Bad Breisig (Final Palaeolithic site)

The Spätpaläolithische Fund in Bad Breisig is the name given to a concentration of finds of Palaeolithic finds in a gravel wall near Bad Breisig.

History of Research

In the Golden Mile north of Bad Breisig the geologist and biologist Georg Waldmann 1999 discovered an archaeological concentration in a gravel pit wall. Due to typical artifacts, the finds are attributed to the Late Palaeolithic penknife groups. The concentration of finds preserved about half with a central hearth was autumn 2000 and spring 2001 from the research area Paleolithic to the Roman- Germanic Central Museum Mainz on behalf of the Archaeological Heritage (now the Cultural Heritage Rhineland -Palatinate ), Office Koblenz excavated. In addition to the archaeological record, the reference provided thousands of stone artifacts, some predominantly burned animal bones and a few charcoals. The evaluation of the site was carried out in a written instrument at the Institute of Prehistory and Early History of the University of Cologne master's thesis under the guidance of Gerhard Bosinski in close collaboration with the research department Paleolithic to the Roman- Germanic Central Museum at Monrepos (now Monrepos ) where the findings to are archived today.

Location, profile and time position

The archaeological site is located on the Schönbrunn lower terrace of the Rhine ( NT2) immediately to the west of about 10 m deep grounds stage for today's floodplain. The finds were embedded in a loam, which was formed above the late - allerødzeitlichen deposits of the Laacher See volcano. This volcanic deposits provided additional insights into the course of the late Pleistocene eruption of the Laacher See volcano ( about 11,000 BC). Due to the numerous Bimskörner of the Laacher See volcano is the formation of the Ebinger lower terrace ( NT3 ), which no longer exists in the area of ​​reference, prepared immediately after the outbreak. Thus, the formation of Hochflutlehme can be found in the transition region of the Allerøds to the Younger Dryas. The temporal position of human settlement is made on the stratigraphic position of the finds, and the still warm time wildlife and the slight dominance of conifers under the artbestimmten wood coals in the last section of the Allerød warm phase ( Greenland Interstadial 1a). From three 14C - datings falls only one in the transition region of the Allerøds to Younger Dryas, the other two samples gave results much younger, but are difficult to collect.

Archaeological results

From the time after the volcanic eruption no further Late Palaeolithic finds from the Middle Rhine area are so far apart from the reference to Bad Breisig known, but very well from the time immediately before the volcanic eruption. Among the legacies of these known complexes of the Fund penknife groups, the findings of Bad Breisig show no significant changes. The system (narrow concentration of finds a hearth) and use of reference ( work space, food preparation) as well as the use of raw materials (pine wood as a fuel, mainly red deer, occasional deer as a food source, especially tertiary quartzite, rare flint for the manufacture of stone tools ) and the origin of the stone materials (local to regional, rarely of at least 100 km away, then usually from the northwest ) the same in Bad Breisig same behavior from the period before the volcanic eruption. An indication of the time later development stage of the finds are single side and endretuschierte stone points and knives, which also occur in France during the late Allerøds and in the Younger Dryas to a guiding type ( the so-called Malaurie tips ). The spätpaläolithische reference of Bad Breisig thus allocated for the Middle Rhine area speedy return and resume usual behavior patterns späteiszeitlicher hunter-gatherers after the devastating natural disaster of the Laacher See eruption.