Excavations prior to the development of an industrial park in the town of Vaihingen an der Enz, in southwestern Germany, uncovered a vast prehistoric site where more than 1,100 structures and findings have been documented, some dating back 7,000 years.

The excavation took place over an area of approximately four hectares between the B10 highway and Stuttgarter Straße, and was coordinated by the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments of the Stuttgart Government, in collaboration with the specialized firm ArcheoConnect GmbH.

The goal was to recover any potential heritage remains before construction began on the new business park in an area where Neolithic settlements had already been discovered, as explained by archaeologist Felicitas Schmitt.

woman girls la tene culture burial
Rare find: The clay and stone cooking pit was used to heat meat. Credit: Landesamt für Denkmalpflege im RP Stuttgart

Since 1987, the urban expansion of Vaihingen has intermittently revealed remains of dwellings, tombs, and other elements that now contribute to a more complete narrative about the region’s early farming societies belonging to the Linear Pottery Culture, considered the first sedentary communities in what is now the state of Baden-Württemberg.

The excavations uncovered the skeleton of a male buried in a fetal position alongside a polished stone axe that, at first glance, could be mistaken for a modern tool were it not for the fact that its striking head is not metal but stone, skillfully carved—allowing it to be dated to the end of the Neolithic, between 2800 and 2500 BCE. According to researchers, this is an exceptional find that confirms the age of the settlement and its links to ritualized funerary practices.

This burial contrasts with the disturbing discovery of two female skeletons, one belonging to an adult woman and the other to a girl, both dated to around 400 BCE during the early phase of the La Tène culture. The girl lies across the woman’s lap, with her limbs outstretched.

woman girls la tene culture burial
“Enzi”, the man from the Stone Age: The axe looks like it was bought in a DIY store. However, it is about 5000 years old. Credit: Sure/Stadt Vaihingen an der Enz

According to archaeologists, the bodies were not buried according to known ritual practices, but rather abandoned or thrown into a pit, opening the door to various hypotheses about the circumstances of their death. Although the cause of death cannot be confirmed with certainty, one possibility being considered is that they died from asphyxiation, perhaps due to gases generated by decomposing food stored in the same cavity.

Despite this potentially tragic end, both the woman and the girl wore notably crafted ornaments: the girl had two bronze bracelets, and the woman wore a necklace made of blue glass beads strung on iron wire. These items, beyond their beauty, testify to the technical knowledge that in antiquity already allowed for the fusion of minerals such as silica, quartz, sodium carbonate, and lime to make glass.

In addition to these burials, the remains of at least nine more tombs have also been identified, along with a pit for food preparation—probably from the protohistoric period, between the 8th and 5th centuries BCE—and various structures corresponding to longhouses typical of the Middle Neolithic, some as long as twenty meters. All recovered materials have been transferred, after documentation, to the archaeological finds archive of the state of Baden-Württemberg, located in Rastatt.

Excavation director Manuel Birker emphasized that the concentration of evidence in the Galgenfeld area is high and confirms that human settlements have existed along this stretch of the Enz River for seven millennia. Local archaeologist Andrea Majer expressed her hope that some of these discoveries might be publicly displayed, perhaps as part of the exhibition planned for the Gartenschau 2029, which will coincide with the 1,250th anniversary of the first mention of Vaihingen.

SOURCES

Stadt Vaihingen an der Enz

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