Prehistory of the city of Tübingen

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Panorama photo of the Kirchberg near Reusten

The prehistory of the city of Tübingen can be made tangible on the basis of material remains in the Tübingen region from the end of the Paleolithic Age . Since then, traces of human presence or settlement, with more or less long-lasting interruptions, have been reflected in almost all prehistoric periods. The Kirchberg near Reusten is of greater importance .

Paleolithic

The presence of Palaeolithic hunters and gatherers in today's Tübingen district is documented by only one secure site in the Katzenbachtal near Rottenburg , from where finds from the Magdalenian period , the most recent period of the Upper Palaeolithic , have come down under a rock overhang ( Abri ) . These are essentially bone artifacts (point with a simple line ornament on the edge), two perforated Gagat pearls , one perforated shell from the Mediterranean area, and tools made of flint such as blades or drills. The remains of large diluvial mammals, which were among the main hunting animals of Ice Age hunters, were found in the actual urban area of ​​Tübingen . B. Mammalian remains from the Käsenbachtal or a mammoth tooth from the Mühlstrasse.

Mesolithic

The subsequent Mesolithic , which went hand in hand with the beginning of the Holocene , brought with it a completely new type of flora in the form of extensive reforestation in Central Europe, in which pine and birch predominated, and were later interspersed with hazel and other deciduous trees. The herds of Ice Age cold steppe animals, such as wild horses , reindeer or mammoths , were deprived of their habitat due to the new climate , which resulted in a complete displacement of these species. More and more forest animals such as red deer , roe deer and wild boar took their place . The subsistence of those post-glacial people was still based on hunting and gathering, but more importance was attached to the at least seasonal fishing . From an archaeological point of view, this period is considered to be the heyday of so-called microliths , smaller, almost 1 cm wide and up to 3 cm long chips made of flint or quartz. Examples of such artifacts are known from Spitzberg , west of Tübingen, or from Hof ​​Einsiedel near Pfrondorf.

Neolithic

The distinguishing feature of Neolithic cultures is the change from wandering hunting cultures to sedentary farmers, which, starting from the Middle East, moved into southern Germany from 5500 BC. Makes noticeable. Along with the rural economy, there are now the first fired clay pots and, for the first time, cut stone tools. In the Tübingen district, the remains of the settlements, which concentrate on the loess loam areas in the west of the district, come to the fore, but there are also graves, such as one of the typical stool burials near Reusten . Neolithic tools (e.g. a rectangular stone ax or a broad scraper made of red radiolarite) came to light in the city of Tübingen to the west of the city. Furthermore, during railway work in the 1930s, ceramic settlement pits were cut. In the following, the presence of people in the form of tool finds, burials, house plans or settlement remains, e.g. B. those of the Rössener , the Schnurkeramischen or the Großgartacher culture . The use of the new raw material copper - in Central Europe from approx. 4000 BC. BC - serves as an indicator of the beginning of the Copper Age , an epoch that is in between the Neolithic and the subsequent Bronze Age. In the Tübingen district area, a settlement of that "transitional period" seems to have existed on the Kirchberg near Reusten.

Bronze age

The age of the Bronze Age owes its name to an alloy of copper and, for example, tin in a ratio of 9 to 1. This precious material offered a previously unimagined spectrum of new possibilities to manufacture jewelry or weapons, which in no way resulted in an end to the stone utensil industry. Along with bronze, the first evidence of the processing of gold appears in southern Germany, which is also found in the Tübingen district in the form of grave goods. Nevertheless, with the beginning of the Bronze Age, settlement activity in the Tübingen area seems to decrease, which is in contrast to a more dense settlement of the Swabian Alb.

Early bronze age

Copy of the so-called menhir from Weilheim near where it was found

In 1985, in the course of sewer work in the Weilheim district of Tübingen , an approximately 4.5 m high, two-sided decorated pillar made of parlor sandstone , the so-called Menhir von Weilheim was found. On the side that was originally oriented towards the west, five stick daggers arranged one above the other are depicted in the form of a flat relief. Based on these depictions of weapons, it is possible to date the stele to an advanced stage of the Early Bronze Age, which is underlined by the finds of an Alpine full-grip dagger from Reutlingen and, above all, a dagger blade of the Rottenburg type from the Early Bronze Age depot from Rottenburg am Neckar. The closest parallels to this can be found primarily in the area of ​​southwestern Switzerland and in this case can be seen as an indication of the contact between the Tübingen and the South Tyrolean region.

Middle Bronze Age

The middle section of the Bronze Age is also called the Barrow Bronze Age and is tangible in the district with two previously known sites in the form of burial mounds and one site in the form of a hilltop settlement on the Kirchberg near Reusten. Two individual finds have come down to us from the urban area itself - a ridge ax below the Tübingen weir, as well as a part of traditional costume.

Late Bronze Age

In the most recent part of the Bronze Age, the so-called Urnfield Age in southern Germany , there was a change in the mode of burial towards cremation of the dead with subsequent burial of the corpse in urns . So far, finds have come from settlements in the district, such as B. from the district Hailfingen, as well as from graves, z. B. from the actually Iron Age necropolis in "Geigerle" in Tübingen. The main part of the finds is clayware ( ceramics ), but individual finds in the form of metal, such as an Auvernier sword from a gravel pit in Kirchentellinsfurt, are also documented.

Iron age

The transition to the older Iron Age, the Hallstatt Age, is very fluid and may not represent an immediately noticeable cultural turning point. The use of iron , which began at the end of the Bronze Age , gradually comes to the fore, but here, too, a further use of conventional raw materials, such as bronze, can be noted . Graves are generally the most important sources for interpreting the material found. The selection of burial sites is often based on the locations of Urnfield-period necropolises , as can be seen from the example of the Hallstatt C-period Tübingen site in the "Geigerle" mentioned above. The shape of the grave is also only changing in stages and so cremation under the sometimes mighty burial mounds still dominates for this time. In the "Geigerle" stone rings with a diameter of 6 to 9 m were found that had been created around the burial mounds.

Hallstatt period

The Hallstatt burial mound of Tübingen-Kilchberg
Archaeological excavation of Celtic graves in Tübingen-Kilchberg. Recorded on September 13, 1968

The burial mound of Tübingen-Kilchberg , which was completely examined in the 1960s, shows both cremation and body burials - in the form of subsequent burials. The former was in the center of the hill and could be dated to the level Ha C / D1 on the basis of the pottery, while the subsequent burial represents the level Ha D2. In this context, anthropomorphic stone stelae, which are associated with the burial, are interesting. Almost characteristic of the burials of a social upper class of Hallstatt C is the resumption of the addition custom in the form of sword , or horse harness and carriage .

The presence of wagon components is documented in two burial mounds of the former necropolis on Waldhauser Höhe. There on the street with the misleading name At the Roman graves there are still 2 burial mounds, and it is assumed that there were around 45 graves there in the past. During excavations, 45 gold earrings and metal hub sleeves were found, which come from four-wheeled wagons that were buried as grave goods. A rough stone pillar is said to have once stood on one of the hills. Further groups of Hallstatt-era burial mounds were found in the Gewann Salzgarten and Gewann Schindhau , which are associated with a rampart in Burgholz. Near Lustnau there are burial mounds from the Hallstatt period in the Gewann Neubruch in Hägach and on the south-eastern edge of the Kirnberg as well as on the Buß near Hirschau. Individual finds are known from Hölderlinstrasse, near the Ammerhof .

The Wurmlinger Kapellenberg

Settlements of a Hallstatt period population can often only be verified indirectly in the Tübingen district, based on the burial sites. There are relatively few traces of the actual branches. When Entringen , the floor plan of a two-room house was exposed. In addition , traces of settlement dating from the transition from the late Hallstatt and early La Tène periods can be found on the Wurmlingen district, including the Wurmlinger Kapellenberg , a prominent topographical point. Settlement finds from the urban area are known from the Spitzberg and the edge areas of the Rammert .

La Tène time

The settlement areas of the district remained largely the same even during the Latène period . The custom of burying the dead in the form of body burials under burial mounds, which began during the Hallstatt period, was also continued during the early La Tène period. B. two burial mounds with pearls, iron swords and bronze rings from the early La Tène period from Dusslingen or about a body grave from the early La Tène period from Derendingen or several burials from Pfäffingen that extended into the middle La Tène period . From the area of ​​the settlements, the extensively examined late Hallstatt / early La Tène settlement of Rottenburg "Siebenlinden" is of greater importance. The branch founded during the late Hallstatt period (Ha D2 / 3) existed for a period of around 150 years and ended at the earliest during the LT B1 level. At the same time there were several reading finds from the Spitzberg mentioned above, west of Tübingen. Following the general tendency for southern Germany, open lowland settlements from the Middle to Late Latène period in the Tübingen district take a back seat. Settlement finds in the form of ceramics of level LT D1 from Tübingen-Kilchberg have been found in the immediate vicinity of the district town. The chronological classification is not absolutely certain, however, as certain stylistic elements still appear on ceramic fragments from early Roman military camps and settlements from the 1st century AD. The same applies to a comparable fragment of a vessel from Tübingen-Unterjesingen

The western corner of the late Celtic Viereckschanze at Hof Einsiedel near Pfrondorf

As a further evidence of settlement of the later Latène period, the wall-ditch facilities of so-called late Celtic square entrenchments are to be addressed, which have their temporal focus in the end of the Middle Latène period (LT C2) to the late Latène period (LT D). Recent studies on a number of Viereckschanzen within southern Germany make the interpretation of such facilities as cult sites no longer tenable and instead suggest a function as “centers of the rural settlement structure”. A late Celtic square hill is located near Hof Einsiedel , about 8 km east of Tübingen. The rectangular facility (area of ​​1.205 ha) has a small extension (annex) in the southwest and was examined in 1911/12. Two ring pearls made of glass as well as ceramic fragments from the late Latène period deserve special mention; but also Roman ceramics from the 2nd century AD. Finally, the finds of a total of four Celtic gold coins, so-called rainbow bowls from the Tübingen district should be mentioned, one of which was discovered in 1853 in the Tübingen city area, the exact location is unknown. They reflect the beginning of a money economy north of the Alps.

literature

  • The district of Tübingen. Official district description. Edited by the Baden-Württemberg State Archives Administration in conjunction with d. District of Tübingen (Stuttgart 1967).
  • K. Bittel, W. Kimmig, S. Schiek (Eds.) , The Celts in Baden-Württemberg (Stuttgart 1981).
  • J. Hald , The Iron Age in the Upper Gäu: Studies on the settlement history of Hallstatt and Latène (Stuttgart 2009).
  • M. Lenerz-de Wilde , considerations on the function of the early Bronze Age staff daggers. Germania 69, 1991, 25 ff.
  • Ch. Morrisey, D. Müller , Prehistoric and early historical fortifications 12. The ramparts in the Tübingen district. Atlas of archaeological site monuments in Baden-Württemberg (Stuttgart 2002).
  • R. Krause , An old grave find from the younger Early Bronze Age from Reutlingen. Notes on the Early Bronze Age of Southwest Germany. Fundber. from Baden-Württemberg 13, 1988, 199 ff.
  • H. Müller-Beck (Ed.) , Prehistory in Baden-Württemberg. (Stuttgart 1983) ISBN 3-8062-0217-6 .
  • H. Reim , An early Bronze Age stele from Tübingen-Weilheim. Archaeol. Excavations in Baden-Württemberg 1985 (1986) 81 ff.
  • H. Reim , The Early Bronze Age Menhir from Weilheim, City of Tübingen. In: J. Reischmann (ed.), 900 years of Weilheim. Ein Heimatbuch (1991) 55 ff.
  • G. Wieland (Ed.) , Keltische Viereckschanzen: Tracking down a riddle (Stuttgart 1999) ISBN 3806213879 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k The district of Tübingen. Official district description. Edited by the Baden-Württemberg State Archives Administration in conjunction with d. Landkreis Tübingen (Stuttgart 1967) pp. 157-160, p. 164, p. 168 and p. 174.
  2. ↑ Hansjürgen Müller-Beck (Ed.): Prehistory in Baden-Württemberg. Stuttgart 1983, p. 363 f.
  3. ↑ H. Reim , The Early Bronze Age Menhir from Weilheim, City of Tübingen. In: J. Reischmann (ed.), 900 years of Weilheim. Ein Heimatbuch (1991) 55 ff.
  4. ↑ R. Krause , An old grave find from the younger Early Bronze Age in Reutlingen. Notes on the Early Bronze Age of Southwest Germany. Fundber. from Baden-Württemberg 13, 1988, 199 ff.
  5. ↑ M. Lenerz-de Wilde , Considerations on the Function of the Early Bronze Age Staff Daggers . Germania 69, 1991, 25 ff.
  6. ↑ Philipp W. Stockhammer : On the chronology, distribution and interpretation of urnfield-era full-grip swords. Edited by Manfred KH Eggert and Ulrich Veit , Verlag Marie Leidorf
  7. ^ A b Jürgen Sydow: History of the City of Tübingen, Volume 1, Mohr Siebeck, 1974, Tubingen. Page 2–3.
  8. ↑ a b c d J. Hald , Die Eisenzeit im Oberen Gäu: Studies on the settlement history of Hallstatt and Latène times (Stuttgart 2009). P. 65ff, p. 143ff, p. 156f and p. 169f.
  9. ↑ H. Reinerth: A Hallstatt-C-level house near Entringen, in: Prehistorische Zeitschr. 16, 1925, 187-196.
  10. ↑ S. Albert and P. Schröter: A vessel fragment of the older band ceramics with saddle spiral from Ammerbuch-Entringen (Tübingen district). Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 3, 1973, 403–404.
  11. ↑ Ch. Morrisey, D. Müller , Prehistoric fortifications 12. The ramparts in the Tübingen district. Atlas of archaeological site monuments in Baden-Württemberg (Stuttgart 2002).
  12. ↑ a b G. Wieland (Hrsg.) , Keltische Viereckschanzen: a riddle on the trail (Stuttgart 1999) p. 119 and 174.