The Hornstaad Group

Version 1.10

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.

Location

The type-site Hornstaad is located on the Bodensee (Lake Constance) in Bavaria, S. Germany. The “lake dwelling” of Hornstaad-Hörnle I was excavated from 1983 – 1993. The group consists of two sites at Hornstaad (Site I and III) and a few other sites.

Dating (Chronological Table)

Based on tree-ring dates, village construction at Hornstaad-Hörnle I began at 3915 cal. BC. Hornstaad III construction began only slightly later. The latest tree-ring dates suggest a time after 3980 cal. BC at Gaienhofen-Untergarten. Therefore, one may assume an existence from ca. 3950-3800 cal. BC.

Evolution

The Horrnstaad group has been seen as chronologically later than the Lengyel-related Mönchshöfen and Aichbühl “cultures”. However, the group is also sometimes included with Late Mönchshöfen.

Pottery

The pottery from Hornstaad-Hörnle I is undecorated and has an S-profile. It includes funnel beaker-like pots, occasionally with impressions around the bottom of the rim. There are also narrow-mouthed amphorae with knob-like grips or (hollow) lugs on the bottom third of the pot. Paired lugs occur on stubby pots with shirt, narrow neck. Pottery bottoms are flat. The Hornstaad pottery is distinguished from the succeeding Pfyn pottery, which is found at Hornstaad-Hörnle II.

Copper

The excavations yielded a copper disk similar to the Stollhof gold disk from Vienna, Austria, copper disks at Hlinsko (TRB II), Moravia, and perhaps similar disks from the TRB in Denmark. The copper source may be in the Inn River Valley, but isotope analysis is not entirely conclusive (cf. Höppner et al. 2005).

Houses

At Hornstaad-Hörnle, relatively small rectangular houses were built more or less in rows. House construction at the Hornstaad-Hörnle IA started at 3915 BC. Evidence of posts, outlining houses, does not exist, but based on the rectangular outlines left on the vegetation-fee shoreline, houses measured ca 9-7m : ca. 3.5 m. The small houses contrast with the longhouses of the LBK, Rössen and (early) Lengyel. The small size is thought to reflect a household belonging to a nuclear family. It is estimated that the town had ca. 40 houses that burned down while the original users were still living in them. Based on the houses size, the debris found around them, and the fact that they burned not too long after the village was constructed, it is thought that 200 – 240 people lived in the unfortified village (Dieckmann et al. 2001:32).

Economy

Hunting, fishing and wild fruit collection predominate at the expense of domesticated animals. However, domesticated grain was a significant part of the economy. Unlike the LBK, where Emmer (Triticum dicoccum) and Einkorn (Triticum moncoccum) predomininate, Hornstaad-Hörnle I has 68% durum wheat (Triticum durum/turgidum-Type). However, other sites, in Switzerland, S. and E. Bavaria (Cortailliod, Pfyn, and Pfyn-Altheim) show a similar ratio by 4000/3900 cal BC. Furthermore, durum wheat was the single most important staple. The short-lived village of Hornstaad-Hörnle I is estimated to have had 275kg of domesticated grain per single family house. Most curious is the fact that the different species of grain were found to have been stored separately.

Huge numbers of perforated limestone beads were excavated. They suggest a kind of mass production by the people of Hornstaad-Hörnle. Trade items from as far away as the Mediterranean and the Paris Basin were also find.

References and Credits

Biel, Jörg, Helmut Schlichtherle, Michael Strobel and Andrea Zee (Eds.)

1998 Die Michelsberger Kultur und ihre Randgebiete: Probleme der Entstehung, Chronologie und des Siedlungswesens. Materialhefte zur Archäologie in Baden-Württemberg, 43, Theiss, Stuttgart.

Billamboz, André

1998 Die jungneolithischen Dendrodaten der Pfahlbausiedlungen Südwestdeutschlands als Zeitrahmen für die Einflüsse der Michelsberger Kultur in ihrem südlichen Randgebiet. In Jörg Biel et al. (Eds.) 1998:159-168.

Dieckmann, Bodo, Maier, Ursula and Vogt, Richard

2001 Hornstaad – Zur inneren Dynamik einer jungneolithischen Dorfanlage am westlichen Bodensee. Neue Ergebnisse der Archäologie, Botanik und Bodenkunde. (Hornstaad – the inner dynamics of a later Neolithic lake-dwelling in the west of lake Constance. New results from archaeology, botany and pedology.) In Andreas Lippert et al. 2001:29-51.

Höppner, B., M. Bartelheim, M. Huijsmans, R. Krauss, K.-P. Martinek, E. Pernicka and R. Schwab

2005 Prehistoric Copper Production in the Inn Valley (Austria), and the Earliest Copper in Central Europe. Archaeometry 47, 2, 2005: 293–315.

Lippert, Andreas, Michael Schultz, Stephen Shennan und Maria Teschler-Nicola (Eds.)

2001 Mensch und Umwelt während des Neolithikums und der Frühbronzezeit in Mitteleuropa. Ergebnisse interdisziplinärer Zusammenarbeit zwischen Archäologie, Klimatologie, Biologie und Medizin. Internationaler Workshop vom 9.-12. November 1995 im Archäologiezentrum Wien. (People and their Environment during the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age in Central Europe. Results of interdisciplinary cooperation between archaeology, climatology, biology and medicine. International workshop at Vienna Archaeological Centre, November 9-12, 1995.) Internationale Archäologie - Arbeitsgemeinschaft, Symposium, Tagung, Kongress 2, Verlag Marie Leidorf 2001. Rahden/Westf., Germany

Schlichterle, H.

1998 Was sucht Michelsberg in den Ufersiedlungen des Bodensees? In Jörg Biel et al. (Eds.) 1998:169-176.

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