Local History 80.000 BC - AD

The enormous and enthusiastic response to my suggestion ( all three of them!) has convinced me finally to start the project.

http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3848&PN= 1

Anyway,here is the first installment:

The place I was born, Hagen, is an industrial city at the outskirts of the Ruhrarea, the old industrial heartland of Germany, where the fertile plains of Westphalia gradually change into the wooded hills of the �Sauerland.�





First archaeological traces of human presence in the area stem from the Middle Paleolithic period (ca. 80.000 � 40.000 BC ). There have been numerous finds of the stone-tools, scrapers, knives, etc. , of hunters and gatherers societies.



Paleolithic stone tools

In the late Upper Paleolithic ( 10.000-8.000 BC) Hagen belonged to the hunting grounds of nomadic Rein-deer hunters. Recently the skeletal remains of a 35-40 man were found in a cave near Hagen. Oxford university radio-carbon dated the finds at about 10.700 BC.



12.000 year old "Hagen Man"

The area was populated , very sparsely however, throughout the Mesolithic Period ( 8000-4500 BC), but the first traces of permanent human settlement stem from the Neolithic period (4500-1700 BC) after the transition from a hunter to a farming society. Settlements were usually found on low hill-tops near small rivers and streams. The early local farmers predominantly cultivated ancient varieties of barley and rye, but also kept livestock, mainly cattle.



Neolithic stone axe, found in 1825

The neolithic farmers belonged to the �Linearbecherkeramik� culture (ca 5.000-4.500 BC) and to the later �R�ssener� culture( ca. 4600-3700 BC) from which a large find of pottery and stone tools in a cave near Hagen stems.




Linearbecherkeramik



Roessener Kultur Keramik



From the Bronze Age ( in Central Europe from about 1700-700 BC) little remains of a distinct Bronze Age culture survived, due to the scarcity of Bronze material and the geographical and climatic conditions in area with heavy rainfall and abundant rivers and lakes.
However, a number of finds of pottery were made and a number of burial founds can be found in the forests around Hagen.



Bronze Age burial mound, ca. 1200 BC


Three Bronze swords from the �Urnenfelder� culture (around 750 BC) were discovered in 1876, each about 100 cm long and beautifully decorated, presumably the possessions of a tribal leader.



Bronze Sword, ca. 750 BC ,found in 1876.

Intensive settlement continued through the Iron Age ( 700- 0 BC ) , especially in the late La Tene culture ( around 100 BC )

So, that's my local area. Nothing terribly exciting, I must admit,but it's gets better.
What was going on in yours?

And next week, same time, same place:
Chapter two: "The Germans come......! (No it's not what you think it is...)

Edited by Komnenos