The name of the "Hühnerberg" already gives an indication that it could be interesting for archaeologists there.
However, the area near Fischbach in Kelkheim has nothing to do with poultry.
The name probably derives from "Hünen".
Some historians relate this to giants who, according to popular belief, lived there in ancient times.
According to another interpretation, the giants mean megaliths.
Jan Schiefenhoevel
Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
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In prehistoric times, large blocks of stone were erected.
As signs in the landscape, they are known by the Breton name "Menhir" or the German "Hinkelstein".
A boundary stone that has marked Kelkheim's district on the Hühnerberg since the 18th century was called "Hohestein" and is probably a menhir from the olden days.
Research on the Hühnerberg near Fischbach began in the 1970s.
At that time, the archaeologist Michael Sturm-Berger found arrowheads, pottery shards and burnt clay, probably building material from huts, as well as flint blades, which were used as a universal tool in hunting for skinning and carving up animals.
Shards with a pattern from the Linear Pottery Culture
The traces of settlement go back to the 6th millennium BC, as the Kelkheim culture officer Beate Matuschek said.
The finds can be assigned to the Linear Pottery Culture, named after the pattern on the vessels.
According to Matuschek, this suggests that the traces of settlement on the Hühnerberg are older than the finds on the Kapellenberg near Hofheim, which can be attributed to the Michelsberg culture.
Recently, the city had the chicken mountain explored in more detail.
The fact that the field was archaeologically examined does not mean that something was dug up, as archaeologist Sascha Piffko says.
He is managing director of the company SPAU GmbH in Münzenberg, which has been commissioned by the municipality.
They didn't work with excavators, spades and brushes.
Rather, the geomagnetic field in the ground was measured.
Soil is magnetically illuminated
In the loess soil as on the Hühnerberg, magnetic particles align themselves to the north over time.
When a hole is dug, for example as a silo pit or for a house post, the alignment is disturbed.
When measuring the magnetic field in the ground, even after thousands of years, it is still noticeable where a hole was once dug, even if it has long since been filled up again with soil or humus.
The antiquarian found favorable conditions in the field near Fischbach, as the archaeologist reports.
The results of the magnetic field measurement were correspondingly rich.
This revealed post holes that belonged to several long houses.
Whole clans lived together in these 20 to 60 meter long buildings in the Neolithic period.
As is usual for Linear Pottery Culture, the longhouses are aligned from north-west to south-east, as can be seen from the post holes.
This means that Stone Age people arranged their dwellings in such a way that the broad side of the house was not exposed to the weather.
According to the archaeologist, the magnetic measurement also shows ditches.
These were partly used to absorb water.
Some of the outer walls of a house made of boards were anchored in a ditch.
These massive walls surrounded the living room, while the workroom was surrounded by walls of wattle and daub.
Under the roof was a floor that served as a storage room.
However, as Piffko says, one should not imagine these Stone Age buildings to be too primitive.
The netting was plastered and the plaster was whitewashed.
Houses of this type were built in the early Middle Ages.
However, the evidence for several houses in the vicinity of each other does not mean that they existed simultaneously and formed a village.
The buildings can also have been built one after the other.
A longhouse lasted about 50 years, then a new dwelling was built.
Archaeologist wants to avoid excavation and preserve monument
During excavations, the discolouration of the earth reveals where ditches or holes were in the past.
Archaeologists refer to such traces as “finds”, in contrast to finds such as sherds or everyday objects that can be taken away and exhibited in a museum.
During an excavation, the monument will be destroyed in the ground, as Piffko points out.
The ground can only be opened once, and mistakes made during the excavation cannot be corrected.
The archaeologist is therefore convinced that excavations must be avoided in order to preserve the ground monuments as evidence of the past.
The findings from Kelkheim are also interesting for scientists in a broader context, as Piffko explains.
They give indications of the spread of the Neolithic culture with agriculture and animal husbandry.
According to him, the Taunus was settled later than the Wetterau.
If one follows the settlement, it is noticeable that the people of the Linear Pottery Culture always settled near water, but not in flood zones, and built on loess soil.
The ridges were not settled until later.
This period was a period of conflict, as the archaeologist knows.
According to him, this is not only recognizable by the fact that the residential buildings were surrounded by earthen walls for defense.
The fact that the culture split also speaks for conflicts.
This in turn can be recognized by the prehistorians from the fact that different forms were used and no longer the uniform pattern of the Linear Pottery Culture.