Settlements Its best known sites are Wartberg, near Kirchberg, Hasenberg, a hill near Lohne, as well as Güntersberg and Bürgel, hills near
Gudensberg (all of the above are located on basalt outcrops in the fertile
Fritzlar basin), and from the
Calden earthwork enclosure. Nearly all settlements identified so far are in hilltop locations: an enclosed site at Wittelsberg near
Amöneburg is an exception. Virtually all the known settlements appear to have come into existence several hundred years after the development of Wartberg pottery (see below); early Wartberg settlement activity remains mostly unknown as yet. Finds from the Wartberg and its sister sites included fragmented bones, mainly of
cattle,
pig,
sheep/
goat and
deer, but also of other wild animals, like
bear or
beaver; human bone fragments also occur in some of the settlements. Originally, the Wartberg (first excavated in the later 19th century) was interpreted as a
cult place, but the remains of coarse handmade pottery and of mud wall cladding do suggest settlement activity.
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.
Standing stones A loose distribution of
standing stones occurs in northern Hesse and west Thuringia. Although their dates are unknown, their geographic spread appears to coincide with that of Wartberg material, perhaps suggesting a connection.
Enclosures The Calden earthwork, a large enclosure northwest of modern
Kassel, was built around 3700 BC. It is an irregular enclosure of two ditches and a palisade, encompassing an area of 14 hectares. The enclosure has five openings, perhaps comparable to
British Causewayed enclosures. Although it can with some certainty be seen as derived from the
Michelsberg tradition, material associated with its early phases suggests a close connection with early Wartberg. It appears to have been a tradition for several centuries to bury animal bones (food refuse?) and broken pots in pits dug into the partially filled-in earthwork ditches. The ditches also contain the remains of many human inhumations. This activity continued until circa 2000 BC and was particularly intensive during the Wartberg period. Two nearby graves postdate the earthwork by several centuries, but coincide with that activity. While the original function of the earthwork is not necessarily explained by these finds, it appears likely that at least during later phases of its use it had a
ritual significance, perhaps connected with a cult of the dead. In contrast, the enclosure around the settlement at Wittelsberg appears to be simply protective/defensive in nature. ==Finds==