Hinkelstein culture
Geographical range | Europe |
---|---|
Period | Neolithic |
Dates | circa 5,000 B.C.E. — circa 4,900 B.C.E. |
Major sites | Rhine-Main, Rhenish Hesse |
Preceded by | Linear Pottery culture |
Followed by | Rossen culture |
The Hinkelstein culture is a Neolithic archaeological culture situated in Rhine-Main and Rhenish Hesse, Germany. It is a Megalithic culture, part of the wider Linear Pottery horizon, dating to approximately the 50th to 49th century BC.
The culture's name is due to a suggestion of Karl Koehl of Worms (1900). Hinkelstein is the term for menhir in the local Hessian dialect, after a menhir discovered in 1866 in Monsheim. Hinkel is a Hessian term for "chicken"; the Standard German name for menhirs, Hünenstein "giants' stone", having sometimes been jokingly mutated into Hühnerstein "chicken-stone".
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Vessel_from_Grossgartacher_Gruppe%2C_Viesenh%C3%A4user_Hof%2C_Stuttgart-M%C3%BChlhausen%2C_c._4700_BC%2C_ceramic_-_Landesmuseum_W%C3%BCrttemberg_-_Stuttgart%2C_Germany_-_DSC02724.jpg/220px-Vessel_from_Grossgartacher_Gruppe%2C_Viesenh%C3%A4user_Hof%2C_Stuttgart-M%C3%BChlhausen%2C_c._4700_BC%2C_ceramic_-_Landesmuseum_W%C3%BCrttemberg_-_Stuttgart%2C_Germany_-_DSC02724.jpg)
![Hinkelstein culture is located in Germany](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ed/Germany_adm_location_map.svg/261px-Germany_adm_location_map.svg.png)
![Rhine-Main](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0c/Red_pog.svg/8px-Red_pog.svg.png)
Rhine-Main
![Rhenish Hesse](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0c/Red_pog.svg/8px-Red_pog.svg.png)
Rhenish Hesse
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Map of Germany showing important sites that were occupied in the Hinkelstein culture (clickable map).References
- Jean-Paul Farrugia: Hinkelstein, explication d'une seriation (Coll Interreg. Neol. 1997), S. 467-517.
- C. Koehl: Neue Stein- und frühmetallzeitliche Gräberfunde bei Worms. Korrbl. DAG 31, 1900, 137-142.
- E. Probst: Deutschland in der Steinzeit, München 1986
- H. Spatz: Hinkelstein und Großgartach - Kontinuität und Wandel. In AiD 3/1996 S. 8-13