Apart from the castle hill on the Löcknitz river [MAB 9] another two ringforts with large earthworks and log houses were investigated in the context of the DFG project “Slavs on the lower Middle Elbe” in 2005-2008. They provided insights into Slavic and Early German fortifications, Early to High Medieval political history, and the pottery which displayed westerly influences only after A.D. 1150. The circular fort at Lenzersilge was only used from the 820s to 850s according to radiocarbon dating so that it forms an important chronological anchor. The impressive oval ringfort at Lenzen-Neuehaus had three phases, starting with a large ringfort of type Feldberg from A.D. 800-850, followed by a small Middle Slavic circular fort of A.D. 870-930, i. e. to around the Battle of Lenzen in A.D. 929, and finally an Early German motte-and-bailey castle with a post building from the later 12th century until ca. A.D. 1250. The earliest complexes were built during the Frankish Saxon Wars. From the 940s onwards, a successor castle was constructed on Lenzener Burgberg, while Neuehaus was only reactivated after the Wendish Crusade of A.D. 1147. Finds attest that these strongholds were permanently occupied residences, no refuges.weiterlesen