Babilonie

The Babilonie is a hillfort of the La Tène culture at a height of 255.6 metres above sea level on the northern edge of a rounded hill in the Wiehen Hills above the Lübbecke village of Obermehnen in the district of Minden-Lübbecke in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The name is derived from the Germanic baben in the lon i.e. "up in the woods".

Relief map of the Wiehen around the Babilonie

Babilonie
Bodendenkmal Babilonie
Obermehnen in the Wiehen
Babilonie above Obermehnen
Site information
Type	hill castle
Code	DE-NW
Condition	double rampart system, earthwork
Location
Babilonie
Coordinates	52°16′36″N 8°34′36″E
Height	255 m above sea level (NHN)
Site history
Built	300-150 B.C.
Materials	Wooden posts and palisade protected by an earthwork
Garrison information
Occupants	no categorisation

The wedge-shaped, double-rampart system, which descends from south to north with the slope, was investigated archaeologically in the first half of the last century, especially by Friedrich Langewiesche, who assessed it as a refuge castle.

Ceramic and even metalwork finds indicate that it belongs to the La Tène culture in the pre-Roman Iron Age, e vorrömische Eisenzeit, therefore probably part of an extensive trading network. The fortification has an area of over 12 hectares. The first mapping of this hilltop, which was exceptionally well-suited to the establishment of a large hillfort with its spring high up the hills, was carried out after 1880.^[1]

Ceramic finds from the Saxon-Frankish period have also been discovered.

According to Paul Höfer there is a legend that refers to Wittekind.^[2]

Sources

• Torsten Capelle: Wallburgen in Westfalen-Lippe. Herausgegeben von der Altertumskommission für Westfalen, Münster, 2010, ISSN 0939-4745, p. 22f. No. FBW 12 (Frühe Burgen in Westfalen Sonderband 1)