans, others built houses over them. At the very back of the area there is a large, dark area, in front of it a spot that looks like ash - and it probably is. Ines Gerhardt estimates that this was a kiln in which ceramics were fired and perhaps bread was baked. And the red spot is probably scorched earth in front of the oven opening.
There are currently four employees at work in Herrsching. The work was interrupted by other orders that had been delayed and had to be processed - the removal for the water pipe construction near Unering, for example, or a grave discovery in Landsberg. Looking at the archaeologist Stelios Choumas from Greece and the Polish excavation technician Blazej Dabiowski, who are currently examining a layer of earth in their pit with interest, Ines Gerhardt says: “I can't imagine anything more beautiful.” She catches herself doing it, even if she just go for a walk with the dog, that she automatically scans the surrounding fields for any abnormalities. The eyes are always focused on the floor.
Perhaps more can be found in the area next to the church until construction of the three apartment buildings planned there begins in the summer.