Official Journal of the district of SÜW from September 24th, 2021
Protected burial mound fields in Herxheim Considerable archaeological finds and features from the Bronze Age to the pre-Roman Iron Age can be expected in the aforementioned area. The "burial mounds in Herxheim", which were placed under protection by the ordinance of November 16, 2007, are among the largest known burial mounds in the Palatinate to date. Several burial mounds were already recorded in the Herxheim Forest around the Zimmerlachgraben during the topographical survey of the Palatinate from 1836-1841 According to the records of C. Mehlis, there were first excavation attempts in the eighties of the same century. In 1903, three burial mounds could finally be archaeologically examined. Graves and burial objects from the younger Bronze Age, the Hallstatt period and the Latene period were found. In 1920 the 151 burial mounds - the burial mounds from Herxheimweyher and Rülzheim further to the east included - systematically recorded and mapped. With 92 objects, the burial ground of Herxheim is the largest concentration of the three focal points. Overall, however, the burial ground extends over the districts of Herxheim, Herxheimweyher and Rülzheim, encompassing almost an area of two by one kilometer.
A large part of the Herxheim burial mounds have already been designated as an excavation protection area. However, the latest LiDAR scans show that other burial mounds are located outside the area already protected, so the size of the dig protection area has to be adjusted. The state of preservation of the individual mounds is good. The majority of the burial mounds are undisturbed and therefore have a unique source value, which means that the group of burial mounds is of great importance for science nationwide.
The Herxheim burial mound is one of the most important prehistoric and early historical finds of above-ground monuments. The burial mounds are visible signs of the burial cult. As a rule, these lie together in smaller or larger groups, with grave fields with 50 to 100 grave mounds occurring in the Rhine Valley. The Herxheim burial mound field, with its original 92 burial mounds, is therefore of a particularly large size.
The size of the individual burial mounds in their current form varies between a diameter of 10 to 20 m and a height of 1 to 1.5 m. In between there are mounds of smaller format (diameter: 5 m, height: 0.5 m). There are only a few hills with a diameter of 30 m and a height of 4 m. However, these dimensions no longer correspond to the original dimensions of the burial mounds, which were usually 2 to 5 meters smaller in diameter. The fill material of the mounds has eroded over the centuries due to various causes (by washing away, plowing over, leveling and much more). Each mound was originally laid out for a burial, but there are still up to 25 subsequent burials from younger cultural epochs in a large number of burial mounds. In some cases, the original mound was enlarged by earthworks.
The habit of burying the deceased in burial mounds is documented in various prehistoric cultural periods. In the Palatinate it can be traced continuously from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. (late Neolithic/early Bronze Age) to the 2nd century B.C. (Latene Period). In addition, there are also occasional Roman post-burials in burial mounds. This phenomenon occurs more frequently in the Merovingian or Frankish period of the 5th-7th centuries. Century AD, whereby the associated burial pits always were oriented east-west.
A few meters west of the forest path are several Celtic graves, which are clearly visible as low elevations. So the idea of the Waldfriedhöhe is very old.