Part I - Prehumans to the Bronze Age - A Brief History of the Movement of People in the Odenwald

When you move to a new place if often seems as if it takes a while to become comfortable with your surroundings, and it can often feel as if everyone else "belongs" and you are an outsider.  In truth, we are all immigrants and the descendants of immigrants, joining wave after wave of those who made the journey before us.  That is certainly the case here in the Odenwald.

This is Part One of a two part post in which I will try to give a brief overview of some of the cultures that have existed in our area over the millennia.

Homo Heidelbergensis

Homo Heidelbergensis
reconstructed by John Gurche 

One of the earliest pieces of evidence of humanoid presence in our area comes from the discovery of a single jaw bone of a prehuman whom scientist call Homo heidelbergensis, discovered in 1907 near Heidelberg, in the southern Odenwald.  Since that time, more fossils of Homo heidelbergensis have been found in Europe, Asia and Africa.  The species, which is believed to have migrated from Africa between 400,000 and 300,000 years ago,  is the ancestor of the Neanderthals, Denisovans and modern humans.

Homo heidelbergensis was the first humanoid to live in colder climates and their stocky, wide bodies were probably an adaptation to help them survive in areas where they needed to conserve warmth.  The species was a real groundbreaker in the evolution towards modern humans.  They would also have been one of the first to control fire, use wooden spears, construct simple dwellings and hunt large animals.

Homo heidelbergensis was not much smaller than the average human today.  Males averaged about 175 cm (5' 9") tall and weighed an average of 62 kilos (136 lbs.).  Females were around 157 cm (5' 2") with a weight of about 51 kilos (112 lbs.)

Stone Age

After the retreat of the last ice age, a peasant culture penetrated into the Odenwald, bringing with them the spread of early agriculture in the region.  These were the people of the Linear Pottery Culture (Linearbandkeramik), so named for the decorative technique they used on their ceramic

Linear Pottery Vessel
destroyed in 1944

ware, most of which were simple cups, bowls, vases and jugs.  It is thought that they originated in Serbia and Hungary and that migration took place at a rate of about four kilometres per year as they moved to settle in highly-fertile marshy areas or near rivers.

In the Odenwald, we find only trace evidence of this culture's existence.  Vessels from this period have been found near Lengfeld, Habitzheim and Zeilhard, where there was evidence of a settlement.  In the Gersprenz Valley, there was also a settlement at Gross-Bieberau.  In 1935, in the village of Altheim, another settlement was uncovered, and archaeologists found elongated, oval-shaped dwellings, fireplaces, pottery shards, a grindstone and animal bones. Between Trautheim and Wiesengrund near Darmstadt, various Neolithic-worked stones have been found, as well as a richly-ornamented pot that was, unfortunately, destroyed during a World War II air raid on Darmstadt in 1944.

Towards the end of the Neolithic period, a new group of people migrated to southern Hessen, the Corded-Ware Culture people (Schnurkeramik-Kultur), named because of the corded look of ornamentation on their pottery. This culture placed its dead in ceramic vessels and buried them

A Corded Ware Vessel

under raised hills,  along with offerings of food, drink and other useful items to help them on their journey into the afterlife.

Evidence of the Corded-Ware Culture have been found in Reinheim, where a bell-shaped cup was uncovered, and in Altheim where an unusual six-footed, richly-ornamented dish was discovered. Burial findings at Eckweg include a cup with corded decorations, and artefacts from a similar culture which used herringbone patterns on their pottery.  Stone axes, a sickle and copper axe from the end of the Neolithic period have been found, showing the transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age.

The Bronze Age

The lines between one age and another are, of course, not always clear, and there was a transition period of about a thousand years between the Stone Age and Bronze, during which time the use of metal largely overtook that of stone.  Using bronze, a mixture of copper and tin, the production of weapons and jewellery became more elaborate and gold was seen as a valuable substance.  Traders brought both trade goods and precious metal over trade routes in the Odenwald and along the Bergstrasse, routes that stretched from the south up to the North and Baltic seas.

After the early transitional period between the Stone and Bronze Age, two separate cultural eras are observed in the Odenwald, one lasting from about 1900 - 1200 BC and the other from about 1200 to 800 BC.  Numerous hill graves north of Traisa give evidence of these cultures, and shards from a hill in Traisa indicate that there was a Bronze Age settlement there.

Later, a new culture entered the Odenwald from the Alpine foothills and brought a significant change to practises in the area.  These people were known as the Urnfield People, so named because of their custom of cremating their dead and placing the ashes in urns, which were then buried in fields. Burials have been found in Nieder-Ramstadt, Gross Bieberau, and in the Gersprenz and Muemling valleys.

Sources:

Das Muehltal im Odenwald, http://www.muehltal-odenwald.de/geschich/mu/fruh_vor.html, Accessed August 16, 2017.

Hahn, Ludwig Dr.. Die Vorgeschichte der Stadt und Ihrer Umgehung, http://www.ueberau.de/vorgeschichte.htm, Accessed August 16, 2017.

Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. “What Does It Mean to Be Human.”Homo Heidelbergensis | The Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program, 1 Mar. 2010, humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-heidelbergensis.