So far, it has not been hung on the big bell, said Mayor Dirk Westedt (FDP) and the relief at finally being able to do so is noticeable.

The bell may also be a little larger, because you don't find something like this every day during the archaeological preliminary investigation of a building plot in the industrial area: A settlement from the Neolithic Age, more precisely the Michelsberg culture, ditches, post holes, flint blades, various ceramics and a complete skeleton.

The woman who was buried there is 1.64 tall, lived around 6000 years ago and is therefore probably the oldest verifiable woman from Hochheim.

The city chronicle, said the mayor on Wednesday when the results were presented, must now be supplemented by a chapter.

Andrea Diener

Correspondent in the Main-Taunus district

  • Follow I follow

There are already some testimonies of the Neolithic Michelsberg culture in the surrounding area.

For example the ramparts on the Hofheimer Kapellenberg, which is particularly large. Another site is in Wiesbaden-Schierstein.

It's no wonder that people have been settling in the area for thousands of years. There is particularly fertile loess soil in the Taunus foothills.

In Hochheim, on the other hand, nothing has been excavated that goes beyond Roman and Celtic times.

However, when an aerial photograph was taken of the future construction area on a field east of Frankfurter Strasse, anomalies became apparent.

The next step was a geomagnetic prospection, where the ground is scanned with a probe.

In this way, the most promising areas could be identified and designated as excavation areas.

Two meters per hamster hole

But before things could get down to business in winter 2021, reports archaeologist Silke Hesemann from ABB Archaeology, which carried out the excavations, the tunnels of the strictly protected field hamsters living there had to be identified.

An expert walked the field and marked each burrow that could potentially hold a hibernating hamster.

With a safety distance of two meters per hamster hole, the excavators then maneuvered across the field.

In the end, 63 findings were found at a depth of 30 to 60 centimetres.

Shards of ceramic with an arcade pattern came to light, said stone blades and finally so-called baking plates, which are typical of the Michelsberg culture and probably functioned as a kind of pizza stone from the Neolithic Age.

All in "very nice" condition, says Hesemann happily.

In addition, a so-called earthwork crosses the field.

Earthworks are double ditches with gates and a palisade fence built around the settlements in this cultural period, usually of some size.

It might be worth exploring further north - today's medical center is probably right in the middle of the ring wall.

But the most important find is the body grave: "This is a rarity in the Michelsberg culture," explains Silke Hesemann.

The female skeleton lies on her stomach, her head facing south-east and in a stretched pose.

Possibly, Hesemann suspects, one can conclude that she was in a prominent position, since the effort was made to bury her in this way.

However, little is known about the burial culture of this period because there are so few finds.

Stone Axes and Storage

The Michelsberg culture lasted from 4400 to 3500 BC and replaced the so-called line band culture in Central Europe.

If the Linear Pottery Culture makers are considered the oldest farmers in Europe, who used stone axes, introduced storage, built houses and wells and eagerly made the eponymous pots with the characteristic line patterns, the Michelsbergers were more mobile herdsmen, explains Dr.

Dieter Neubauer, district archaeologist at the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments.

The fields became forested again during this time.

Social life was also different;

Instead of living in hamlets made up of several long houses like the linear ceramicists, the Michelsberg settlers preferred to live together as smaller family groups.

Cattle and pigs were also kept as pets, and corresponding bones were found within the earthwork.

In the meantime, all the findings have been documented, the field has been approved for development, and the excavators will probably start rolling at the beginning of next year.

The explosive ordnance clearance service is also done, which was not unimportant because of the existing anti-aircraft gun position from the Second World War.

There are no traces of a Napoleonic rearguard action that took place across this field - private detectorists have already cleared everything that may have been here.

Bones and stones, on the other hand, cannot be found with metal detectors – luckily for the archaeologists.

The Hochheimer from the Neolithic period has now been moved to the depot in Wiesbaden and awaits further research.

The field hamsters, on the other hand, slept through everything.

In the end there were only two hibernating specimens in the buildings; they were relocated to the Opel Zoo and are welcome to be visited there.