The Opfermoor Vogtei is an open-air museum at the location of a prehistoric and protohistoric sacrificial bog () in the municipality of Vogtei, Thuringia, in Germany. It lies within the former municipality of Oberdorla, approximately from Niederdorla, and the site is also known by those names.
The site, which includes a shallow lake, was a supra-regional cult site from the Hallstatt Period (6th century BCE) to the Migration Age (5th century CE) developed by people whose descendants became, in Friedrich Maurer's nomenclature, the Rhine-Weser Group of Germanic people. It is the largest known Iron Age cult site in Central EuropeFreilichtausstellung "Opfermoor Vogtei" in Niederdorla / Thüringen, Urlaubsland Thüringen, retrieved 17 August 2013 and has yielded important information about pre-Germanic and Germanic religious practices. Excavations took place there between 1957 and 1964, and recovered artifacts and reconstructions of shrines are presented in an open-air museum on the site, which includes a reconstructed village, and an associated museum in Niederdorla.
Site The site is a natural depression in which groundwater collected, forming a marsh and an area of open water roughly in extent; beginning around 100 BCE as established by studies of the sediment layers and peat, sedimentation reduced the extent of open water. Peat cutting began in 1947 and has again increased the size of the lake; the prehistoric discoveries were made during peat harvesting.
Archaeological investigation Peat cutting began at the site in 1947, leading to the discovery of archaeological deposits the following year. From 1957 until 1964, the site was excavated under the leadership of Günter Behm-Blancke, the director of the Museum für Ur- und Frühgeschichte Thüringens (Museum of the Prehistory and Protohistory of Thuringia) in Weimar,Jan Bemmann and Güde Hahne, "Ältereisenzeitliche Heiligtümer im nördlichen Europa nach den archäologischen Quellen", in Germanische Religionsgeschichte: Quellen und Quellenprobleme, ed. Heinrich Beck, Detlev Ellmers and Kurt Schier, Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde 5, Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 1992, , pp. 29–69, p. 43 "Opfermoor Vogtei feiert 20-jähriges Jubiläum", Thüringer Allgemeine, 23 June 2012 revealing circular enclosures of hazel branches, in the centre of which were altars with wooden cult figurines. Numerous bones of domesticated animals were found, above all of cattleManfred Teichert and Roland Müller, "Die Haustierknochen aus einer ur- und frühgeschichtlichen Siedlung bei Niederdorla, Kr. Mühlhausen", Zeitschrift für Archäologie 27 (1993) 207–23, p. 219 but also including horses, sheep, goats, pigs, and a domestic cat; some wild animals: deer, bison, wolves, wild boar, otters, at least 27 pike,Domestikationsforschung und Geschichte der Haustiere: Internationales Symposium in Budapest 1971, ed. János Matolosi, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1973, , p. 272 a fox, and a turtle; and 35 species of domesticated and wild birds.Bemmann and Hahne, p. 46. There were also human bones (from at least 40 different individuals),Wijnand van der Sanden, tr. Susan J. Mellor, Through Nature to Eternity: The Bog Bodies of Northwest Europe, Amsterdam: Batavian Lion, 1996, , p. 104.Bemmann and Hahne, p. 44.Rudolf Simek, Götter und Kulte der Germanen, Beck'sche Reihe 23345, Munich: Beck, 2004, , p. 23 with the damage to the latter indicating human sacrifice: in one case in particular, the head and extremities had been hacked off and sunk in the bog, weighted down with branches, and the tools used had also been broken and sunk.Zeitschrift für Archäologie 9 (1975) 317–18 Günter Behm-Blancke, "Materielle und geistige Kultur. Stammesgebiete im 1. und 2. Jahrhundert: Kult und Ideologie", in Bruno Krüger, et al., ed., Die Germanen: Geschichte und Kultur der germanischen Stämme in Mitteleuropa. Ein Handbuch in zwei Bänden, Volume 1 Von den Anfängen bis zum 2. Jahrhundert unserer Zeitrechnung, Veröffentlichungen des Zentralinstituts für Alte Geschichte und Archäologie der Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR 4, Berlin: Akademie, 1976, , pp. 351–71, p. 364 The finds at this site are the best known archaeological evidence of Germanic human sacrifice.Marina Schauer, Odin und die Menschenopfer in Sagas, Berichten und der Bibel, Norderstedt: GRIN, 2012, , p. 4 : "Bei den Germanen ist vor allem der Opfersee von Oberdorla in Thüringen bekannt." In addition there were a cultic boat, weapons which had presumably been used to make the sacrifice, harvest offerings such as bundles of flax, a variety of everyday objects and tools,Bemmann and Hahne, pp. 45–46.Rosemarie Seyer, "Kunst und Ideologie: Kult und Ideologie", in Bruno Krüger, et al., ed., Die Germanen: Geschichte und Kultur der germanischen Stämme in Mitteleuropa. Ein Handbuch in zwei Bänden, Volume 2 Die Stämme und Stammesverbände in der Zeit vom 3. Jahrhundert bis zur Herausbildung der politischen Vorherrschaft der Franken, Veröffentlichungen des Zentralinstituts für Alte Geschichte und Archäologie der Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR 4.2, Berlin: Akademie, 1983, , pp. 248–69, p. 254 and pieces of wood with worked ends that were probably used for divination in association with the sacrifices.Behm-Blancke, "Kult und Ideologie", note 123, p. 373. In all at least 86 distinct cultic locations have been identified on-site.Martin Kuckenburg, Kultstätten und Opferplätze in Deutschland: Von der Steinzeit bis zum Mittelalter, Stuttgart: Theiss, 2007, , p. 102 The finds originate from various parts of Roman Germania, and are not associated with any one Germanic tribe, suggesting a cult-place serving more than the immediate region. The circular cult-place was built by the Hermunduri in the 1st century BCE and became an important religious centre during the Migration Age.
The largest prehistoric settlement in Thuringia was excavated nearby at the Mallinden. The reconstructed buildings at the museum are based on examples found there.
Interpretation Dating of the finds showed the site to have been used for cultic purposes from the Hallstatt Period (6th century BCE) to long after the arrival of Christianity, with isolated depositions in the 11th and 12th centuries CE. Behm-Blancke identified five different modes of sacrifice (pulverised bones scattered on the ground; carefully cleaned, entire bones either piled or buried at the lakeside, with the skull on top or placed on a pole; leg-bones placed together beside a knocked-down offering pole, or tied together, with no skull present; leg-bones and skull deposited together in the lake, presumed to have been originally the animal's hide with legs and head intact, placed on a pole; skull alone, either placed on a pole or deposited on the ground or in the lake), and distinguished bog, lake, lakeside and spring sacrifices.Bemmann and Hahne, pp. 44, 47. The cultic nature of the depositions is clear, although opinions have varied as to whether the isolated bones, particularly skulls, represent simple offerings or the remains of sacramental feasts,H. A. Groenendijk, "Dorfwurt Ulrum (De Marne, Prov. Groningen), eine Fundbergung im Jahre 1995 als Anregung zur Benutzung hydrologischer Messdaten bei der Erhaltung von Großwurten", Palaeohistoria 47/48 (2005/06) 529–51, p. 539 which given the absence of some parts of the skeleton would have taken place elsewhere.Behm-Blancke, "Kult und Ideologie", p. 367.
Hallstatt Period The religious centre of the site in the early period is a rectangular altar of Muschelkalk limestone surrounded by a semicircular wall made of rocks and earth. Vessels containing food offerings were placed on the altar and a fire was lit. Buds on the charcoal remnants of the wood indicate a springtime ritual, likely in honour of a vegetation deity. The altar is comparable to contemporary and older finds in the northwestern Alps and to early Greek altars.
Beside the altar was a circular shrine surrounded by a wall, in the centre of which was an image in the form of a stele; goats and other animals had been sacrificed there. There are also small oval sacrificial sites marked off by rocks or branches, dating to the late Hallstatt Period. Some of these contained simple wooden idols, one of which had a decorated neck-ring. A large loom weight indicated a female divinity. Painted pottery shows typological kinship with Rhineland examples.
La Tène Period
During the middle and late La Tène Period, a small lake developed at the site, and over centuries became the focus of sacrifice there: numerous wooden idols of varying form were set up at the edge of the water until the Migration Period. Cultic observances continued in the late Migration Age after the lake shrank as a result of sedimentation.
During the La Tène Period, the descendants of the Hallstatt Period inhabitants were affected by Celtic cultural influences. Apsoidal enclosures, as are found for example in the Trier temple area, became common. These enclosed altars made of blocks of sod or soil supported by wickerwork, with a tall post or a simple stick-figure cult image on the top. Cultic staffs used by the priests were associated with the altars. After a short time this Celtic-influenced arrangement was superseded by a "sacred place" with a phallus and a female forked-stick cult figurine—although Rudolf Simek has pointed out that fragmentary figurines from this site are in some cases interpreted as female on the basis of long hair and/or clothing, which may not have been so intended.Simek, p. 45. These represent cult places of Germanic migrants, whose pottery indicates that they came from the area of the rivers Oder and Warta.
Germanic Period 1st century BCE The Hermunduri appeared in northern Thuringia at the end of the 1st century BCE. They created a large circular cultic area at the site, with small enclosures, which also contained cultic posts and an image made from a forked stick. The cultic area underwent two periods of construction. At its centre was a large rectangular wooden altar with corner posts; numerous bones from sacrificed animals were found near it. Skull fragments from human sacrifices were found on the western edge of the cultic area. On its northern side were two unusual sacrificial sites with a sword set upright in the ground and a human skull. Tacitus mentions a conflict between the Hermunduri and the Chatti on the River Werra as having taken place at about this time. After the battle, which was won by the Hermunduri, sacrifices continued at the lake site.
Roman Period During the mid-Roman Period, use of the site focused on the veneration of various deities distinguished by their idols and attributes, which took place in shared circular shrines. In the 3rd century CE, this format was superseded by a single shrine, in which a wooden cult image of a goddess was placed near the altar.Photograph of the idol Plate 40a, Bruno Krüger, et al., ed., Die Germanen, Volume 2, facing p. 257. A sowilo rune found on a vessel may indicate her name. The figure shows Gallo-Roman influence and may be compared to Diana, to whom deer and swine were also sacrificed. A craftsmen's settlement at Haarhausen (Amt Wachsenburg) and sacrifices of oxen and offerings at the cemetery in Haßleben indicate influence on the Hermunduri via workers from the region of the Roman Limes. The shrine contained a coffin with a female skeleton inside; the grave was destroyed in the 4th century, possibly during the disturbances associated with the formation of the Thuringii. Migration Age