In the Bronze Age, the Westallgäu was actually a rather barren, cold mountain region that offered few opportunities for a living. Nevertheless, an astonishing number of people lived in this area more than 3000 years ago, as archaeological excavations now show. The researchers suspect that the favorable location on several long-distance trade routes attracted people to the area despite the difficult conditions.
Steep mountain slopes, barren soils and a harsh climate: 3000 years ago the Westallgäu was not a very friendly place. The melting glaciers of the last ice age had left behind rather barren, gravelly soils and most of the valleys were higher than in the neighboring Alpine regions. In addition, the winters were long and hard there and the summers were rainy. So far, this area has not been considered a favorable settlement area for the people of the Bronze Age – and even today the Westallgäu is not exactly densely populated.
Burial mounds, settlements and cleared forests
For this reason, the Allgäu remained largely empty on the archaeological map for a long time – there were only a few excavations and studies on the early settlement of this region. “This is also due to the fact that the region is far away from the universities and the responsible monument protection authorities,” explains Benjamin Höpfer from the University of Tübingen. “Less has been dug and construction sites, where archaeological remains are often exposed, have been less well supervised than elsewhere.” But Höpfer and his colleagues want to change this: the research team has been carrying out excavations near Leutkirch since 2017, which have already yielded some finds.
The excavations revealed that there was a fortified hilltop in this supposedly empty area in the Bronze Age, as well as an associated burial ground with burial mounds. There were several settlements in the valley. Soil analyzes showed that as early as 1500 BC people had cleared a large part of the forests in order to create fields and grow food. “The extent of the Bronze Age settlement, which has now become clear, changed our whole picture of the region at that time,” says Höpfer. “The prehistoric Allgäu was by no means deserted. In the Bronze Age – similar to today – there were many individual farms and a few small villages. “
Trade routes as an incentive to settle
This raises the question of why people settled in this barren area with an inhospitable climate, of all places. From the archaeological finds, the scientists conclude that the motivation may not have been the local resources and living conditions, but rather a favorable location in other respects. Because the Allgäu formed the connection between important trade and transport routes across the Alps, Danube, Iller, Rhine and Lake Constance. This mountain region was a Bronze Age traffic junction. “The Alps were not only an obstacle, but also an important trading hub,” explains Höpfer. “Long-distance trade became more and more important, and river valleys played an important role as routes and ridges as landmarks.” Finds of imported goods in the foothills of the Alps bear witness to the intensive trade at that time.
For the residents of the Westallgäu, the location on these trade routes apparently outweighed the disadvantages of the landscape. They benefited from the fact that many of the traded goods and technological innovations helped them directly with the reclamation of the mountain region. New metalworking techniques, for example, led to the development of the bronze sickle that mountain farmers could use to harvest grain, straw and hay. This provided the fodder for livestock, which in turn provided them with milk, hides, wool and meat – food and goods to trade in at the same time. Over time, the residents of the area adapted their surroundings, but also their agriculture, to the needs and conditions, as finds show. So they bred new, resilient types of grain, but also breeds of livestock. “They didn’t just passively accept what nature offered them. That changes our image of prehistoric people, ”says Höpfer.
The first results of their excavations and research were published in the latest edition of the archaeological excavations in Baden-Württemberg, the yearbook of state monument preservation.
Source: University of Tübingen; Professional article: Archaeological excavations in Baden-Württemberg 2019, 2020, 24-27