Altheim

The Altheim earthwork was discovered more than a century ago and can be dated to the 37/36th century BC. Recent investigations in its immediate environs revealed a second ditched enclosure from the Altheim period, southeast of the previously known structure. The two enclosures are spatially related to one another, and the very substance of both monuments is acutely threatened. Certain earlier observations were confirmed by the new excavations, namely the high proportion of arrowheads among the flaked stone tools and the very low proportion of bones from wild animals. The northwest-southeast orientation of the structures’ long axes permits an archaeoastronomical interpretation: Knowledge obtained from the observation of natural phenomena was transferred and applied to architecture.

• Gone with water and wind.
• Die Erdwerke der Altheimer Kultur.
• The earthworks at Altheim.
• Die jungneolithischen Erdwerke von Altheim.