Life after the Ice Age - the last game hunters on the Lahn and Dill rivers

Mesolithic period (around 9000 BC)

 

About the epoch

For more than two million years, people lived as hunters and gatherers - women also hunted and men gathered. They fed and clothed themselves with what nature offered. The Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic) is the name given to the last phase of this appropriative nomadic way of life at the end of the Ice Age in Europe.

After the last cold period around 11,600 years ago, the global climate warmed by around five degrees. The European glaciers also melted. The cold steppes of the tundra retreated northwards along with reindeer, woolly rhinoceroses and mammoths. Instead, dense forests of pine, birch, lime, elm and hazelnut trees spread out again. Ash, alder and willow trees lined the rivers and lakes.

Campsites of the last wild hunters have been discovered in several places in the Lahn valley. These mostly short-term camps were regularly set up on the banks of bodies of water, where people caught fish, hunted waterfowl and collected all kinds of edibles. They erected light dwellings made of wooden poles, covered with animal skins, bark or reeds to protect them from wind and weather. In the rocky terrain of the low mountain ranges, they also used rock overhangs for shelter. The mostly small groups stayed in one place until the available resources ran out.

Their clothing consisted of tanned hides and skins, which were sewn together with sinew and bone needles. They made all kinds of everyday items such as carrying bags, baskets and water containers from leather, bast and rushes. All the materials they needed came from nature.

 

Marginal column:

Changing hunting techniques

The bison, aurochs, red deer, roe deer and wild boar now living in the forests became favourite hunting prey. Berries, mushrooms, roots and, above all, hazelnuts, which were rich in fat, supplemented the diet. Different techniques and tools were needed in the dense forest than in the open tundra: people now went stalking with bows and arrows instead of ambushing the large herds of wild horses and reindeer with spears. Tiny blades and points, mainly made of flint ("microliths"), are typical of the era. These were used in arrows, spears, harpoons and other composite implements.

 

 

About the archaeology

Blades, points and hearths

In 1994, geographer Dr Ralf Urz discovered inconspicuous traces of several storage sites from the Mesolithic period by chance during gravel extraction in Niederweimar. They were well preserved under thick alluvial sediments. During an emergency excavation, a site covering an area of around ten square metres was examined archaeologically.

The archaeologists found numerous stone tools, rubbing stones and animal bones as well as charcoal from a fireplace. Using a so-called radiocarbon measurement, a method for determining the age of carbonaceous materials, the fireplace was dated to around 9000 BC. The finds include characteristic scratches, blades and points (microliths) as well as production remnants from tool manufacture. These are mainly made from the region's siliceous shale. However, there are also flint blades that were brought from far away. Natural deposits of flint were found in the Swabian Alb, in the North German Plain and in the Swiss Jura. As the finds show, tools and weapons were made and repaired on site. Animal bones with traces of cuts from these stone tools were also discovered, which had been left behind as the remains of hunting spoils.

The sites in the Lahn Valley are evidence of campsites that were probably only used for short periods during the seasonal migrations of the early and middle Mesolithic. There are no direct traces of the former dwellings. As we know from other sites, these were generally tent-like constructions built from locally available materials.

 

Marginal columns

Archaeological precision work

Carefully uncovering the areas, which are usually only a few square metres in size, is crucial for the interpretation of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites. In order to be able to draw conclusions about life at the site, each object is documented in detail and in the correct position using an "individual finds survey".

 

Age determination

Finds can be roughly dated using the so-called "typological method". This involves comparing them with objects that are similar in shape, design or decoration and whose cultural affiliation and age are known.

Stratigraphy", i.e. the observation of the sequence of layers, also makes it possible to determine the relative age of the artefacts.

More detailed methods are usually based on scientific analyses.

Radiocarbon measurements determine the age of organic materials (e.g. charcoal, grain and bones) based on the decay rate of the carbon isotope C14.

Thermoluminescence", a physical method for determining the last firing process, can be used to date ceramics.

Dendrochronology" allows the age of wood to be determined based on the specific sequence of annual rings.

 

 

About the model

The hunting camp

Archaeologists have now discovered campsites of Middle Stone Age hunter-gatherers in several places in Germany. But only a few have been archaeologically investigated in depth. At no site, however, have traces of dug-in timbers been unequivocally proven. Archaeologists are therefore dependent on precise observations of the distribution of finds around the hearths.

These mostly sharply defined distribution patterns indicate dwellings with oval to rounded rectangular floor plans. These could have side lengths of up to four by seven metres. During construction, scaffolding was probably erected from poles and small trunks of flexible trees, which were covered with animal skins, bark, grasses or reeds. They may have been shaped and constructed in different ways. However, as they had a certain degree of stability and therefore durability, they were probably base or winter camps that were used for longer periods or repeatedly. In contrast, the temporary shelters set up during the summer migrations - which probably included the sites near Niederweimar - consisted of lightweight tent-like constructions. They could be erected quickly on site and covered with animal skins or available materials such as bark. They may have resembled the tepees of North American nomads or the cote of the Sami. The furnishings were correspondingly sparse and easy to transport. Our time station shows models of dwellings from summer and winter camps.