Menhir group
The Hinkelstein Group (also known as the Hinkelstein Culture ) is an archaeological regional group from the Neolithic Age in southwest Germany. It lies at the transition between the linear ceramics and cultures of the Middle Neolithic and dates from about 5000 to 4800 BC. Chr.
Research history
The term menhir group goes back to the Worms doctor and local researcher Karl Koehl , who suggested the expression menhir type in 1898 . This name is reminiscent of the grave field discovered in 1866 when clearing a field to create a vineyard in Monsheim (Alzey-Worms district), which unearthed over 50 shallow graves. There originally stood a menhir about two meters high , which is called " Hinkelstein " in Rhineland-Hesse and is now kept in the castle courtyard of Monsheim. These finds were made by the Mainz prehistorian Ludwig Lindenschmitexamined and described in 1868. Hinkel is the Hessian expression for chicken; Hinkelstein is created out of ignorance or joke word for Hünenstein, as well as burial mounds popularly mutated occasional "chicken graves". A short time later it was K. Koehl who dealt with the associated residential complexes. The Hinkelstein group emerged from the late linear ceramic band . Around 1975 the archaeologist Walter Meier-Arendt examined the find material and processed it as a monograph that same year. He divided the Hinkelstein group into three phases.
chronology
The Hinkelstein Group can be dated chronologically to the transition from the early to the Middle Neolithic in Central Europe. It follows on from the younger linear band ceramics. In addition, the similarity of the range of shapes and motifs due to influences from the stitch band ceramics cannot be overlooked. In addition to these archaeological finds, the non-existence of hilltop settlements is an indication that they were looking for their beginning at this time. The same phenomenon can also be found in the Großgartacher culture and linear ceramics. They only set in with the older Rössen culture . Especially in south-west Germany, the Hinkelstein group with the late line ceramics and early Bohemian stitch ceramics (I. and II.) Should be placed in the same context. With the outgoing Hinkelstein group, the Großgartacher group was created. Both coexisted for a while.
distribution
The distribution area is in Central Europe. Like many other groups and cultures of the Middle Neolithic, the Hinkelstein group is mainly found near rivers. The areas of the upper and middle Rhine ( Rhine-Main area and Rheinhessen ) experienced their main settlement. In the area west of Lake Constance, between the Rhine and Main, there are further settlement areas. In addition, archaeologists uncovered sites of the Hinkelstein group at the mouth of the Main and in the Neckar basin . During the existence of this cultural group, there were also isolated scatterings beyond these areas. A related archaeological find in this context was provided by a finding in Cologne. What is striking is the almost congruent distribution in the areas of the previous culture of linear ceramics.
Settlement characteristics
Archaeologists have already been able to assign 77 sites to the Hinkelstein group. Were discovered while reading finds and singular pits. Nevertheless, no statements could be made about the size of the settlements and the appearance of the house shapes. The mine finds were mostly just inventory salvages. Only the use of clay can be mentioned for the house forms, which was not unusual for that time. In 1975 the archaeologist W. Meier-Arendt attempted to determine an approximate number of people living in a settlement based on a computational method in connection with the burial grounds found. He came to the conclusion that around 60 people must have settled in a village.
Material culture
The vessel shapes are still largely similar to the ceramic inventory, the ornamentation of the bowls is dominated by curved triangular patterns. The graves are characterized by rich jewelry from native freshwater mussels, locally occurring fossil mussels and deer grandson , while spondylus jewelry almost completely disappears.
Funeral rite
The graves found in 1866 were destroyed and destroyed when they were found. At first, the archaeologists could only rely on the statements of the construction workers digging there at the time. Further excavations gradually shed light on the grave situation. The dead were stretched out and found in a southeast-northwest orientation. The gaze of the buried turned to the northeast. Many of the graves were so-called flat graves . The dead were thus buried and buried at a depth of 70–90 cm. The buried were mostly given rich grave goods. In addition to ceramic vessels, archaeologists found a variety of decorative elements. This consisted of mussels, boar and deer teeth, stone and horn. Stone arm rings were found in Allensbach-Hegne and Mühlhausen-Ehringen. Many of the graves were located in areas of the following Großgartacher culture and the Alsatian line ceramic pottery. In the necropolis of Trebur , for example, the Hinkelstein group performs together with the Großgartacher culture.
literature
- Jean-Paul Farrugia: Hinkelstein, explication d'une seriation (Coll Interreg. Neol. 1997), pp. 467-517.
- Karl Koehl : New stone and early metal age grave finds near Worms , in: Correspondenzblatt für Anthropologie 31: 11-12 (1900) 137-142.
- Ernst Probst : Germany in the Stone Age , Munich 1986.
- Helmut Spatz: Hinkelstein and Großgartach - continuity and change . In Archeology in Germany 3/1996 pp. 8–13.
Individual evidence
- ^ Walter Meier-Arendt: The Hinkelstein Group. The transition from the early to the middle Neolithic in southwest Germany . Roman-Germanic research, De Gruyter, Berlin, 1975. ISBN 3-11-004758-6
- ↑ AiD 05/2018 p. 52