Münchshöfen culture

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The Münchshöfen culture is a early Neolithic culture with the core area in the Danube region of Bavaria , which dates from around 4500 BC. Began and around 3900/3800 BC. BC ended. It is an offshoot of the Lengyel culture , the core area of ​​which is in eastern Central Europe. The culture is divided into an "early", a "classical" and from 4250 BC onwards. Divided into a "late" phase. Because of the findings that were initially only known regionally, the late phase was sometimes referred to as "Facies Wallerfing".

Name-giving for the culture were the first finds in the years 1874-76 in a clay pit near Münchshöfen ( municipality Oberschneiding ) in the district of Straubing-Bogen . If one looks at the Münchshöfen culture in comparison to the previous cultures, the stitch band ceramics and the Oberlauterbacher group , then serious differences can be seen in the settlement activity.

Research history

The prehistorians Paul Reinecke described in 1900 based on the Fund places Münchshöfen, Glonn and the caves of Etterzhausen and Waltenhofen first time a "Münchshöfen type." Ten years later the archaeologist A. Schlitz pointed out that the vascular style of the Münchshöfen type has its core area in Lower Bavaria . However, he then placed the decorative style and the vessel shapes in a faulty cultural context. The archaeologist Walther Bremer saw for the first time in 1913 in the Münchshöfen type an extension or continuation of the Bavarian stitchery ceramics . In 1915, Paul Reinecke used foot shells to describe the Münchshöfen type as a regional group of the late Lengyel culture (phase IV). Ten years later, Oswald Menghin gave a brief characterization and description. 1927 founded Paul Reinecke the name Münchshöfen type so that the ceramic complex is part of the national Lengyel and thus only have group status. In 1938 Werner Buttler described the ceramics of the "Münchshöfener Group". The most comprehensive material was submitted by Lothar Süss in 1976, but only recorded the state of research up to 1959, the time of submission of his dissertation with the title “The Münchshöfen Culture in Bavaria”. Karl Böhm gave a review of "125 years (research history) Münchshöfen" in an essay from 1986.

Münchshöfen ceramics

A characteristic feature of the Münchshöfen culture is the flat-bottomed ceramics with a large variety of shapes and decorations. There are cup-shaped vessels, goblet vessels (also called hollow foot shells), transport vessels, shoulder vessels (named after a decorated "shoulder" in the upper region of the vessel), gigantic storage vessels, miniature vessels, spindle whorls, other clay objects, often of unknown use, and clay spoons. The decorations range from finely scratched furrow lines to diamond symbols and depictions of people. The ceramic itself is often lined with graphite , which sometimes had to be transported over long distances. The quality of the ceramic gradually deteriorates.

distribution

The distribution area of ​​the Münchshöfen culture extends from the Lower Bavarian hill country to the Bavarian Alpine foothills . In the south and south-east there are settlement areas in the postglacial valley floors of Salzburg and the adjoining Linz area. A mixture with the Lengyel culture has been proven archaeologically here . The settlement of the Münchshöfen culture extends further to the east beyond the Bavarian Forest and Bohemian Forest . In the north there are the Upper Franconian caves (Stempfermühlhöhle, Schäfersteinhöhle) as important sites as on the Goldberg on the edge of the Nördlinger Ries , which is the westernmost site of this culture. As in the previous older and middle Neolithic , a large number of the Münchshöfen culture settlements were excavated in river terraces (e.g. in Altenmarkt or Rinkam), on shallow stream slopes (e.g. Uttenkofen) or even in valleys. This means that these are located on former ceramic tape and Rössen settlement areas. There is therefore continuous access to loess-covered floors. But hill settlements can also be found. Worth mentioning here are the above-mentioned Goldberg of the Nördlinger Ries, the Schlossberg in the Mattersee and finally the Salzburg Rainberg .

Settlements

In contrast to their late and middle Neolithic predecessors, the Münchshöfen culture showed a slight expansion of the area of ​​the individual settlements. The longhouses , which were still common in the Middle Neolithic , are now being replaced by diffuse postings whose floor plans can only be guessed at. So far no buildings could be reconstructed. There is a presumption that the buildings were constructed in a triangular manner, as some postings indicate this and there are genetic connections to the eastern Lengyel culture .

Archaeologists found three different types of pits within the settlements:

  • The first type has a circular shape in the subgrade, the pits are cylindrical, conical or beehive-shaped in profile. It is believed that they were used as earth cellars or storage pits for grain. You can find these z. B. in Münchshöfen and Kothingeichendorf .
  • The second form is rectangular pits with vertically recessed walls. They too vary in size and shape. They are often interpreted as the remains of mining houses. You can find these in Enzkofen, for example . If the interpretation is correct, some settlements are farms.
  • The third group is made up of oval pits, the function of which has been proven to be clay extraction pits. The clay mined was used for house walls and floors as well as for the manufacture of stoves.

Funeral rite

While knowledge of Münchshöfen burials was still very poor before 1980 and only six burials were known up until then, this picture has changed fundamentally in the meantime. Today 54 sites with currently 121 distinguishable individuals are known, which makes the MK the Neolithic culture with the second most documented burials in Bavaria after the band ceramics . In addition to a single documented cremation in Mintraching- Tiefbrunn, there are a total of 35 individual burials in grave pits (as of 2009). Double burials ( e.g. Murr ) and multiple burials ( up to six individuals) also play a major role in the MK . There are also partial burials , the archaeological traceability of which is difficult and only in a few cases has been unequivocally documented. Secondary burials were described by Altdorf-Aich, where two children's skeletons were hidden in pits, apparently without any anatomical connection.

As regular grave forms of the MK there are left and right stool graves , as well as so-called back extensors. There are various cultural similarities to neighboring cultures of the Middle and Early Neolithic. Right, south-facing stools are seen as an influence of the Lengyel culture , they are also typical of the Rössen culture in the Saale region. Right-hand, but also left-hand, south-facing stools are typical of the contemporary Gatersleben culture . On the other hand, there are parallels for the east-west back stretchers with the Großgartacher group and the West German Rössen culture.

In addition, there are so-called “atypical” postures of the dead, which were often referred to as “perforations”. Sacrifices and ritual killings are conceivable, if only because not infrequently only individual parts of the body were buried.

Earthworks

Earthworks of the Münchshöfen culture show a relationship in shape and size to similar systems of the Michelsberg culture . The system of interrupted longitudinal pits with burials was documented in 2007 in the largest facility excavated to date, the earthworks of Riedling (Gde. Oberschneiding ). This construction principle had previously only been found in an earthwork in Oberhinkofen (district of Regensburg). The earth bridges and thus the ramparts and ditches, which are often pierced, prove that this type of earthwork cannot have been a defensive structure.

Stone tools

Stone tools are rarely found in Münchshöfen culture. If so, you will find flint blades or stone axes made of amphibolite . In addition, there are often artfully processed bone awl, scoops made from shoulder blades and other bone tools.

literature

  • Ingo Bürger: News about the late Münchshöfen culture in Bavaria. Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 34, 2004, pp. 177–192.
  • Ludwig Kreiner: New settlement findings of the Münchshöfen culture from the district of Dingolfing-Landau. In: K. Schmotz (Hrsg.): Lectures of the 16th Lower Bavarian Archaeological Day. Rahden / Westf., 1998, pp. 41-50.
  • Martin Nadler, Andrea Zeeb et al .: Southern Bavaria between linear ceramics and Altheim: a new structure proposal. In: Hans-Jürgen Beier (Ed.): The Rössener horizon in Central Europe. Contribution Ur.- u. Mornings Central Europe 6 (Wilkau-Hasslau 1994) pp. 127-189.
  • Erwin Neumair: Murr - an important central settlement of the Neolithic Münchshöfen culture. Archäologie im Landkreis Freising 5, 1996, pp. 9–89.
  • Lothar Süss: To the Münchshöfen group in Bavaria. In: Hermann Schwabedissen (Hrsg.): The beginnings of the Neolithic from the Orient to Northern Europe. Volume Vb, Cologne - Vienna (Böhlau), 1976, pp. 1–121.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ F. Blaich: Pilsting-Wiesen, A place of discovery of the late Münchshöfen culture and its relationship to neighboring cultures in the south-east. Bavarian prehistory sheets Vol. 60, 1995, pp. 81-132
  2. ^ HP Uenze: The Facies Wallerfing. A cultural group of the Young Neolithic in southern Bavaria. In: Arch. Denkm. in the district of Deggendorf. Deggendorf, 1989
  3. ↑ Paul Reinecke: A strange band ceramic vessel shape In: Prehistorische Zeitschrift 7, 1915, pp. 213–215
  4. ^ Paul Reinecke: The Münchshöfen type in the area on the right bank of the Rhine. In: The Bavarian Prehistory Friend 6, 1927, pp. 8-17
  5. ↑ L. Süss 1976, p. 1
  6. ^ Karl Böhm: 125 years of Münchshöfen. In: K. Schmotz (Hrsg.): Lectures of the 20th Lower Bavarian Archaeological Day . Rahden / Westf., 2002, pp. 227–244
  7. ↑ L. Süss 1976
  8. ↑ a b c d e f Daniel Meixner: Exception or rule - On the phenomenon of the Münchshöfen burials. In: K. Schmotz (Hrsg.): Lectures of the 27th Lower Bavarian Archaeological Day. Rahden / Westf., 2009, pp. 91–144
  9. ↑ a b Ludwig Husty, Gerhard Meixner: A new Münchshöfener Grabenwerk in Riedling, Gde. Oberschneiding, Lkr. Straubing-Bogen - First preliminary report on the archaeological excavations of 2007. In: K. Schmotz (Ed.): Lectures of the 27. Lower Bavarian Archaeological Day. Rahden / Westf., 2009, pp. 29-63

Web links

The Münchshöfen culture (website on "Danube Archeology")