Archaeology in Baden-Württemberg
  Excavations at the Deserted Medieval Village of Vöhingen

The Deserted Medieval Village of Vöhingen

Overview The deserted medieval village of Vöhingen lay in what is now the commune of Schwieberdingen in the administrative district of Ludwigsburg. The Department of Medieval Archaeology, Landesdenkmalamt Baden-Württemberg has been digging here since 1990.
 
The earliest settlement in Vöhingen appears to have been in the 6th Century, indicated both by the place name (personal name and "ingen" ending) and by finds of this period. A document from 779 cannot without some doubt be shown to name Vöhingen; the first certain mention of the village comes in the first decade of the 13th Century.
During the course of the 14th Century many documents relating to the splitting up of property indicate a gradual desertion of the village. The finds-spectrum reinforces this, and research so far shows little settlement here after 1300.
A churchs in Vöhingen is also documented.Its patron saints, the oriental soldier-saints Sergios and Bacchos, were revered in the monastery of Weissenburg. From the mid-9th Century this monastery owned a manor on the nearby Asperg, and it is likely that this is the origin of the unusual dedication of the Vöhingen church.
To date several areas of the village, including the church and around 550 burials, have been excavated. The following pages are designed to give a short overview of the current state of research.
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