Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology, is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, biofacts or ecofacts and cultural landscapes. Archaeology can be considered a branch of the humanities. In North America archaeology is a sub-field of anthropology, while in Europe it is viewed as either a discipline in its own right or a sub-field of other disciplines. Archaeologists study human prehistory and history, from the development of the first stone tools at Lomekwi in East Africa 3.3 million years ago up until recent decades. Archaeology is distinct from palaeontology, the study of fossil remains, it is important for learning about prehistoric societies, for whom there may be no written records to study. Prehistory includes over 99% of the human past, from the Paleolithic until the advent of literacy in societies across the world. Archaeology has various goals, which range from understanding culture history to reconstructing past lifeways to documenting and explaining changes in human societies through time.
The discipline involves surveying and analysis of data collected to learn more about the past. In broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research, it draws upon anthropology, art history, ethnology, geology, literary history, semiology, textual criticism, information sciences, statistics, paleography, paleontology and paleobotany. Archaeology developed out of antiquarianism in Europe during the 19th century, has since become a discipline practiced across the world. Archaeology has been used by nation-states to create particular visions of the past. Since its early development, various specific sub-disciplines of archaeology have developed, including maritime archaeology, feminist archaeology and archaeoastronomy, numerous different scientific techniques have been developed to aid archaeological investigation. Nonetheless, archaeologists face many problems, such as dealing with pseudoarchaeology, the looting of artifacts, a lack of public interest, opposition to the excavation of human remains.
The science of archaeology grew out of the older multi-disciplinary study known as antiquarianism. Antiquarians studied history with particular attention to ancient artifacts and manuscripts, as well as historical sites. Antiquarianism focused on the empirical evidence that existed for the understanding of the past, encapsulated in the motto of the 18th-century antiquary, Sir Richard Colt Hoare, "We speak from facts not theory". Tentative steps towards the systematization of archaeology as a science took place during the Enlightenment era in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. In Europe, philosophical interest in the remains of Greco-Roman civilization and the rediscovery of classical culture began in the late Middle Age. Flavio Biondo, an Italian Renaissance humanist historian, created a systematic guide to the ruins and topography of ancient Rome in the early 15th century, for which he has been called an early founder of archaeology. Antiquarians of the 16th century, including John Leland and William Camden, conducted surveys of the English countryside, drawing and interpreting the monuments that they encountered.
One of the first sites to undergo archaeological excavation was Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments in England. John Aubrey was a pioneer archaeologist who recorded numerous megalithic and other field monuments in southern England, he was ahead of his time in the analysis of his findings. He attempted to chart the chronological stylistic evolution of handwriting, medieval architecture and shield-shapes. Excavations were carried out by the Spanish military engineer Roque Joaquín de Alcubierre in the ancient towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, both of, covered by ash during the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79; these excavations began in 1748 in Pompeii, while in Herculaneum they began in 1738. The discovery of entire towns, complete with utensils and human shapes, as well the unearthing of frescos, had a big impact throughout Europe. However, prior to the development of modern techniques, excavations tended to be haphazard; the father of archaeological excavation was William Cunnington. He undertook excavations in Wiltshire from around 1798.
Cunnington made meticulous recordings of Neolithic and Bronze Age barrows, the terms he used to categorize and describe them are still used by archaeologists today. One of the major achievements of 19th-century archaeology was the development of stratigraphy; the idea of overlapping strata tracing back to successive periods was borrowed from the new geological and paleontological work of scholars like William Smith, James Hutton and Charles Lyell. The application of stratigraphy to archaeology first took place with the excavations of prehistorical and Bronze Age sites. In the third and fourth decades of the 19th-century, archaeologists like Jacques Boucher de Perthes and Christian Jürgensen Thomsen began to put the artifacts they had found in chronological order. A major figure in the development of archaeology into a rigorous science was the army officer and ethnologist, Augustus Pitt Rivers, who began excavations on his land in England in the 1880s, his approach was methodical by the standards of the time, he is regarded as the first scientific archaeologist.
He arranged his artifacts by type or "typologically, within types by date or "chronologically"
Berlin
Berlin is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3,748,148 inhabitants make it the second most populous city proper of the European Union after London; the city is one of Germany's 16 federal states. It is surrounded by the state of Brandenburg, contiguous with its capital, Potsdam; the two cities are at the center of the Berlin-Brandenburg capital region, which is, with about six million inhabitants and an area of more than 30,000 km², Germany's third-largest metropolitan region after the Rhine-Ruhr and Rhine-Main regions. Berlin straddles the banks of the River Spree, which flows into the River Havel in the western borough of Spandau. Among the city's main topographical features are the many lakes in the western and southeastern boroughs formed by the Spree and Dahme rivers. Due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. About one-third of the city's area is composed of forests, gardens, rivers and lakes; the city lies in the Central German dialect area, the Berlin dialect being a variant of the Lusatian-New Marchian dialects.
First documented in the 13th century and situated at the crossing of two important historic trade routes, Berlin became the capital of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world. After World War II and its subsequent occupation by the victorious countries, the city was divided. East Berlin was declared capital of East Germany. Following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all of Germany. Berlin is a world city of culture, politics and science, its economy is based on high-tech firms and the service sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations and convention venues. Berlin serves as a continental hub for air and rail traffic and has a complex public transportation network; the metropolis is a popular tourist destination. Significant industries include IT, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology and electronics.
Berlin is home to world-renowned universities, orchestras and entertainment venues, is host to many sporting events. Its Zoological Garden is one of the most popular worldwide. With the world's oldest large-scale movie studio complex, Berlin is an popular location for international film productions; the city is well known for its festivals, diverse architecture, contemporary arts and a high quality of living. Since the 2000s Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene. Berlin lies in northeastern Germany, east of the River Saale, that once constituted, together with the River Elbe, the eastern border of the Frankish Realm. While the Frankish Realm was inhabited by Germanic tribes like the Franks and the Saxons, the regions east of the border rivers were inhabited by Slavic tribes; this is why most of the villages in northeastern Germany bear Slavic-derived names. Typical Germanised place name suffixes of Slavic origin are -ow, -itz, -vitz, -witz, -itzsch and -in, prefixes are Windisch and Wendisch.
The name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of today's Berlin, may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. Since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city, it is therefore a canting arm. Of Berlin's twelve boroughs, five bear a Slavic-derived name: Pankow, Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Marzahn-Hellersdorf, Treptow-Köpenick and Spandau. Of its ninety-six neighborhoods, twenty-two bear a Slavic-derived name: Altglienicke, Alt-Treptow, Buch, Gatow, Kladow, Köpenick, Lankwitz, Lübars, Marzahn, Prenzlauer Berg, Schmöckwitz, Stadtrandsiedlung Malchow, Steglitz and Zehlendorf; the neighborhood of Moabit bears a French-derived name, Französisch Buchholz is named after the Huguenots. The earliest evidence of settlements in the area of today's Berlin are a wooden beam dated from 1192, remnants of a house foundation dated to 1174, found in excavations in Berlin Mitte; the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century.
Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920. The central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document, Berlin, across the Spree in what is now called the Nikolaiviertel, is referenced in a document from 1244. 1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, profited from the staple right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod. In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, their internal administrations still being separated. In 1415, Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. During the 15th century, his successors established Berlin-Cölln as capital of the margraviate, subsequent members of the Hohenzol
Speyer
Speyer is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, with 50,000 inhabitants. Located beside the river Rhine, Speyer is 25 km south of Mannheim. Founded by the Romans, it is one of Germany's oldest cities. Speyer is dominated by a number of churches and the Altpörtel. In the cathedral, beneath the high altar, are the tombs of eight Holy Roman Emperors and German kings; the city is famous for the 1529 Protestation at Speyer. The first known names were Noviomagus and Civitas Nemetum, after the Teutonic tribe, settled in the area; the name Spira is first recorded in the 7th century, taken from villa Spira, a Frankish settlement situated outside of Civitas Nemetum. In 10 BC, the first Roman military camp is established. In AD 150, the town appears as Noviomagus on the world map of the Greek geographer Ptolemy. In 346, a bishop for the town is mentioned for the first time. 4th century, Civitas Nemetum appears on the Peutinger Map. 5th century, Civitas Nemetum is destroyed. 7th century, the town is re-established, named Spira after a nearby Frankish settlement.
In 1030, emperor Conrad II starts the construction of Speyer Cathedral, today one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In the 11th century, the first city wall is built. In 1076, emperor Henry IV embarks from his favourite town, for Canossa. In 1084, establishment of the first Jewish community in Speyer. In 1096, as Count Emicho's Crusader army rages across the Rhineland slaughtering Jewish communities, Speyer's Bishop John, with the local leader Yekutiel ben Moses, manages to secure the community's members inside the episcopal palace and leads them to stronger fortifications outside the town, it was ruled. In 1294, the bishop loses most of his previous rights, from now on Speyer is a Free Imperial Town of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1349, the Jewish community of Speyer is wiped out. Between 1527 and 1689, Speyer is the seat of the Imperial Chamber Court. In 1526, at the Diet of Speyer interim toleration of Lutheran teaching and worship is decreed. In 1529, at the Diet of Speyer the Lutheran states of the empire protest against the anti-Reformation resolutions.
In 1635, Marshal of France Urbain de Maillé-Brézé, together with Jacques Nompar de Caumont, duc de La Force, conquers Heidelberg and Speyer at the head of the Army of Germany. In 1689, the town is damaged by French troops. Between 1792 and 1814, Speyer is under French jurisdiction after the Battle of Speyer. In 1816, Speyer becomes the seat of administration of the Palatinate and of the government of the Rhine District of Bavaria, remains so until the end of World War II. Between 1883 and 1904, the Memorial Church is built in remembrance of the Protestation of 1529. In 1947, the State Academy of Administrative Science is founded. In 1990, Speyer celebrates its 2000th anniversary. Cathedral Altpörtel – old town gate Gedächtniskirche – memorial church Dreifaltigkeitskirche – trinity church Jewish courtyard – remnants of medieval synagogue and intact mikve Technikmuseum Speyer – transportation museum Historical Museum of the Palatinate Speyer lies on the Schifferstadt-Wörth railway and offers hourly connections to Mannheim and Karlsruhe.
Since 1923 the mayor was a Lord Mayor. Speyer is twinned with: Spalding, United Kingdom, since 1956 Chartres, since 1959 Kursk, since 1989 Ravenna, since 1989 Gniezno, since 1992 Yavne, since 1998 Rusizi, since 1982/2001 Ningde, since October 2013 together with: Worms, since October 2014 Samuel of Speyer, Exeget of Torah and Midrash Judah ben Samuel of Regensburg and philosopher Julian of Speyer, medieval choir master and poet from the Order of the Franciscans Gabriel Biel, scholastic philosopher Dietrich Gresemund, author Egon VIII of Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg, Reichsgraf of Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg Johann Joachim Becher, German physician, precursor of chemistry and adventurer Moritz Georg Weidmann and bookseller Adolf von Dalberg, Prince of Fulda Simha of Speyer German rabbi and tosafist, he was one of the leading signatories of the Takkanot Shum. Philipp Hieronymus Brinckmann and historical painters as well as copper cutters Johann Martin Bernatz, landscape painter Anselm Feuerbach, German painter Carl Jakob Adolf Christian Gerhardt, German physician Henry Villard, German-American journalist Hermann von Stengel, Bavarian Administrative Officer Wilhelm Meyer, classical philologist and librarian Karl Heinrich Emil Becker, general of the artillery and defense scientist Hans Purrmann, graphic artist, art writer and collector Hermann Detzner, leader of the German Schutztruppe in German New Guinea Karl-Adolf Hollidt, Army officer and war criminal George Waldbott, German-American physician Jakob Brendel, wrestler Karl Haas, German-American music educator and radio presenter Helmut Bantz, gymnast Alfred Cahn, German musician and composer Edgar E. Stern, clinical social worker and aut
Urnfield culture
The Urnfield culture was a late Bronze Age culture of central Europe divided into several local cultures within a broader Urnfield tradition. The name comes from the custom of cremating the dead and placing their ashes in urns which were buried in fields. Over much of Europe, the Urnfield culture followed the Tumulus culture and was succeeded by the Hallstatt culture. Linguistic evidence and continuity with the following Hallstatt culture suggests that the people of this area spoke an early form of Celtic originally proto-Celtic, it is believed that in some areas, such as in southwestern Germany, the Urnfield culture was in existence around 1200 BC, but the Bronze D Riegsee-phase contains cremations. As the transition from the middle Bronze Age to the Urnfield culture was gradual, there are questions regarding how to define it; the Urnfield culture covers the phases Hallstatt A and B in Paul Reinecke's chronological system, not to be confused with the Hallstatt culture of the following Iron Age.
This corresponds to the Phases Montelius III-IV of the Northern Bronze Age. Whether Reinecke's Bronze D is included varies according to author and region; the Urnfield culture is divided into the following sub-phases: The existence of the Ha B3-phase is contested, as the material consists of female burials only. As can be seen by the arbitrary 100-year ranges, the dating of the phases is schematic; the phases are based on typological changes, which means that they do not have to be contemporaneous across the whole distribution. All in all, more radiocarbon and dendro-dates would be desirable; the Urnfield culture grew from the preceding tumulus culture. The transition is gradual, in the pottery as well as the burial rites. In some parts of Germany and inhumation existed simultaneously; some graves contain a combination of tumulus-culture pottery and Urnfield swords or tumulus culture incised pottery together with early Urnfield types. In the North, the Urnfield culture was only adopted in the HaA2 period.
16 pins deposited in a swamp in Ellmoosen cover the whole chronological range from Bronze B to the early Urnfield period. This demonstrates a considerable ritual continuity. In the Loire, Seine and Rhône, certain fords contain deposits from the late Neolithic onwards up to the Urnfield period; the origins of the cremation rite are believed to be in Hungary, where it was widespread since the first half of the second millennium BC. The neolithic Cucuteni–Trypillia culture of modern-day northeastern Romania and Ukraine were practicing cremation rituals as early as 5500 BC; some cremations begin to be found in the Trzciniec culture. The Urnfield culture was located in an area stretching from western Hungary to eastern France, from the Alps to near the North Sea. Local groups differentiated by pottery, include: Knovíz culture in western and Northern Bohemia, southern Thuringia and North-eastern Bavaria Milavce culture in southeastern Bohemia Unstrut culture in Thuringia, a mixture between Knovíz-culture and the South-German Urnfield culture Lusatian culture in northern Bohemia and PolandSouth-German Urnfield culture Northeast-Bavarian Group, divided into a lower Bavarian and an upper Palatinate group Lower-Main-Swabian group in southern Hesse and Baden-Württemberg, including the Marburger, lower Main and Friedberger facies Rhenish-Swiss group in Rhineland-Palatinate and eastern France, Lower-Rhine Urnfield culture Lower Hessian Group North-Netherlands-Westphalian group Northwest-Group in the Dutch Delta regionMiddle-Danube Urnfield culture Velatice-Baierdorf in Moravia and Austria Čaka in western Slovakia Gáva culture Piliny culture Kyjatice culture Makó cultureSometimes the distribution of artifacts belonging to these groups shows sharp and consistent borders, which might indicate some political structures, like tribes.
Metalwork is of a much more widespread distribution than pottery and does not conform to these borders. It may have been produced at specialised workshops catering for the elite of a large area. Important French cemeteries include Lingolsheim. An unusual earthwork was constructed at Goloring near Koblenz in Germany; the central European Lusatian culture forms part of the Urnfield tradition, but continues into the Iron Age without a notable break. The Piliny culture in northern Hungary and Slovakia grew from the Tumulus culture, but used urn burials as well; the pottery shows strong links to the Gáva culture, but in the phases, a strong influence of the Lusatian culture is found. In Italy the late Bronze Age Canegrate and Proto-Villanovan cultures and the early Iron Age Villanovan culture show similarities with the urnfields of central Europe. Urnfields are found in the French Catalonia from the 9th to 8th centuries; the change in burial custom was most influenced by developments further east. The Golasecca culture in northern Italy developed with continuity from the Canegrate culture.
Canegrate represented a new cultural dynamic to the area expressed in pottery and bronzework, making it a typical western example of the Urnfield culture, in particular the Rhine-Switzerland-Eastern France Urnfield culture. The Lepontic Celtic language inscriptions of the area show the language of the Golasecca culture was Celtic making it probable that the 13th-century BC language of at least the RSEF area of the western urnfields was Celtic or a precursor to it. Placename evidence has been used to point to an association of the Urnfie
Golden Hat of Schifferstadt
The Golden Hat of Schifferstadt was discovered in a field near the town of Schifferstadt in Southwest Germany in 1835. It is a Bronze Age artefact made of thin sheet gold and served as the external decoration of a head-dress of an organic material, with a brim and a chin-strap; the hat is on display in the Historical Museum of the Palatinate in Speyer. It is one of a group of four similar artifacts known as the Golden hats, all cone-shaped Bronze Age head-dresses made of sheet gold; the Schifferstadt specimen was the oldest of the group of four known Golden hats, The Schifferstadt hat was the first to be discovered. After the example from Berlin, it is the best-preserved one preserved with the exception of a small part of the brim. Three associated bronze axes and a comparison with other Late Bronze Age metalwork date the Schifferstadt Hat to circa 1,400-1,300 BC; the hat, like its counterparts, is assumed to have served as a religious insignia for the deities or priests of a sun-cult common in Bronze Age Europe.
The hats are suggested to have served calendrical functions. The Schifferstadt Hat is a 350 g gold cone, subdivided into horizontal ornamental bands, applied in the repoussé technique, it has a undecorated tip. The shaft is squat, with a distinct widening and a wide brim at the bottom; the hat has a lower diameter of about 18 cm. The brim is 4.5 cm wide. At its base the gold sheet was wound around a copper wire for extra stability. Along its whole length the hat is decorated by rows of horizontal symbols and bands. Five different stamps and a chisel or liner were used to create the horizontal bands of repeated stamped symbols, following a systematic scheme; the optical separation of the individual ornamental bands was achieved by ring ribs or bands around the whole external face of the hat. The symbols in the bands are disk and circle motifs with an internal disk or buckle, surrounded by up to six concentric circles. Striking are two bands with eye-like motifs, resembling similar symbols on the hats of Ezelsdorf and Berlin.
Unlike the other known examples, the cone's top is not decorated with a star but left unembellished. The illustration shows the scheme of the shape and composition of the hat, as well as number of ornamental zones and of the number of stamps used for each; the Golden Hat of Schifferstadt was discovered on the 29th of April 1835, during agricultural work in a field named Reuschlache, one km north of Schifferstadt. On the following day the find was handed to officials at Speyer part of the Kingdom of Bavaria; the known circumstances suggest a cult-related deposition: The hat was buried upright, about 60 cm deep. Its top reached to just below the ground surface; when found the hat stood on a slab of back-burnt clay. It was filled with an earth-ashes mixture, of which nothing remains; the clay slab, which crumbled during its recovery and is now lost, sat on a one-inch layer of sand, placed in a rectangular pit. Three bronze axes were leaning against the cone; the hat is hammered from a single piece of gold alloy of 86.37 % 13 % Ag, 0.56 % Cu and 0.07 % Sn.
Its average thickness is 0.2 to 0.25 cm, except the brim, far thinner, at 0.08 to 0-13 mm. The latter may suggest. If the amount of gold used for the hat was moulded into a square bar, it would only measure 2.5 cm square. Such a bar or lump was hammered to the thickness of a modern sheet of printing paper during its production; because of the tribological characteristics of the material, it tends to harden with increasing deformation, increasing its potential to crack. To avoid cracking, an even deformation was necessary. Additionally, the material had to be softened by heating it to a temperature of at least 750 °C. Since gold alloy has a low melting point of circa 960 °C, a careful temperature control and an isothermal heating process were required, so as to avoid melting any of the surface. For this, the Bronze Age artisans used a charcoal oven similar to those used for pottery; the temperature could only be controlled through the addition of oxygen. In the course of its further manufacture, the hat was embellished with rows of radial ornamental bands, chased into the metal.
To make this possible, it was filled with a putty or pitch based on tree resin and wax, traces of which have survived. The thin gold leaf was structured by chasing: stamp-like tools or moulds depicting the individual symbols were pressed into the exterior of the gold. Golden hats Berlin Gold Hat, circa 1,000 – 800 BC Golden Cone of Ezelsdorf-Buch, circa 1,000 – 800 BC Avanton Gold Cone, circa 1,000 – 900 BC Nebra skydisk, circa 2,100 – 1,700 BC Gold und Kult der Bronzezeit.. Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg 2003. ISBN 3-926982-95-0 Wilfried Menghin: Acta Praehistorica et Archaeologica. Unze, Potsdam 32.2000, S. 31-108. ISSN 0341-1184 Peter Schauer: Die Goldblechkegel der Bronzezeit – Ein Beitrag zur Kulturverbindung zwischen Orient und Mitteleuropa. Habelt, Bonn 1986. ISBN 3-7749-2238-1 Gerhard Bott: Der Goldblechkegel von Ezelsdorf.. Theiß, Stuttgart 1983. ISBN 3-8062-0390-3 Mark Schmidt: Von Hüten, Kegeln und Kalendern oder Das blendende Licht des Orients. in: Ethnographisch-Archäologische Zeitschrift.
Berlin 43.2002, p. 499-541. ISSN 0012-7477 Ernst Probst: Deutschland in der Bronzezeit. Bauern, Bronzegießer und Burgherren zwischen Nordsee und Alpen. München 1999. ISBN 3-572-01059-4 On Schifferstadt town website Historisches Museum der Pfalz
Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte (Berlin)
The Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, part of the Berlin State Museums, is one of major archaeological museums of Germany, among the largest supra-regional collections of prehistoric finds in Europe. It was located in the former theatre building by Carl Ferdinand Langhans, next to Schloss Charlottenburg, encompasses six exhibition halls on three floors. Since October 2009, the museum's exhibitions are now displayed in the Neues Museum on Museum Island. Apart from a permanent exhibition, it houses temporary exhibits. Attached to the museum is a specialised library on prehistoric archaeology with over 50,000 volumes. Furthermore, the museum houses the Commission for the exploration of archaeological collections and documents from northeast Central Europe, a project for the study of ancient Egyptian calendars, a number of other bodies; the collection goes back to the Cabinet of curiosities and art collection of the Hohenzollern who assembled an initial collection of ancient finds from 1830 onwards in Schloss Monbijou under the name "Museum Vaterländischer Altertümer".
The collection moved first to the Neues Museum in 1886, to the Ethnographic Museum and in 1921 into the Martin-Gropius-Bau, where it was renamed "Staatliches Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte" in 1931. The museum's financial supporters and contributors of material included Rudolf Virchow and Heinrich Schliemann. After World War II, parts of the collections were confiscated by the Soviet Union; the Museum moved to Schloss Charlottenburg in 1960. After German reunification, the collection of the East Berlin "Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte " was incorporated; the museum visit takes the form of a circuit walk. It includes the following rooms: The Rudolf-Virchow-Studio contains an overview of the technological history of the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age, it contains PCs with interactive displays and a lecture hall. Der Schliemann-Saal houses bronze and Iron Age finds from the Mediterranean and Central Asia and China, it contains a collection of Cypriot antiquities of international rank. The Stone Age and Bronze Age room shows European finds from those periods.
The displays include finds from the Palaeolithic sites of Combe-Capelle and Le Moustier, Ice Age art and the development of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic tools. It presents the Neolithic cultures of Europe from Linear Pottery to Bell beaker; the Bronze Age collection includes material illustrating the development of metallurgy, of cult and of funerarary habits. The geographic range extends from Western Europe to Northern Germany and Scandinavia, but to East Central Europe, the Alps and Danube region and Northern Italy; the Gold Room contains precious individual finds of Bronze Age metal. Room 5 is devoted to the period from the early Iron Age to the Middle Ages, it begins with finds from the Hallstatt culture of the Alps and the Sticna cuirass, followed by Celtic and Roman material. The Middle Ages are documented through the exhibition of coins, clothing and other finds. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin: Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte
Avanton Gold Cone
The Avanton Gold Cone or Avanton Cone is a late Bronze Age artefact, belonging to the group of Golden hats, only four of which are known so far. The Avanton Cone was the second such object to be discovered, it was found in 1844 in a field near the village of Avanton, about 12 km north of France. The object was damaged; the remaining part of the Avanton cone is 55 cm long and weighs 285 g. Dated to the Middle Bronze and suggested to be a fertility symbol, it now appears to be of date and more complex function; the Avanton Cone is on display in the Musée d'Archéologie Nationale at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris. Berlin Gold Hat, circa 1,000-800 BC Golden Hat of Schifferstadt, ca. 1400-1300 BC Golden Cone of Ezelsdorf-Buch, circa 1,000-800 BC Tourism website referring to the Avanton Cone Gold und Kult der Bronzezeit.. Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg 2003. ISBN 3-926982-95-0 Wilfried Menghin: Acta Praehistorica et Archaeologica. Unze, Potsdam 32.2000, S. 31-108. ISSN 0341-1184 Peter Schauer: Die Goldblechkegel der Bronzezeit – Ein Beitrag zur Kulturverbindung zwischen Orient und Mitteleuropa.
Habelt, Bonn 1986. ISBN 3-7749-2238-1
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