Breitenbach (archaeological site)

51.00765833333312.085105555556Koordinaten: 51 ° 0 ' 28 " N, 12 ° 5' 6" O

The archaeological place in near the village of Breitenbach in the castle district (Saxony- Anhalt) is an important representative of the Upper Palaeolithic. The outdoor storage area has been repeatedly visited and used more than 30,000 years ago from Anatomically modern humans. Based on typological studies of Breitenbacher equipment inventories is the find site of the oldest culture of the Upper Palaeolithic, Aurignacian, attributed. With an area of about 10,000 square meters Breitenbach is the largest open- air site of the Aurignacian in western Eurasia. The Fund Paleolithic horizon is overlain by a derived from the Neolithic settlement.

The Paleolithic find spot

Importance

The site Breitenbach is in many ways for the Study of Early Upper Palaeolithic of importance:

• During excavations in 2012 a mammoth ivory workshop was discovered, the oldest so far worldwide. This area is fundamentally different from the other Fund space areas and thus provides one of the earliest evidence of modern human spatial behavior.

• From the northern central Europe at the present time only a few aurignacienzeitliche free- known find sites. In addition to the finding place in Lommersum Breitenbach is the only fund space with a relatively well-preserved faunal inventory. Field sites is particularly suitable for the study of spatial behavior and land use strategies. However, the current state of research on frühjungpaläolithischen land use and Subsistenzverhalten relies almost exclusively on the inventories of cave sites in southern Germany (eg Voghelherd, Geißenklösterle and Hohle Fels ).

• The size and presumed function of the square Fund is unusual for the early Upper Paleolithic. The total area is estimated to be supportive to the results geoarchaeological soundings on 10,000 square meters. Find sites such magnitudes are otherwise known only from the Gravettian. Due to the size and the archaeological findings ( see below) appears the name of the Fund place as a "base camp" appropriate.

• Breitenbach is one of the most northerly - situated Aurignacian find spots. Aside from the main Aurignacian " innovation centers " of southern France, southern Germany and Austria it is in Breitenbach is a situated on the periphery of the Aurignacian ecumenism find site.

• As is within the Aurignacian young find site Breitenbach for research both for the transition from the Aurignacian to the Gravettian as well as for research into the origins of cultural modernity (younger Paleolithic ), the final development probably took place during the Aurignacian, of great importance.

Location

The village of Breitenbach is part of the municipality Wetterzeube in the castle district. The site is located on the " sawmill ", on the banks of the Aga, a right tributary of the White Elster, on coming from the northwest outcrop.

Discovery and research history

The site was discovered in March 1925 by Breitenbacher teacher Erich Tiersch and given the discovery on April 4, 1925 known in the Zeitz Latest News. Large quantities of bones were already come in the autumn of the previous year excavation of a timber stack position to light, but were disposed of. At first soundings (1925 ) by A. Goetze and H. Hess of weighting Dorff followed in 1927/28 large-scale excavations under the direction of N. Niklasson and F. Wiegers, which covers an area of 400 square feet examined and a stratigraphic sequence of geological and archaeological layers created. An illegal excavation, the finds were in 1958 sold to the Germanic National Museum, probably in 1930/31 took place. Away from sporadic soundings were no further field work until 2004. Since 2009, the Fund place by the Monrepos Archaeological research center and museum of human behavior evolution of Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz in cooperation with the State Office of Historic Monuments and Archaeology Saxony -Anhalt ( LDSA ) and the Archaeological Faculty of the University of Leiden is investigated.

Carbon datings

Radiocarbon datings put the age of the Breitenbacher Fund layer between 23.990 ± 180BP ( OXA - 11964 ) and 28,380 ± 170BP ( OXA - 11889 ). Calibrated ( with CalPal ) fell settlement between 30,824 and 26,883 ± ± 338BP 401BP. Probably the younger datings are however to explain whether due to contamination. Based on stratigraphic Compare Breitenbach seems to be dated to the end of Aurignaciens since the earliest Central European Gravettian inventories occurred before 30,000 carbon years.

Device inventory

The Breitenbacher device inventory is made of Baltic Flint. The inventory consists of approximately 5762 artifacts, of which 737 were approached as tools. The most common Pricks (46% ), various scratches (25.4% ), and other " less standardized forms " (25% ) occur. Among the added stone tools are still some processed bone and organic devices. Furthermore, there are still pieces of jewelry before: among them are several perforated arctic fox - Canini, a verse Instant with parallel notches rib fragment and a piece of worked ivory to call

Function of the square Fund

As already mentioned, the spatial extent of the Fund space is unusually large and has a base camp comparable. Also, the part 12 to 20 centimeters powerful, laced with burnt bones found in layer indicates an intensive settlement action. Furthermore, say the introduction of large stone blocks and sandstone slabs as well as the presence of pits and hearths for intense, lasting for a long time settlements. In addition, there are notes on spatially differentiated activity zones, which probably served as centers for specific activities, such as four to as " blow spaces " designated Flint concentrations and a significantly spatially limited " concentration of finds to a tusk around "

Faunal

Breitenbach originally acquired by the mammoth remains awareness highlighted in the literature as the mammoth hunters station. However, recent studies have doubts on this interpretation, as the mammoth remains, for the most part composed of ivory teeth and do not indicate, necessarily on the hunting of mammoths. Horse and reindeer are also present in large quantities - woolly rhinoceros, red deer, hyena, wolf, arctic fox, arctic hare, cave lion and the remains of a crow bird close the previously identified range of faunas from. Since the previously investigated bone minimal predator bites have and occur almost exclusively in the archaeological horizon, it can be assumed that there is in the majority of these faunal remains ( with the exception of mammoths ) is the prey of the Aurignacian hunters.

The Neolithic settlement

A settlement of the Neolithic Linear Pottery culture (about 7.500 to 5.500 BP) was discovered by H. Hess of weighting Dorff at trial trenches in 1927/28. Hess of weighting Dorff described surface finds in the form of fragments, as well as the outlines of several " living pits ". Furthermore, larger amounts fragments of pottery and stone axes were recovered. The Neolithic settlement is being investigated by the State Office of Historic Monuments and Archaeology Saxony- Anhalt.