The Oldest Dated Well

Added May 13, 1998. Updated November 26, 2000.

The Oldest Dated Well

Maximilian O. Baldia

The remnants of the oldest dated wooden well were found at a depth of 3.50 m in November 1997. It was discovered in the brown coal surface mining area at Zwenckau near Leipzig, eastern Germany. The wood used to line the well was felled in the year 5098 BC, according to tree ring analysis.

The well was constructed within a large settlement of the first farmers of North and Central Europe known as the Linearbandkeramik culture (LBK), or simply Bandkeramik.

The wooden structure at Zwenkau consist of four to five beams measuring 1.3 m. The inside well dimensions formed a square of 0.9:0.9 m. Similar wells have been discovered in Mohelnice (Czech Republic), Erkelenz-Kückhofen (NW Germany), and Asparn (Lower Austria). The Kückhofen well dates to about 5089 cal. BC.

The Austrian well, found in an LBK enclosure at Asparn-Schletz, has been reconstructed at the State Museum of Lower Austria in Asparn.

Figure 1: Location of LBK wells.

Reconstruction of Asparn LBK well at Asparn Museum, Austria.

Figure 2: The reconstructed Asparn well at the State Museum, Asparn, Lower Austria.

References and Credits

Official summary report in German, Archäologie in Deutschland 2/1998 - April-June: with excavation picture of the Zwenckau well.

Baldia, M. O.
1997 Causewayed enclosures, the oldest roads, the first wagon tracks, and the development of megalithic tombs in southern Scandinavia and Central Europe. (Includes brief discussion of a possible Bandkeramik road, leading through the Asparn-Schletz enclosure).

Weiner, Jürgen
1995 Bogenstab- und Pfeilschaftfragmente aus dem altneolithischen Brunnen von Erklenz-Kückhoven. Ein Beitrag zur Bogenwaffe der Bandkeramik. - Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt, 25. 1995:355-372

Windl, Helmut (Ed.)
1996 Rätsel um Gewalt und Tod vor 7.000 Jahren: Eine Spurensicheurng. Ausstellung im Museum für Urgeschichte Asparn a. d. Zaya. Katalog des NÖ Landesmuseums, N.F. 393. Asparn a. d. Zaya. 1996:7-45.

Please send comments or questions to Max Baldia.