Ancient wheel tracks in Northern Germany

Left: Two parallel strips in the area of ​​the Stone Age cemetery at Flintbek have been identified as 5400 year old wagon tracks. © Dieter Stoltenberg. Right: Cattle carts were probably used to build the megalithic tombs. Artistic representation on the cover of the publication © Susanne Beyer

In present-day Schleswig-Holstein, carts on wheels were apparently rolling astonishingly early: This is evident from traces more than 5,400 years old that were discovered in the area of ​​one of the largest megalithic cemeteries in Europe. It is the earliest evidence of the use of the wheel and cart, the scientists say.

A concept that literally got technological development rolling: the wheel was one of the most important inventions of mankind. It was invented in the Neolithic Age – but when and where exactly wheels first set wagons in motion is still unclear today. For a long time, the early cultures of the Middle East were considered the origin of innovation – findings point to the late fourth millennium BC. However, there was also evidence of the use of chariots and wheels from Europe that fell into the same era. A precise chronological and local classification of the invention was therefore not possible until now.

Traces in the area of ​​a megalithic cemetery

As the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel is now reporting, excavations in Flintbek near Kiel have made an important contribution to the history of the wheel and wagon. There are the remains of a monumental burial ground from the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Scientists have been investigating the site for several years as part of a research program coordinated by Johannes Müller from the Kiel Institute for Prehistory and Protohistory. His colleague Doris Mischka from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg now reports on the finds and findings in her book Das Neolithikum in Flintbek. A fine chronological study of settlement history based on graves”.

In the megalithic cemetery, the archaeologists found seven Stone Age megalithic tombs and 14 burial mounds that lined up in a crescent shape. With the help of radiocarbon dating, they were able to prove that the area was used for the first burials around 5,800 years ago. Around 3300 BC However, the researchers found that around 3000 BC there was a marked change in architecture: people began to bury their dead in large chambers with entrances made of stone. In this era, the Flintbeker sickle was probably the ritual center for the entire region, reports Mischka.

Wagon tracks stand out

To the time around 3400 BC. The two brown lines on the ground in the area of ​​the cemetery, which initially seemed inconspicuous, were also dated. During further investigations, the scientists then determined that the breadth of this discoloration corresponds exactly to that of Neolithic wooden wheels that were found in moors in northern Germany, among other places. In addition, the distances between the two grooves correspond exactly to the width known from the remains of Neolithic wagon axles.

The scientists therefore came to the conclusion that these are traces of carts that were probably once pulled by cattle. “The preserved wagon tracks, dated precisely around 3400 B.C. BC play an important role in the discussion on the invention of the wheel and wagon,” writes Mischka. Apparently, the then new technology was used in the construction of the monumental structures in the Flintbeker Sichel. With the dating result, the find stands out in particular: “The earliest evidence of this innovation can be found in Flintbek, which in many other regions of Europe and Southwest Asia only appeared in the late fourth millennium BC. Chr. is to be found,” writes the University of Kiel.

The finding is therefore also an indication that this key technology may not have been invented in the Middle East, as previously assumed. “It is clear that people in Central Europe were high-tech just as early as those in the Middle East,” says Müller. “The result puts Flintbek at the center of one of mankind’s most crucial innovations,” says the archaeologist.

Source: Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, original publication:
Mischka, Doris, 2022. The Neolithic at Flintbek. A detailed chronological study of settlement history based on graves. Early Monumentality and Social Differentiation 20. Verlag Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH (Bonn 2022).

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