Prehistoric settlement Pestenacker
The prehistoric settlement of Pestenacker is located in the boggy floodplain of the "Lost Brook" near Weil - Pestenacker in the Landsberg am Lech district in Upper Bavaria . The settlement site of the Neolithic Altheim group was discovered by chance in 1934. From 1988 to 1993 and from 2000 to 2004 the site was archaeologically examined under the direction of Guntram Schönfeld . Today the site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Friends of the Prehistoric Settlement Pestenacker e. V. began in 1993 with the construction of a small open-air museum south of the settlement area.
history
During a work assignment of the Reich Labor Service in 1934, a wooden foundation of a prehistoric small house, interpreted as a “large raft ” , was found on the occasion of a stream straightening . The excavation was disregarded and disposed of.
The straightening of the stream led to a lowering of the groundwater level by around 60 to 70 centimeters. The importance of the Neolithic culture layers, which was only recognized later, has since been exposed to bacterial decomposition in their upper part .
Because of this acute danger, the German Research Foundation and the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation financed the uncovering of the wetland settlement from 1988 onwards . The first excavation campaign ended in 1993 with the end of the funding program. In the same year a support association was founded. The investigations continued between 2000 and 2004, but were subsequently discontinued for financial reasons.
settlement
The history of the settlement can be dendroarchaeologically up to the year 3496 BC. Trace back to BC. The village burned down just four years later, but was partially rebuilt. After another 15 years, the buildings appear to have been abandoned.
After a settlement interruption, the area was built up again and its settlement structure was evidently changed significantly. The more recent traces of settlement have, however, been largely destroyed.
description
The excavations show a settlement of up to 19 small houses, which was protected by a rectangular wattle fence (50 × 35 m). To the north of an approximately 2.20-meter-wide boardwalk were two rows of gable-free, parallel wooden houses, south of the main path was another row of houses. The eaves sides of the buildings collided.
From the edge of the valley, a path paved by posts led in a direct line to the settlement.
The fire rubble from the western buildings suggests that these dwellings were plastered with clay on the inside . The debris from these houses has remained untouched in the peat , as they were no longer built when the settlement was rebuilt.
The unusual preservation conditions in the fen made it possible to document an unusually powerful, up to 1.20 meter thick, Neolithic cultural layer. Numerous slaughterhouse waste and plant remains are evidence of the residents' eating habits. The stumps of the walls of the buildings preserved in the oxygen-poor moor and the preserved clay floors allow a reconstruction of the residential buildings with their interior layout.
Numerous micro-discoveries of production waste point to various functional areas, for example in the manufacture of flint equipment . The most significant individual finds were a dagger and textile remains.
The site is at great risk due to the lowering of the groundwater level and partly modern buildings. In the medium term, one of the most important prehistoric sites in Bavaria is in danger of being lost. The urgently needed continuation of scientific research into the important settlement area is currently not possible due to the generally tense budget situation.
The small open-air museum south of the settlement area is still in the construction phase. Some finds are presented in the attached museum.
The Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation lists the ground monument as a settlement of the Altheimer Group under monument number D-1-7831-0057. The settlement has been part of the UNESCO project Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps since 2011 .
In the vicinity of the site, two further settlements of the Altheimer group in the Loosbachtal (“Lost Bach”) near Pestenacker-Nord and Unfriedshausen ( Geltendorf ) are proven. Cremation graves and probable traces of settlement from the Roman imperial era as well as a cremation grave of unknown period were found only a little to the northeast (monument number D-1-7831-0056). Some other traces of settlement in the area could not yet be assigned to a specific time.
literature
- Ortrud Bürger: Prehistoric landscape studies using the Pestenacker case study - pollen analysis of the history of vegetation and settlement in the old moraine area between Lech and Isar (Bavarian Alpine foothills) . Munich 1995 (print edition of the dissertation, Univ. Munich, 1994). ISBN 3-930613-20-4
- Sibylle Bauer: Pestenacker and its palisades: new buildings and repairs from the years 3546/45 - 3495 BC Chr. In: The Archaeological Year in Bavaria 1991 . 1992, p. 50 ff.
- Sibylle Bauer: Settlement archaeological investigations in the Bavarian old moraine area. The Pestenacker settlement . In: Report of the Roman-Germanic Commission 71 . 1990, p. 334 ff.
- Sibylle Bauer: Forest use in the Young Neolithic using the example of Pestenacker / Upper Bavaria . In: Alt-Thüringen - annual publication of the Thuringian State Office for Archaeological Monument Preservation , 30, 1996. S. 117 ff. Online
- 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 , ISSN 0075-2835
Individual evidence
Web links
Coordinates: 48 ° 8 ′ 43.8 " N , 10 ° 56 ′ 54.5" E