Altheimer Group

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The Altheimer group (also Altheimer culture ) is a “cultural phenomenon” of the late Neolithic between 3800 BC. BC and 3400/3300 BC The term was coined in 1915 by the prehistorian Paul Reinecke , after the earthworks in Altheim near Landshut ( Lower Bavaria ) that were discovered in 1911 and excavated in 1914 . The main distribution area is in Lower Bavaria and the southern Upper Palatinate , but the distribution extends in the west to the Lech and in the east to the Inn .

The prehistoric settlement Pestenacker , community of Weil, is of outstanding importance due to the conservation conditions .

Identification of the Altheimer Group

Sketch of typical Altheim ceramics

The most important characteristic of the Altheim group is - as in the entire Neolithic - the ceramics (see sketch). Unadorned vessels with fingertip or arcade edge strips and silt are typical.

The flint tools of the Altheim culture often consist of core devices, ie the tool is made from the flint blank and not from a cut. Large sickle blades made of slab hornstone from the mining area near Baiersdorf (district of Riedenburg ) were used for the harvest , which are a technical innovation compared to the otherwise common composite sickles.

The graves of the Altheim group are hardly known. It is believed that a large part of the population was buried in a way that is no longer detectable today. In Ergolding -Fischergasse was Stool grave of a man and Stephansposching two Stool and a cremation found.

While artefacts made of copper in the previous Münchshöfen culture still represent isolated imports from the Lengyel culture , the Altheim culture was in an exchange network with northern Alpine copper smelters from the Mondsee culture . The reciprocal trade network can be proven by imports of Baiersdorfer plate silex in sites of the Mondsee culture. In Altheim, one of the rare hatchets made of alpine copper was found in connection with the Altheim culture.

Settlement

Altheim earthworks

The majority of the more than 200 known sites are settlement sites on mineral soils. Some are surrounded by moats.

Trench systems are generally very common in the early Neolithic. The earthworks often accompany a group of settlements and thus possibly represent the center of a settlement community. These earthworks were mostly built on the edges of terraces or slopes. Up to three trenches (usually trenchless on the slope side) delimit a trapezoidal to rectangular area. However, a clear interpretation of the Altheim moat systems has not yet been achieved.

Mineral soil settlements

Some other sites of the Altheimer Group are:

Wetland settlements

In addition to settlements on the usual mineral soils, so-called wet soil settlements are now also appearing for the first time on lake shores or islands and in moors:

  • Not far from Landshut one came across the settlements of Ergolding- Fischergasse and Essenbach-Koislhof.
  • In the Loosbachtal, also called the valley of the lost brook , near Landsberg am Lech , the three valley floodplains can be found on a distance of only three kilometers: Pestenacker-Nord; Pestenacker , Weil municipality; Unfriedshausen near Walleshausen , community of Geltendorf .
  • Merching-Stummenacker, another previously damp settlement, was discovered just twelve kilometers to the north.
  • The island settlement of Kempfenhausen in Lake Starnberg should also be mentioned.

Thanks to the settlement in wetlands, timber, plank paths, wattle fences and in Pestenacker even textiles (e.g. a pointed hat) have been preserved. These finds allow much more information about the settlement and chronology.

House building

The houses built on mineral floors have left no traces. Only pits could be detected, which are interpreted as earth cellars.

Finds from the wetland settlements provide an insight into the building structures. The houses of the Unfriedshausen and Pestenacker settlements are best preserved. These are on average about 4 m wide and 8 m long. The foundation consisted of wooden beams in the front area and birch branches, straw and dung in the rear area. The actual floor - clay screed - was applied to this foundation.

Food bases

In Pestenacker, cattle, sheep / goats, pigs and dogs were identified as pets. Due to the high number of horse bones, it was long assumed that they were already domesticated animals. However, recent studies could not support this assumption. The bones come from relatively small wild horses that were hunted for food supplements in addition to red deer, wild boar, various species of birds and fish, bears, beavers and even turtles.

literature

  • Jürgen Driehaus , The Altheim Group and the Young Neolithic in Central Europe , Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum zu Mainz, 1960.
  • Alexander Binsteiner , The deposits and mining of Bavarian Jura chimneys and their distribution in the Neolithic of Central and Eastern Europe , Yearbook of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz, 52, 2005, 43-155.

Web links

Commons : Altheimer Gruppe  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Reinecke: Altheim (Lower Bavaria). Fortified Neolithic settlement. 1915
  2. ↑ Guntram Schönfeld: The excavation in the young Neolithic valley floor settlement of Pestenacker, Ldkr. Landsberg am Lech, and its settlement archeological aspects. - Reports RGK 71, 1990, pp. 355-380
  3. ↑ Guntram Schönfeld : The ancient humid settlement of Pestenacker. In: Report of the Bavarian Land Monument Care, 50, 2009. Munich, 2009, pp. 137–156. ISBN 978-3-7749-3635-5
  4. ↑ Barbara S. Ottaway: Ergolding, Fischergasse - a wetland settlement of Altheim culture in Lower Bavaria. - Material booklets on Bavarian prehistory A 68. Kallmünz / Opf., Lassleben, 1995