Hill settlement on the Wartenstein
The prehistoric hilltop settlement on the Wartenstein is located on the Wartenstein in the municipality of Krottendorf-Gaisfeld in the Voitsberg district . It belonged to the Cham culture or can at least be assigned to its immediate environment. According to the current state of knowledge, it would mark the southeastern border of this culture.
Geographical location
The remains of the hillside settlement were found near the summit of the Wartenstein, an east-northeast branch of the Koralpe . This rises between 400 and 450 meters above the surrounding valley floor and, near the summit, is divided into three terraced and almost flat rock steps with a total area of around 1000 m², stepped to the west and south-west. Below the top of the summit there are more or less flat areas as well as an approximately 12 meter high, abri-like rock fall. From the summit you have a panoramic view of the surrounding mountains, the foothills of the Styrian peripheral mountains and to the east and south-east into the Murtal . The vegetation near the peaks suggests an unusually favorable climate for this altitude.
History and description
Before the hill settlement on the Wartenstein was discovered, large multi-phase or fortified hill settlements were already known in the Voitsberg district and some of them were archaeologically investigated, but in contrast to the one on the Wartenstein, they were all in the immediate valley edge location and on significantly lower elevations. In 1992 Rudolf Illek was given some ceramic shards and stone tools that had been discovered while digging the foundation and a cable trench for a transmission station of the fire brigade on Wartenstein. At first, Illek was not sure about the assignment of the finds, as the Cham culture had not yet been proven in Styria, with the possible exception of a few similar litter fragments on the Kaiserköpperl near Rottenmann . The manufacturing technology of the ceramics as well as the vessel shapes and decorations speak in favor of the Cham culture, while the great distance of around 150 kilometers to the nearest reliable evidence of this culture in Bavaria speaks against it. The Wartenstein could represent the south-eastern border of the Cham culture or at least have been under the strong influence of this culture and thus explain the previously difficult to understand finds in the area of the Cham culture , which came from the Slovenian Ig-I group and the Vučedol culture.
Since 1994 the finds have been exhibited in a small archaeological collection in Alt-Kainach Castle near Bärnbach . The finds were presented again at a meeting of the Austrian Society for Prehistory and Protohistory in 1999 in Voitsberg . There were several inspections of the site, with a high density of finds in the entire summit area, which, however, suggests a single-phase settlement. Based on the finds discovered so far and the natural conditions, it is assumed that the hillside settlement had a diameter of around 50 meters. The terrain on the mountain does not seem to have been changed by humans. Two flat spots directly to the east and south of the summit could represent podiums .
literature
- Wolfgang Artner, Bernd Engelhardt, Bernhard Herbert, Rudolf Illek, Manfred Lehner: The Wartenstein near Ligist, Voitsberg district, a hilltop settlement with Chamer finds in Styria . In: The position of the end neolithic Cham culture in its spatial and temporal context: Erlangen, March 26-28, 1999 . 2001, ISBN 3-933474-17-5 , pp. 41-55 .
Web links
Coordinates: 47 ° 0 ′ 13.4 " N , 15 ° 10 ′ 50.5" E