Großgartach (Grossgartach) Culture

Maximilian O. Baldia

Introduction

The purpose of this text is to provide a general overview of the culture and is intended as a resource for students and teachers of European Archaeology.

List of Figures

Figure 1. Map of Central Europe

Figure 2. Großgartach Type-site location

Figure 3. Central and North European chronological table

Figure 4. Graph of calibrated C¹⁴ dates

Figure 5. Pottery

Figure 5. Photograph of Bowl © M. Baldia, 2008

Location

Spelled Großgartach in English, the type-site is located less than 10 km west of Heilbronn, Germany. It was first described by A. Schliz in 1901. The pottery stile has been noted in Bohemia (Western Czech Republic), West and Central Germany and adjacent easternmost France. One of its primary distribution centers is the Rhein (Rhine) River Valley, from where the late Danubian Großgartach “horizon” is thought to “expand” northwestward into the Eiffel Mountain valleys near the Belgian/Luxemburg/German border sometime after its development in the core area.

Following Biermann (1997:9), the most northerly site is Brüdeln-Klappenfeld, Kr. Peine, Germany. The most northeasterly is Groß-Ammensleben, Kr. Wolmirsted, Germany. The most easterly is Burgwerben, Kr. Weißenfels, Germany, Cheby, near Prague, and Chrášťany (Chrástany), Rakovník County, Czech Republic. The southernmost sites, each containing only a single sherd, occur around Zürich, Switzerland. They are Wetzikon-Pfäffinkersee, Zürich-Presshaus, and Zürich-Mozartstraße. In Austria it occurs in the city of Salzburg (Salzburg-Maxglan).

Chronology

Based on the a handful of dates (Table 1, Radiocarbon Date Graph), the pottery was in use between ca. 5000 – 4600 cal. BC (Raetzel-Fabian 1986). Therefore, Großgartach seems to overlap chronologically, stratigraphically and regionally with Hinkelstein and coexists in a similar manner with the STK, It probably ends during the development of Rössen pottery (Chronological Table).

Pottery

The often squat Großgartach pottery is incised with abstract geometric designs in considerable variety (see illustration). The incised decorations were probably filled with a white paste, as illustrated by the bowl from Monsheim(?). Undecorated forms include bag-shaped pots, long, oval tubs, sieves, and ladles, as well as wide-mouthed kitchen ware.

The hard fired pottery’s color ranges from black to brown or gray. All colors may occur on the same pot. Yellow and red tones are rare. The clay is usually tempered with fine, rounded quartz particles or pottery fragments.

Pottery seriation has resulted in several subdivisions (Spatz 1996). This and other relative chronologies are summarized by Biermann (1997:13). The subdivisions remain theoretical until verified by microstratigraphic evidence coupled with C¹⁴ and tree-ring dates.

The pottery has been found in a Late LBK pit in Minsleben near Werningerode, just north of the Harz Mountains in Central Germany and Chaby, near Prague (Praha), Czech Republic (Raetzel-Fabian 1986). In Strassburg, Bas-Rhin (France) an early Großgartach style occurs in a grave with Hinkelstein ceramics. Other evidence also suggests that the early pottery is related to Hinkelstein. In Southwest and Central Germany it is frequently found together with STK pottery (Stichbandkeramik/Stroke Ornamented Pottery) in village debris and pits. Großgartach is also associated with the Oberlauterbach group in eastern Bavaria.

Großgartach may have given rise to Rössen via the intervening Plaining-Friedberg pottery style (Biermann 1997, Spatz 1996).

Burials

Although most LBK derived burials are flexed interments, two burials at Großgartach were extended inhumations placed on their backs, each in its own pit, some 5 m apart.

Enclosures

Großgartach constructed circular ditched enclosures (Schier and Schußmann 2001) similar to of the Lengyel culture.

Economy

Cereal production changed from emmer and einkorn to bread wheat and barley (Louwe Kooijmans 1998:410).

References and Credits

Biermann, Eric

1997 Großgartach und Oberlauterbach: Interregionale Beziehungen im süddeutschen Mittelneolithikum. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ur- und Frühgeschichte. Bonn.

Bogucki, Peter

1988 Forest Farmers and Stock Breeders: Early Agriculture and its Consequences in North-Central Europe. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Furholt, Martin, Johannes Müller, Dirk Raetzel-Fabian, Christoph Rinne und Hans-Peter Wotzka

2001-02 RADON – Radiokarbondaten online Datenbank mitteleuropäischer 14C-Daten für das Neolithikum und die frühe Bronzezeit (Central European Online Database of C14 Dates for the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age), JungsteinSITE, Germany.

Müller-Karpe, H.

1968 Handbuch der Vorgeschichte: Jungsteinzeit. II/1-2. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, München.

Louwe Kooijmans, L. P.

1998 Understanding the Mesolithic/Neolithic Frontier in the Lower Rhine Basin, 5300-4300 cal. BC. In Mark Edmonds and Colin Richards (Eds.), Understanding the Neolithic of North-Western Europe. Cruithny Press, Glasgow, 1998:407-427.

Raetzel-Fabian, Dirk

1986 Phasenkartierung des mitteleuropäischen Neolithikums: Chronologie und Chorologie. B.A.R. International Series 316, 1986.

Schier, Wolfram and Markus, Schußmann

2001 Die Kreisgrabenanlage der Großgartacher Kultur von Ippelsheim, Landkreis Neustadt a.d. Aisch-Bad Windsheim, Mittelfranken. Archäologische Arbeitsgemeinschaft Ostbayern/West- und Südböhmen 10, 2001:64-70.

Spatz, Helmut

1996 Beiteräge zum Kulturkomplex Hinkelstein – Großgartach – Rössen: Der keramische Fundstoff des Mittelneolithikums aus dem Neckarland und seine zeitliche Gliederun. I - II. Materialhefte zur Archaeologie. Landesdenkmalamt Baden-Würtemberg. Theissverlag, Stuttgart.

Please send comments or questions to Max Baldia.