David BIBBY | Hildegard BIBBY | Joachim WAHL
(Regierungspräsidium Stuttgart, Germany)
Keywords: stratigraphy, anthropology, historical research
Abstract:
In the late 1990s it was discovered that the medieval Holy Trinity Church (Dreifaltigkeitskir-che) on the Rosgartenstraße, one of the main shopping streets in the centre of the City of Konstanz, South-West Germany, was leaning alarmingly to the north, threatening to col-lapse and bury and crush the shops and other buildings along the Bahnhofstraße immediately to the north of the church. In order to stop the subsidence, the church foundations were underpinned by reinforced concrete injected into small trenches dug and refilled successively along the foundations both outside and inside the church, it being too dangerous to open up a larger part of the foundation at one time. Each trench was recorded archaeologically so that a complete picture of the structure of the original church foundations grew as the project developed.
Especially interesting was the discovery in the trench immediately inside today’s main church portal: a medieval grave covered by a partially inscripted gravestone containing four individuals. All four individuals, three men and one woman appear to belong to a higher social class. For one of the men it has been possible, through a combination of archaeology – in the form of stratigraphic analysis – anthropology and historical research, to build a clear profile, including social standing, activities during his lifetime, possible (probable) place time and cause of death and also to give a plausible reason as to why he – or maybe all four as a family – were buried specifically at this spot just inside the portal of the church and not elsewhere. Even though there are some grounds for informed speculation it has so far not been possible to identify him by name. At present he is still known by the name he was given to him at the point of his discovery on site: “Grave 700”. This is his story.