Wartberg Culture - Sites - Megalithic Tombs

Megalithic Tombs

Wartberg material is also found in a number of gallery graves (a type of megalithic tomb). Their connection with the Wartberg settlements was only recognised in the 1960s and 1970s, thus the tombs are sometimes treated separately as the Hessian-Westphalian stone cist group (Hessisch-Westfälische Steinkistengruppe).

These include the tombs at Züschen near Fritzlar, at Lohra, at Naumburg-Altendorf, at Hadamar-Niederzeuzheim (now rebuilt in a park at Hachenburg), at Beselich-Niedertiefenbach, at Warburg, Rimbeck and at Grossenrode, as well as two tombs near the Calden enclosure. A tomb at Muschenheim near Münzenberg may also belong to the same type, as may a further one at Bad Vilbel near Frankfurt am Main which was destroyed after 1945. The best known of these tombs are those of Züschen, Lohra, Niederzeuzzheim and Altendorf. They normally contained the inhumed remains of multiple individuals (the Altendorf tomb contained at least 250 people) of all ages and both sexes. Lohra is an exception insofar as there the dead were cremated. Gravegoods are scarce but include pottery (collared bottles), stone tools and animal bones, especially the jawbones of foxes, which may have played a totemic role. The Züschen tomb is also remarkable for the presence of rock art. Some of the tombs can be directly associated with nearby hilltop sites or settlements, that is, the Züschen tomb with the Hasenberg and the Calden tombs with the earthwork. According to the German archaeologist Waltraud Schrickel, the association with gallery graves suggests a west European influence, perhaps from the Paris basin in France, where very similar tombs occur. The Wartberg tombs appear to start developing around 3400 BC, earlier than most of the known settlements.