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Chert from Amlishagen

Material name:	Triassic chert from Amlishagen
Synonyms:	Carnelian.
Material (geologic):	Triassic chert

Foto: Matthias Rummer, 2001

Sampled sites:

Amlishagen

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General characteristics

	As we are redesigning the navigation for this region, this preliminary page is meant to give you in the meantime an impression of the locality and the material therefrom.
Geographical setting:	N/A
Material and colour:	The material from Amlishagen is extremely variable in colour, ranging from red via brownish to black, but wit a clear predominance of reddish hues and black. Those few pieces we could flake (see below) had a medium to fine texture with mostly matte surfaces on the fracture. Quite a few pieces showed attractive structures like cavities filled with chalcedony, as in the one depicted at the bottom of the page.
Other information:	Basically, we don't know anything about the region or the material. After visiting a exhibition about flint and flintworking in the museum in Stuttgart where Amlishagen was listed as a source of carnelian, we decided to see for ourselves. After quite a walk we found this site with nice looking but not too knappable flint. In the only literature on the geology of the wider region (Bachmann & Brunner 1998) at this moment at our disposal, only some basic information is given. Here loam with flint ("Feuersteinlehme") are mentioned for large parts of the Hohenlohe-region where Amlishagen lies. These residual sediments could date from the Plio-Pleistocene and the contained flints come probably from the Middle Keuper "Stubensandstein"-formation. We hope to bring you some more information as soon as it becomes available to us.
Knapping notes:	Most pieces we collected were to small to knap without serious risk to our fingers. Those pieces that were large enough to have a try on without self mutilation were extremely splittery and hardly ever yielded a usable flake, something we have observed regularly in Triassic chert. The fact that these stones have been reworked, and by the look of it quite heavily rolled and rounded, certainly will not have helped to improve their knapping qualities. There might be better material around in the region, but we haven't been looking for it yet. There are sources with a lot higher priority still waiting to be sampled with known good material.
Archaeological description:	Like already said above, we don't know much about the area and source. It was listed as a site with chert used in prehistory, but after seeing the stuff, we would walk a very long way to find something better.

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Amlishagen

Locality:	Amlishagen, Hohenlohe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Synonyms:	N/A
Geographical description:	The fields where we did our sampling lie directly at the Northeast of the village. As we visited the site, we made a long walk around the village and didn't find any other stones in an area of approx. 3 kilometers.
Geographical co-ordinates:	Lat. 49° 16' 06" N Long. 009° 58' 03" E (Mapdatum WGS 84)
Co-ordinate precision:	The co-ordinates were taken with a hand held GPS-unit at the edge of the field, from about the same position as where the foto below was taken. Precision within a few meters.
Other topographical information:	Getting by car to Amlishagen is not too difficult, but have at least a good road map, when not a decent topographical one, ready as the whole area is full of small by-roads and is strewn with villages that all look (more or less) the same. After leaving the motorway A6, which leads from Heilbronn to Nürnberg, at exit 46 "Crailsheim" to the North in the direction of Rot am See and Blaufelden, you find yourself on the B290. Follow this road for about 11 kilometers until you cross the railroad-tracks just North of Brettenfeld. Here you turn to the left into a local road which leads you directly to Amlishagen. The fields with chert lie to the North of the road, just as you enter the village.
Additional information:	Foto: Rengert Elburg, 2001
	The picture above was taken in the middle of August and shows the freshly ploughed fields where we did our sampling. The village of Amlishagen lies just beyond the right hand side of the foto.
Visitors information:	During our trip in the region, we stayed in Künzelsau, some 20 kilometers to the West, and had some of the worst Spätzles we ever tasted, so we are not going to recommend the place , although the town seems quite nice. A bit to the East from Amlishagen, in the direction of Brettenfeld there seems to be a camping place and near Rot am See we saw several bed-and-breakfast signs. In all, the region seems quite popular with German tourists, and the infrastructure accordingly developed.
Sampling information:	During our trip we were lucky to find the fields ploughed and after some rain the stones were there to be picked up. Late summer and early autumn seem to be the time to visit this site. During winter most of the region is covered in snow and during the growing season it will be quite unpopular with the local farmers to take a stroll through their fields.

For a full-blown picture of this sample, click here (74 KBytes).	Foto: Matthias Rummer, 2001	Foto: Matthias Rummer, 2001	SomeDescription WhenNecessary For a full-blown version of this picture, click here (66 KBytes).
For a full-blown picture of this sample, click here (64 KBytes).	Foto: Matthias Rummer, 2001	Foto: Matthias Rummer, 2001	SomeDescription WhenNecessary For a full-blown version of this picture, click here (77 KBytes).

Sample description:

N/A

For a full-blown picture of this sample, click here (58 KBytes).

Foto: Matthias Rummer, 2001

SomeDescription WhenNecessary

For a full-blown version of this picture, click here (87 KBytes).

Last modified on:
December 27, 2001

Contents primarily by:
Rengert Elburg

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