Niederbieber site

Coordinates: 50 ° 27 ′ 34 "  N , 7 ° 28 ′ 7"  E

Niederbieber site​

Germany

The Paleolithic Niederbieber site in the Neuwied Basin is one of the most important archives of the Federmesser groups at the end of the last Ice Age . With an excavated area of ​​almost 1000 m², Niederbieber is one of the largest investigated settlement areas of the Late Paleolithic . The remains of the settlement are extremely well preserved because they were protected under the fallout of the Laacher See volcano. High-resolution and comprehensive archaeological analyzes revealed important insights into human life at the end of the Ice Age.

location

The find area is on the Middle Rhine , on the northeastern edge of the Neuwied Basin, in the urban area of Neuwied ( Rhineland-Palatinate ), north of the Niederbieber district.

Discovery and history of research

The discovery of the site results from the activities of the regional basalt and lava industry , which in the autumn of 1980 industrially mined volcanic deposits (so-called pumice ) on a terrain spur about 30 m above the Wiedtal for the production of building materials. The pumice came from the massive eruption of the Laacher See volcano, which, according to current dating, was around the year 10,966 BC. Took place. The volcanic deposits, which are up to 40 m thick in the vicinity of the crater, sealed the entire Neuwied Basin and beyond the underlying late Ice Age Allerød surface in a few days and thus preserved them over the millennia. Below the pumice layer, which is up to one meter thick, there were several scattered finds of burned and unburned artefacts left behind by hunters from the late Ice Age on the exposed surface in Niederbieber .

From 1981 to 1988 and 1996 to 1999 extensive excavations were carried out in Niederbieber by the Archaeological Research Center Monrepos of the RGZM and the Archaeological Monument Preservation of Koblenz . In total, an area of ​​almost 1000 m² was examined.

Dating

The settlement remains in Niederbieber are consistently and very precisely assigned to the time of the late Paleolithic pen knife groups using various methods. The settlement must have taken place a few years to a few decades before the Laacher See volcano erupted:

• The finds and findings were on the late Ice Age terrain surface, exactly under the pumice deposits of the Laacher See volcano, which dictate a so-called terminus ante quem for Niederbieber : The settlement must have occurred before the Laacher See eruption, i.e. before 10.966 BC. Be done.
• Radiocarbon dates (14 C method) on bones in areas II and III were converted into calendar years using the Calpal calibration program to approx. 11,100 years BC. Chr.

Furthermore, the shapes of the back tips found in Niederbieber (stone arrowheads) allow a relatively chronological classification. They correspond to the classic back peaks of the Allerødzeit on the Middle Rhine.

Special finds and findings

Arrow shaft straightener

An arrow shaft straightener made of reddish sandstone was discovered during excavations in Area II in 1981. The 71 × 34 × 22 mm piece is an outstanding object from the Niederbieber site, both in terms of the engravings on the back and in terms of its function. The arrow shaft pairs used were used for sanding wooden arrow shafts and in addition to the characteristic stone device types (spring diameter) of the Upper Paleolithic an indirect indication of the incipient at this time using arrow and bow as a hunting weapon. In Niederbieber, the arrow shaft straightener provides additional evidence for the manufacture or repair (hafting & retooling) of hunting weapons. The unusual ornamentation of the arrow shaft straightener with stylized female figures of the Gönnersdorf type is one of the rare examples of the artistic creation of this time. Stylistically, the engravings tie in with the art of the late Upper Palaeolithic and thus provide a unique indication of the continued existence of this tradition.

The so-called retouching depot of Niederbieber was documented during the excavations of area III in 1981. In the north of the concentration of finds, five elongated pebbles of clay slate lying close together were found. These are so-called retouchers who show characteristic grain fields at the respective ends, as they are created when processing (retouching) stone tools.

Important finds are exhibited in the Museum for the Archeology of the Ice Age of the Archaeological Research Center Monrepos of the RGZM ( Monrepos Castle, Neuwied ).

Results of the archaeological investigations

The archaeological investigations of the Niederbieber site from the late Ice Age yielded important new insights into the life of people at the end of the Ice Age as well as the environment ( flora and fauna ) and the climatic conditions during the Allerød period on the Middle Rhine. The animal species identified here such as B. Moose , red deer , horse , wild boar and beaver indicate a humid, temperate, Atlantic climate similar to, but somewhat cooler than today, during the late Ice Age settlement period. Together with the found botanical remains of mostly birch , willow , poplar , spruce and pine , a light forest with open areas can be assumed.

In the excavation area there were a total of 20 individual finds in roughly the same stratigraphic position. They are mainly made up of stone tools or the waste from their manufacture and bone remnants from the hunted prey. After analyzes of the stone artifacts and GIS-supported investigations of their distribution, these accumulations of finds are interpreted as short-term workplaces for late Ice Age hunters. All find concentrations are clearly separated from each other; their density of finds decreases in the peripheral areas. Spatial analyzes of these workplaces show a similarly structured structure. At least two opposing zones of maximum find density are separated from each other by an area that is almost free of stone artifacts. In the area with little foundations, there are mainly burnt remains of fauna and silices . Therefore they are interpreted as no longer preserved and apparently only operated for a short time. Several matches of stone artifacts from different concentrations make it probable that the workplaces coexisted at the same time. Back tips from scratches and burins dominate among the Niederbieber stone tools. Back tips are interpreted as projectile tips that were attached to arrow shafts using birch pitch . The various stone raw materials for tool manufacture come from both local resources ( tertiary quartzite , chalcedony and silica slate ) and from supraregional sources such as B. Flint (Maas area and southern Ruhr area), silicified claystone (Saar-Nahe basin) and shell limestone from the Saarland-Lorraine border area. The procurement of these rocks indicates a high mobility of the people, because the areas of origin of the raw materials are up to 150 km away from Niederbieber. From these raw materials, people made tools that they needed for hunting, but also for everyday life. The spatial analyzes of the various artefact categories and the investigations of the stone tool inventory yielded important insights into the subsistence strategy of the hunters. Hunting preparations were made in Niederbieber, v. a. through the manufacture or repair of hunting weapons (detention & retooling). Work on the follow-up to the hunt (food preparation, preparation of usable faunal parts such as fur, antlers, bones and tendons) was also carried out by smaller teams of hunters in Niederbieber. Most of the activities of the late Ice Age hunters took place in the open air, but there are clear indications of some concentration of finds by Niederbieber that suggest the existence of simple dwellings.

context

The Middle Rhine Valley is a unique archive for research into the Central European Paleolithic. Thanks to favorable conservation conditions and intensive research by the Monrepos Archaeological Research Center of the RGZM, a large number of important sites have been discovered and researched. Only on this basis can entire settlement and land use systems of the Ice Age hunter-gatherers be reconstructed.

In the context of other late Paleolithic sites in the region such as Andernach, Urbar and Kettig, the analyzes in Niederbieber resulted in new models of the settlement system of the Federmesser groups on the Middle Rhine. Accordingly, in addition to special hunting camps such as Niederbieber, there were apparently long-term base camps such as B. Chained. In particular, the differences in the distribution of stone artifacts, a different weighting of the proportions of certain stone tools and the presence of broken quartz pebbles ( cooking stones ) within the Kettig site indicate a longer stay and thus a different use. The majority of the group, perhaps the elderly and children, stayed in the base camps, while specialized hunting teams from the hunting camps provided the remaining members of the group with food and raw materials.

literature

• Baales 2002: M. Baales, The late Paleolithic site Kettig. Investigations into the settlement archeology of the Federmesser groups on the Middle Rhine. Monograph of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz 51 (Mainz 2002).
• Baales 2005: M. Baales, Archeology of the Ice Age - Early People on the Middle Rhine and Moselle. Archeology on the Middle Rhine and Moselle 16 (Koblenz 2005).
• Gelhausen 2007: F. Gelhausen, distribution pattern of selected find concentrations from the all-time discovery site Niederbieber, City of Neuwied (Rhineland-Palatinate) - excavations 1996–1999. Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz 54, pp. 1–23.
• Gelhausen 2009: F. Gelhausen, The concentration of finds in area II of the all-time discovery site Niederbieber, City of Neuwied (Rhineland-Palatinate). Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz 56, pp. 1–38.
• Gelhausen 2011: F. Gelhausen, settlement pattern of all-time penknife groups in Niederbieber, city of Neuwied. Monograph of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz 90 (Mainz 2011).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ M. Baales / O. Jöris / M. Street / F. Bittmann / B. Weninger / J. Wiethold: Impact of the Late Glacial Eruption of the Laacher See Volcano, Central Rhineland, Germany. Quaternary Research 58, (2002), pp. 273-288
2. ↑ See:
   • M. Bolus: The settlement findings of the Late Ice Age discovery site Niederbieber (City of Neuwied). Monograph of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz 22. Mainz 1992.
   • Gelhausen 2007: F. Gelhausen, investigations into the settlement pattern of the all-time penknife groups in Niederbieber, town of Neuwied (Rhineland-Palatinate). Unpubl. Dissertation, University of Cologne.
   • Gelhausen 2007: F. Gelhausen, distribution pattern of selected find concentrations from the all-time discovery site Niederbieber, City of Neuwied (Rhineland-Palatinate) - excavations 1996–1999. Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz 54, pp. 1–23
   • Gelhausen 2011: F. Gelhausen, settlement pattern of all-time penknife groups in Niederbieber, city of Neuwied. Monograph of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz 90 (Mainz 2011).
3. ↑ See:
   • Baales 2002: M. Baales, The late Paleolithic site Kettig. Investigations into the settlement archeology of the Federmesser groups on the Middle Rhine. Monograph of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz 51 (Mainz 2002).
   • M. Baales / O. Jöris / M. Street / F. Bittmann / B. Weninger / J. Wiethold: Impact of the Late Glacial Eruption of the Laacher See Volcano, Central Rhineland, Germany. Quaternary Research 58, (2002), pp. 273-288.
   • M. Bolus: The settlement findings of the Late Ice Age discovery site Niederbieber (City of Neuwied). Monograph of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz 22. (Mainz 1992).
   • F. Gelhausen (2007): Investigations into the settlement pattern of the all-time penknife groups in Niederbieber, Neuwied (Rhineland-Palatinate). Unpubl. Dissertation, University of Cologne.
   • F. Gelhausen: Settlement patterns of all-time penknife groups in Niederbieber, Neuwied town. Monograph of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz 90 (Mainz 2011).
4. ^ Gelhausen 2009: F. Gelhausen, The concentration of finds in area II of the all-time discovery site Niederbieber, City of Neuwied (Rhineland-Palatinate). Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz 56, pp. 1–38.
5. ↑ Bosinski et al. a. 1982: G. Bosinski / R. Tan. Turner / P. Vaughan: A late Paleolithic retouching depot from Niederbieber / Neuwieder Becken. Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 12, 295–311.
6. ↑ Gelhausen et al. a. 2004: F. Gelhausen / JF Kegler / S. Wenceslas: Huts or Heaven? Latent traces of habitation in the late Paleolithic of Central Europe. Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz 51, 1–22.
7. ↑ See:
   • Gelhausen 2007: F. Gelhausen, investigations into the settlement pattern of the all-time penknife groups in Niederbieber, town of Neuwied (Rhineland-Palatinate). Unpubl. Dissertation, University of Cologne.
   • Gelhausen 2007: F. Gelhausen, distribution pattern of selected find concentrations from the all-time discovery site Niederbieber, City of Neuwied (Rhineland-Palatinate) - excavations 1996–1999. Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz 54, pp. 1–23
   • Gelhausen 2011: F. Gelhausen, settlement pattern of all-time penknife groups in Niederbieber, city of Neuwied. Monograph of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz 90 (Mainz 2011).
   • Gelhausen 2009: F. Gelhausen, The concentration of finds in area II of the all-time discovery site Niederbieber, City of Neuwied (Rhineland-Palatinate). Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz 56, pp. 1–38.
   • Gelhausen 2011: F. Gelhausen, Subsistence strategies and Settlement systems at the Federmesser-Gruppen Site of Niederbieber (Central Rhineland, Germany). In S. Gaudzinski-Windheuser , O. Jöris, M. Sensburg, M. Street, E. Turner (eds.), Site-internal spatial organization of hunter-gatherer societies: case studies from the European Palaeolithic and Mesolithic. Papers submitted at the session (C58) "Come in and find out: opening a new door into the analysis of hunter-gatherer social organization and behavior". 15th U.I.S.P.P. conference in Lisbon, Portugal, September 2006. Mainz, Verlag des Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseums Mainz.