Remains from Neolithic to Iron Age found in southern Germany

An excavation at the site of a new industrial park in Vaihingen, southern Germany, has discovered nine prehistoric graves, settlement remains and hundreds of artifacts. The new discoveries range in date to as back as far as 5,000 B.C. through the Iron Age (ca. 800-450 B.C.).

The first historical reference to Vaihingen dates to the 8th century, but there have been settlements at its location on the river Enz going back at least 7,000 years. The site slated for development is in an area where traces of Neolithic Linear Pottery culture settlements have been found. (Linear Pottery peoples were the first to farm and raise livestock in what is now the German state of Baden-Württemberg.) The State Office for Monument Preservation in the Stuttgart Regional Council (LAD) commissioned archaeologists were engaged to recover any remains before construction.

The very first find was a Neolithic burial. The skeletal remains of an adult male in a crouched posture was discovered with a beautifully polished stone axe from the Late Neolithic period (ca. 2,800-2,500 B.C.). While the cause of death has yet to be determined, there is no evidence of a violent death and the man was laid to rest respectfully.

A second burial found in the field evinced very different circumstances. It is much later, dating to the early La Tène period (ca. 400 B.C.), and contains the remains of a woman and a girl who were not so much laid to rest as tossed in a pit.

The child lies across the woman’s leg, her limbs stretched out. Even the two experts can only speculate about what exactly might have happened to the two. “Perhaps they suffocated due to fermentation gases that developed during the decomposition of the supplies in the pit,” is one theory put forward by Felicitas Schmitt. What’s remarkable: Both were wearing jewelry from the Celtic period. The girl wore two bronze bracelets, the woman a necklace with blue glass beads strung on iron wire. These beads could have been easily made many thousands of years earlier – provided one had the necessary knowledge. Namely, from a mixture of silicon, quartz and alkali, sodium carbonate or potash and lime, which are fused together.

In addition to the graves, postholes from Middle Neolithic longhouses up to 20 meters (66 feet) long were discovered. Another notable find is a rare clay and stone cooking pit from the early Iron Age (800-450 B.C.) that archaeologists believe was used to cook meat.

Over 128 working days, the excavation uncovered 1,100 finds, an unusual density of finds over a field of this size. The materials are now being cleaned, conserved and studied. The bones will be radiocarbon dated and examined for age, gender and health markers.

* This article was originally published here