Added March 3, 2001. Updated December 11, 2008, 10:24 hours.

This page will be updated occasionally to add and revise information.

Münchshöfen, Wallerfing, Polling

Version 4.14

By

Maximilian O. Baldia

(Copyright © 2001 - December 11, 2008. All rights reserved)

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.

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List of Figures

Map of North and part of Central Europe

Central and North German Chronological Table

Graph of Münchshöfen C¹⁴ dates

Münchshöfen Pottery

List of Tables

Table of Münchshöfen calibrated radiocarbon dates

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Location

The type-site Münchshöfen is located near Straubing in Eastern Bavaria, Germany. The main distribution is near the upper Danube River Drainage in Southeastern Bavaria, but it also occurs in Austria.

Dating

Münchshöfen dates from about 4450/4300 cal. BC to perhaps 3900/3800 cal. BC (Chronological Table, Table of Münchshöfen radiocarbon dates, Graph of C14 dates). Some researchers start the “culture” as early as early as 4500 cal. BC and end it at 4000 cal. BC. The dates for Polling have been judged as being to too late (Matuschik 1992:17 Table 1). However, the 95.4% probability range of these two dates and other late Epi-Lengyel dates can be used to argue for an end, as late as 3800 cal BC. If one includes the Hornstaad Group as part of Münchshöfen, an end around 3900/3800 cal. BC can indeed be suggested.

Based on pottery typology, Münchshöfen is divided into an early phase, followed by Classic Münchshöfen and Late Münchshöfen. The late phase starts ca. 4300/4200 cal. BC and includes the Wallerfing pottery of eastern and Polling pottery of western Bavaria. Although Wallerfing and Polling were originally seen as separate groups, they are now seen as part of a continuum, because they overlap geographically. Both types of pottery decoration appear on the same pots in the area of overlap. The undecorated pottery of the Hornstaad Group is also sometimes considered to be part of Late Münchshöfen.

Münchshöfen is related to the Lengyel “culture.” It is preceded and perhaps overlapped by Rössen, including the Bavarian Oberlauterbach Group. It is coeval with Großgartach (Grossgartach). A connection with Jordanów (Jordanóv, Jordansmühl) is also stipulated. Münchshöfen is followed by the Altheim “culture” and in some regions by the Pfyn “culture.”

Pottery

Münchshöfen pottery includes conical bowls, with inward-bend decorated rims. There are decorated pedestal bowls and mushroom-shaped pots. Shouldered pots have flat bottoms. Polling has small cups with handles, decorated in stab and drag technique (German: Furchenstichtechnik) (e.g. Tillmann 1998 Fig. 4). Occasionally pottery is found, among Münchshöfen, which is directly attributable to Bohemian Jordanów pottery (Mixner et al. 2001).

Enclosures

The double circular enclosure of Wallerfing-Ramsdorf, Deggendorf, (Schmotz 1981) is similar to Lengyel rondells. Another kind of enclosure is known from Landau a.d. Isar (Kreiner 2008). It is associated with pottery from the Oberlauterbach Group and Münchshöfen. Some researchers believe that such roundels lead to the rounded to rectilinear earthworks of Münchshöfen, which are mapped by Meyer and Raetzel-Fabian (Meyer and Raetzel-Fabian 2006:20 List 7 and Fig. 9).

Houses

One would have expect Lengyel/Rössen-type Danubian longhouses in Early Münchshöfen, but to the best of my knowledge no such houses have thus far been reported. This lack of evidence is thought to be due to the use of surface buildings, such as blockhouses, which leave no trace below the soil surface. The well preserved houses of Late Münchshöfen at Hornstaad-Hörnle of the Hornstaad Group are relatively small rectangular constructions.

Copper

The earliest dated copper smelting activity in the Alps is attributed to Münchshöfen and stems from the Austrian site of the Mariahilfbergl by Brixlegg, Kufstein, Tyrol, Austria. It is reported as dating to evidence dates to ca. 4400/4250 cal. BC according to Höppner et al. (2005). However, the dates given as “GrN-22167 bp 5480 ± 60 … and GrN-213641 bp 5570 ± 50 bp” (Höppner et al. 2005:198-199) need a minor correction. According to H.E. Smith-Deenen, from the Centrum voor Isotopen Onderzoek in Groningen, Netherland, the number GrN-213641 … does not exist,” because the “GrN- code only goes to 5 figures” (Smith-Deenen personal communication December, 8, 2008). Smith-Deenen has kindly provided the dates from the Groningen laboratory’s database and I have recalibrated them as illustrated below. The two earliest dates, which apparently relate to the Münchshöfen pottery found at the site, may perhaps be narrowed to a range of 4400-4300 BC.

Sites with metal finds attributed to Münchshöfen range from north of Stuttgart, Germany across the Alps to the vicinity Verona, Italy. In addition to Brixlegg-Mariahilfbergl, they include Linz-St. Peter; Salzburg, Maxglan; Wallerfing-Bachling; Straubing-Wasserwerk; Schernau; Gaienhofen/Hornstaad-Hörnle I; Überlingen; and Torretta di Isera (Höppner et al. 2005).

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References and Credits

Baldia, M. O.

1995 A Spatial Analysis of Megalithic Tombs. Vol. 1-2. Ph. D. Dissertation. Southern Methodist University.

Dimitrijevic’, S.

1981 Zur Frage der Retz-Gajary-Kultur in Nordjugoslawien und ihre Stelleng im pannonischen Raum. Bericht der Römisch-Germanischen Kommission 61. 1980:15-91.

Klassen, Lutz

1997 Die Kupferfunde der Nordgruppe der Trichterbecherkultur. Archaeologische Informationen 20/1:189-93.

Klassen, Lutz and Ernst Pernicka

1998 Eine kreuzschneidige Axthacke aus Südskandinavien: Ein Beispiel für die Anwendungsmöglichkeiten der Stuttgarter Analysendatenbank. Archäologisches Korresbondenzblatt 28/1:35 - 45.

Klassen, Lutz and Stephan Stürup

2001 Decoding the Riesebusch-copper: lead-isotope analysis applied to early neolithic copper finds from south Scandinavia. Praehistorische Zeitschrift 76/1, 2001: 55-73.

Kreiner, Ludwig

2008 Ein Grabenwerk der Münchshöfener Kultur im Süden von Landau a.d. Isar1. In: Propyaleum-DOK. Publikationsplattform Altertumswissenschaften, 2008. (http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/volltexte/2008/90/ Accessed August 18, 2008).

Mixner, Daniel, et al.

2001 Böhmische Keramik in Bayern: Bergheim, Lkrs. Neuburg-Schrobenhausen. Archäologie Aktuell 28, Februar 2001. http://www.gerd-welker.de/archaktu/aa-028.htm (Last accessed Thursday, December 11, 2008.)

Obereder, J . , E . Pernicka and E. Ruttkay

1993 Die Metallfunde und die Metallurgie der kupferzeitlichen Mondseegruppe: Ein Vorbericht. Archäologie Österreichs 4/2, 1993:5-9.

Raetzel-Fabian, Dirk

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

Ruttkay, Elisabeth

1983 Das Neolithikum in Niederösterreich. Forschungsberichte zur Ur- und Frühgeschichte, 12, Östereichische Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Ur- und Frühgeschichte, Wien.

1988 Zur Problematik der Furchenstrichkeramik des östlichen Alpenvorlandes: Beitrag zum Scheibenhenkelhorizont. SIA XXXVI:225-240.

1990 Beiträge zur Typologie und Chronologie der Siedlungen in dem Salzkammergut. In Die Ersten Bauern 2: Einführung, Balkan, angrenzende Regionen der Schweiz. Schweizerisches Landesmuseum, Zürich, 1990b:134-156.

Stadler, Peter

1995 Ein Beitrag zur Absolutchronologie des Neolithikums in Österreich auf Grund der ¹⁴C-Daten. In Lenneis, E., C. Neugebauer-Maresch, E. Ruttkay, Jungsteinzeit im Osten Österreichs. Forschungsberichte zur Ur- u. Frühgeschichte 17. Niederösterreichisches Pressehaus u. Verlagsgesellschaft, St. Pölten – Wien. 1995:210-224.

Please send comments or questions to Max Baldia.