Bookreview/Summary

The Götschenberg near Bischhofshofen: A Pre- and Protohistoric Hilltop (copper mining) Settlement in the Salzachpongau

Maximilian O. Baldia

German Book Title:

Der Götschenberg bei Bischofschofen: Eine ur- und frühgeschichtliche Höhensiedlung im Salzachpongau.
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien. 1992

Table of Content (of the Original Book translated into English)

Foreword 7

The Götschenberg 9

The Neolithic Settlement                                                                       19
The Bronze Age Settlement                                                                   49
The Iron Age Settlement                                                                       59
The Roman and Late Antiquity Settlement                                             62
The Medieval Period                                                                            68
The Modern Period                                                                              84
The Gotschenberg in Light of the Local Settlement History                     86
Contributions                                                                                        111
Catalog                                                                                                169
Plates                                                                                                   193
Excavation Profiles                                                                               249
Plans                                                                                                    251

The Götschenberg is a small hill, decimated by millennia of copper mining and other activities. It is located 2 km south of Bischofshofen. Physical evidence of the hill's occupation starts in the Neolithic (Table 1), although the earliest agricultural tree felling phase in the area indicates Neolithic activity around 5800 cal BC.[1]

Table 1

Radiocarbon date from the Neolithic Layer

DATE Götschenberg GrN-11410 : 4720±60BP

68.2% confidence

3630BC (0.31) 3570BC

3540BC (0.69) 3370BC

95.4% confidence

3640BC (1.00) 3360BC

Click for Plot of C14 Date

The Bronze Age occupation has several dates, of which the earliest is calibrated in Table 2. There is also evidence of Roman and Medieval settlement. In the following I concentrate on the Neolithic, because of the Götschenberg's crucial significance in the early copper mining of Europe.

Table 2

Radiocarbon date from the Bronze Age Layer

DATE Götschenberg GrN-11412 : 3520±60BP

68.2% confidence

1940BC (1.00) 1750BC

95.4% confidence

2040BC (1.00) 1690BC

The earliest mining settlement belongs to the Neolithic. There are indications of maximally five huts and an assemblage of artifacts, implying that the miners were rather poor lot.

As Wahlmüller notes: "Of special interest for archaeologically proven mining activity is the use of wood" (Wahlmüller 1992:136). His pollen analysis, focusing on a combination of heterogeneous plants that indicate settlement, suggest the that the first forest clearing occurred around 5800 BC/5000±85 bc.* This date is too early for the archaeological evidence, but coincides with the general Bischofshofen spectrum. (Wahlmüller 1992:136-37). This period lasts until ca. 5400 BC.

A second clearing stage (Phase B) is dated 7000-4500 BP, during which fir/spruce (Picea) is "decimated" (Wahlmüller 1992:139). His Table 4 lists this period as 4500-4000 BC. At this point the first evidence of serial pollen occurs. This is followed by a dry period in which the marsh did not grow. If this dry spell was due to a climatic change that goes beyond the local area, it must be evaluated in relation to culture change in Central and perhaps even North Europe. Clearing stage C is thought to start around 3350 BC (erroneously listed as BP in Wahlmüller 1992 Table 4).

H. Moesta (pages 143-155) analyzes the metal artifacts. Those belonging to the Neolithic layer are a double-pointed copper needle, two large drops (prills), one fragment of sheet-copper, and one pottery crucible fragment. One copper fragment of unknown provenience probably also dates to this period. The copper probably came from copper oxide, i.e. malachite or azurite. He argues that the earliest production process used arsenical copper technology at the Götschenberg. He concludes that the adjacent sites of the Götschenberg, Mitterberg and Buchberg one can follow the entire evolution of the copper smelting process from the initial use of copper oxides via the more difficult to smelt pure copper sulfides, right down to the use of hard to smelt copper ores in the Middle Bronze Age.

There is unfortunately only one date for the Neolithic layer (Table 1). It is, nonetheless, noteworthy that the first copper in Scandinavia also appears at about this time (ca. 3600-3400 cal BC), suggesting at least to the reviewer that copper was beginning to be in wide spread demand throughout Central and Northern Europe at this time. This notion is bolstered by the newly discovered copper "manufacturing" site of Laskov, just below the oldest Central and North European stone-built enclosure of Rmíz, Moravia, where production must date to 3600-3400 cal BC, based on the pottery typology.

Typologically, the Götschenberg pottery indicates a closer connection with the Altheim culture of Bavaria than with the nearby Mondsee culture of Upper Austria (Map). Statistically the pottery neutron activation analysis by B. Ottaway (pages 117-120) indicates that the Götschenberg pottery forms its own group, dividing into a plain ware and decorated ware. The fine ware clay is different from that of the "cookware" and some stab-and-drag decorated sherds show a similarity with a Mondsee sherd from the town of See on the Mondsee (lake). M. Wilhelmy (pages 121-127) was able to locate the Mondsee clay source, but not the sources for the Götschenberg pottery.

Some feel that Mondsee is the source of copper for the Early Neolithic Funnel Beaker culture of Scandinavia. Although unable to provide a definitive answer, Lippert (p. 47) feels that the area around the Götschenberg was the source of much of the Mondsee copper. On the other hand, E. Pernicka (personal communication 1997) suggests that the source for Mondsee copper must be sought elsewhere. In this respect, it is of interest that the copper from Laskov is somewhat similar to that found in the Mondsee culture (Smíd et al. 1999). This points to an interesting trade relationships that needs further research.

Bibliography

M. O. Baldia, M. Smid, and E. Pernicka

1999 Neolithic/Eneolithic Copper technology, settlement and trade in Central Moravia. Paper presented at the international symposium: Prehistoric Technology and its Social Implications: New Theories and Methods, at the 1999 SAA Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, USA, March 25, 1999.

Wahlmüller, N.

1992 Beitrag der Pollenanalyse zur Besiedlungsgeschichte des Haidberges bei Bischofshofen/Sazburg. In Lippert 1992:129-142.

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[1] DATE Hochmoos II: Hv15019: 6950±85BP (Wahlmüller 1992:136-37, Table 1-4)