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Baiersdorf

Material name: Platy chert of the Baiersdorf-type
Synonyms: Paintener Wanne-type, Baiersdorf, Plattenhornstein Krustenhornstein ("crusted hornstone")
Material (geologic): Upper Jurassic (Tithonian/Malm ζ) chert

cross-section of typical plate
Foto: Matthias Rummer, 2001

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General characteristics

(In part adapted from Moser 1978, Binsteiner 1989 and Meyer et. al. 1994
 

Geographical setting: The occurrence of the material under discussion here is limited to one of the Upper Jurassic basins in the southern Franconian Alb, the so called Paintener Wanne. It is one of the larger of these numerous geological structures in the region, covering an area with an radius of ca. 6 kilometres around the name giving town of Painten 20 kilometres West of Regensburg. It is mostly wooded country on a plateau cut by small streams with an elevation of a bit over 500 metres above sea level. The southern border is formed by a steep slope, falling off ca. 150 metres down to the narrow valley of the Altmühl.
Material and colour: The three localities covered on this page have in common that the are lying in the same geological basin, but there are marked differences in the material found here. The most important type of chert is without a doubt the tabular to platy chert of the Baiersdorf-type. This material occurs in tablets with a thickness of up to a few centimetres, but most typically the plates used in prehistory are about 1 cm thick. The colour varies between light gray (N7), gray (N5), olive gray (5Y 4/2), brown (10YR 4/2-3) to reddish brown (5YR 5/4), but brownish gray to grayish brown hues are most typical. The texture can be quite coarse, but the prehistorically used material is fine to very fine and shows slight banding, but never as pronounced as the material from the other famous site in the region Abensberg-Arnhofen.
The chert from Baiersdorf is quite distinctive, and is readily distinguished from other types although it is better to speak of the Paintener Wanne-type, as very similar material is known from Emmerthal and the not yet sampled site of Paintener Forst. The most important characteristic of the plates is the, in most cases quite pronounced, difference in cortex between the two sides. The "underside" (as there is no primary exposure known of this type of chert, we don't know for sure which side is up) is covered with a thicker and smoother chalky cortex, whereas the upper surface is rough and pitted and mostly markedly thinner, as is clearly seen in the picture at the top. But as becomes clear in the other pictures below, quite a lot have cortex that is about equally thick. This type is known in the literature as 'sandwich tablets', the more typical material as 'Type 1' (Binsteiner 1989).

The material from Emmerthal is very similar, being tabular and slightly banded, but is mostly a bit stronger in colour varying from very pale brown (10YR 7/3-4), light brown (7.5YR 6/3) to reddish brown (5YR 5/4) and slightly coarser than the tablets from Baiersdorf. We have some more nodular material in our sample too which is gray to grayish yellow. We didn't find any tabular material with the typical Baiersdorf-cortex, most plates have similar limestoney material attached at both sides.

The odd one out in the area is the nodular material found around Hamberg. This site lies at the northern edge of the Painten-basin, and according to our not too detailed geological map in Meyer et. al. 1994 the cherts from this locality could be somewhat older, dating to the Kimmeridgian/Malm ε, although in Binsteiner 1990b the material is listed as Malm ζ1-2.
It is, like the other sites in the area, a secondary deposit in residual loam but the cherts in it are of the (flattish) nodular type only. The colour has been originally gray, but due to infiltration with iron oxides most pieces are now yellow to brownish yellow (10YR 6/6-7) and can be easily confused with some of the material from Lengfeld. For the very intensely coloured material, the local German name of Bohnerzjaspis could be used.

Other information: None of the sites in the Paintener Wanne has been excavated, and only the site of Baiersdorf has been published in more detail (Binsteiner 1989). Mining has been assumed for Emmerthal (Weisgerber et al. (eds.) 1999) on the very insecure ground, that the material seems to be concentrated in an area of 200 x 30 metres.
With the site of Baiersdorf mining isn't proven either, but seems quite probable. Geoelectric survey showed the bedrock in the underground to be very uneven, a possible sign of pits going down to, and maybe even into, the limestones underlying the residual loam. Probably the type of mining can be compared with that of Lengfeld, one of the only two sites in the wider region that have been excavated and where active extraction is actually proven. The amounts of chert of the Baiersdorf/Paintener Wanne-type that have been found in archaeological context all over Central Europe alone require some kind of mining. If this has been restricted to Baiersdorf itself or if there are still other unknown sites is something that can only be guessed at with the actual very poor level of research.
Apart from a fleeting mention in Binsteiner 1990b, where the site is listed as a source of Jurassic chert, no further information has been published about Hamberg and the neighbouring site of Wolflier.
Knapping notes: The material from Baiersdorf knaps very nicely. The thicker tablets are a bit coarser, giving quite straight fractures without pronounced bulbs of percussion. Preparation is hardly necessary as the edges with cortex always give good ridges for blades and elongated flakes to follow. The thinner tablets are a lot finer and are easily worked too, but I find them too thin to used them as cores. They are ideal for making bifaces and can be retouched very nicely by pressure flaking, and that is why the material was very popular during the Late Neolithic.
The material we found at Emmerthal is very similar to the coarser chert from Baiersdorf, but is less homogeneous and therefore a bit inferior. We didn't take a lot of material from this site, so there might be better quality material around we didn't find. The few nodules and fragments we gathered at Hamberg are of the generic type of Jurassic chert from the Southern Franconian Alb. It is well workable, but nothing special and we found similar but much better material on sites like Alling. The only thing that can be said in favour of it, is that the two-toned pieces are visually very pleasing.
Archaeological description: Although not so widespread as the material from Abensberg-Arnhofen, lithics made from the material from Baiersdorf/Paintener Wanne can be found in quite a large area, and its archaeology is quite well published. Finds are known from Lower-Saxony (ca. 300 kilometres to the Northwest, Werben & Wulf 1992), Thuringia (over 250 km to the NNW, Limpert 1936, Albert 1962), Bohemia (also nearly 250 kilometres from the source, Vencl 1985) and recently the first piece, illustrated here below (scale approx. 1:1), has been recognized in Saxony (Elburg & Van der Kroft 2001).
In the (mostly German) literature, the material is known variously as Südbayerischer Plattenhornstein, Krustenhornstein or Plattensilex. If all these materials really originate in the Paintener Wanne is not clear. Some of the typical artefacts could haven been made on similar local materials.
  Typical bifacial tool of Baiersdorf chert
Foto: Matthias Rummer, 2001
  The use of the typical tabular chert starts in the Middle Paleolithic, as a few specimens in the nearby Sesselfelsgrotte show. In the Upper Paleolithic it becomes a very popular material, with for example the whole Gravettian in the Sesselfelsgrotte being characterized by the working of tabular Jurassic chert (Weißmuller 1995b).
With the beginning of the Neolithic, the material becomes more and more popular in the region, like in one of the few excavated settlements in the region, Hienheim. On this well-published site, 10 to 20 % of the raw material in the Linear Pottery Culture could be identified as tabular chert from the Paintener Wanne. In the Middle Neolithic the share of this type of silex in the lithic industry rises to over 50% (de Grooth 1994).
Its highest popularity and Widest distribution is nevertheless reached in the Late Neolithic, as the manufacture of bifacial tools becomes more widespread. Around the middle of the 4th millennium cal. BC the typical knives and sickles made from thin plates can be found in the area sketched above. Most material is found in association with the Michelsberg and Altheim Cultures, with the specimens from the east coming from TRB (Funnel Beaker) context as long distance imports. The distribution in later periods is somewhat unclear, and seems a lot more restricted, but locally the material will probably have been used well into the Bronze Age.


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Baiersdorf
Locality: Baiersdorf, Kelheim district, Franconian Alb, Bavaria, Germany
Synonyms: Mining site D 17, according to the catalogue of the museum in Bochum, 3rd edition (Weisgerber et al. (eds.) 1999).
Geographical description: The site of Baiersdorf is situated on a not very pronounced ridge between the villages of Baiersdorf and Keilsdorf, about 25 kilometres West southwest of Regensburg in Lower Bavaria. The site is not much too look at: some fields and a few trees. The supposed prehistoric mining district covers the whole of the upper part of the ridge, some 35 hectares in all.
Geographical co-ordinates: Lat. 48° 57' 38" N
Long. 011° 45' 12" E
(Mapdatum WGS 84)



click here for a detailed topographical map (58 KBytes). or here for a map with further sites in the Regensburg region.

The co-ordinates given were taken at the southern edge of the main site, which lies between the sampling point as indicated on the detailed map and the road between Baiersdorf and Keilsdorf. The richest concentration lies slightly to the south of the highest point, marked with its elevation of 536 asl.

Co-ordinate precision: The coordinates given above were taken with a handheld GPS-receiver and are to be trusted within 10 metres or so. The centre of the site lies at 48° 57' 49" N, 011° 45' 12" E. If you are using a older German topographic map, the coordinates in the Gauß-Krüger system are R: 4482100, H: 5425100.
Finding yourself anywhere between the villages of Baiersdorf and Keilsdorf, especially South of the connecting road, will do to stand in the middle of the hornstone scatter as the site covers over a third of a square kilometre.
Other topographical information: If you come from outside the region, the easiest way to get to the site is to leave the A93 Motorway which connects Munich with Regensburg at exit 48 "Hausen", towards Hausen and Kelheim in the West. Follow the local road to Kelheim, cross the Danube and the town and leave it at the Western end, towards Riedenburg and Beilngries. This is the touristic route Deutsche Ferienroute Alpen-Ostsee, following the Altmühl river, and is indicated on every good road map. After a bit more than 11 kilometres, you come to the village of Prunn, leave the road here, cross the village and take the road towards the North. This small road follows a narrow valley and rises steeply through the woods. As soon as you leave the woods, there is a fork in the road, take the left branch and after another kilometre, you are in Baiersdorf. Take a right turn here, passing the church and leave the village at the eastern end towards Keilsdorf. The sampling area is to the south of the road
The last part of the way, between Prunn and the sampling site can be seen on the detailed topographical map above.
Additional information: Hazy view towards Baiersdorf
Foto: Rengert Elburg, 2000
  Sorry about the picture, but the guys at the laboratory had a black-out and put the negatives in the tank with developer for slides. Interesting effect, but not directly what we would want to publish. We hope to get down there sometime soon to get you a decent view of the site.
The picture was taken in April 2000, as we did a large excursion through Southern Germany. Instead of balmy spring weather, winter came back for an encore, and covered the higher ground with a very cold and mostly very wet veil of snow. The coldness and wetness weren't the major problems, but very restricted visibility of stones on this residual deposit was. The settlement in the background is the eponymous village of Baiersdorf, seen from the east.
Visitors information: During our excursion in the region, we stayed in Kelheim, which is the most central place in the area for visits to all sources in the region, but if you prefer larger towns, Baiersdorf is an easy drive out of Regensburg too. For more information about Kelheim on FlintSource, click here.
One word of warning: if you search the Web for more information about Baiersdorf, you will probably find several sites about another Baiersdorf, this one being a larger town directly to the North of Nürnberg.
Sampling information: The site is well accessible, as long as you are visiting outside the growing season, as the whole secondary deposit lies on arable land. Even during the spring and summer, you will probably be able to find some material directly alongside the roads and tracks crossing the area. Remember that this is private land, and behave accordingly. Don't go trampling all over the place when it has been sown.
According to the literature, there used to be a lot of cultural material around, mostly roughouts and broken or unfinished bifaces, but a quarter of a century of gathering by (sometimes not too serious) collectors left the site somewhat impoverished in this aspect. There is still a lot of material lying around, but even with a site of this size, the amount of good material is finite. If you visit, take a few good pieces of the different varieties, and make sure you get a fragment of one of the typical Baiersdorf-tablets with the different cortex on the two sides, but don't loot the place. Lithic artefacts belong in public museums, not in private collections. If you find good lithics, drop them at the local museum in Kelheim.
  Sample of typical brown platy chert
Foto: Matthias Rummer, 2001
 
Sample of typical brown platy chert with
equally thick cortex on both sides
Two toned chert from Baiersdorf
Foto: Matthias Rummer, 2001
 
Two toned chert from Baiersdorf
  Thin plate with typical rough top-cortex
Foto: Matthias Rummer, 2001
 
Thin plate with typical rough top-cortex
Fragment of gray chert
Foto: Matthias Rummer, 2001
 
Fragment of gray chert
Sample description: As we visited the site, visibility was far from ideal, with the ground covered in wet and melting snow. Still, we are quite confident, that our samples is representative for the material from Baiersdorf.
The two pieces in the top row are freshly struck flakes of high-quality, very fine chert. The thickness of the left hand piece is about a centimetre, the other one is 17 millimetres.
The specimen at the left in the bottom row is a very thin plate (thickness including cortex just 6 millimetres), slightly patinated, as we found it on the surface. The fragment next to it is a good example of the typical Baiersdorf-material with a very thin and pitted upper cortex and a smooth, thicker and chalky layer on the underside. The siliceous material is very fine with a silky gloss and slight banding. The colour varies between light gray (around 10YR 7/1) to yellowish brown (10YR 5/4), with some spots somewhat stronger in chroma. The thickness of the tablet is about 15 millimetres.


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Emmerthal
Locality: Emmerthal, Kelheim district, Franconian Alb, Bavaria, Germany
Synonyms: Emmerthal bei Riedenburg; "Emmerthal" a.d. Altmühl; Riedenburg-Emmerthal; mining site D 20, according to the catalogue of the museum in Bochum, 3rd edition (Weisgerber et al. (eds.) 1999).
Geographical description: The site of Emmerthal lies directly at the foot of the steep valley side of the Altmühl-river, about a kilometre and a half to the East of the town of Riedenburg in the southern Franconian Alb in Bavaria, Germany. The chert, which belongs to the Paintener Wanne-type, lies in secondary position on some fields to the south of the gully and the two houses that give the locality its name.
Geographical co-ordinates: Lat. 48° 57' 22" N
Long. 011° 43' 01" E
(Mapdatum WGS 84)



click here for a detailed topographical map (58 KBytes) or here for a map with further sites in the Regensburg region.
Co-ordinate precision: The co-ordinates given above are those read off our handheld GPS-unit. Projection on the official 1:50 000 digital map of the area shows them to be off by ca. 150 meters. This substantial error was probably caused by the torrential, freezing rain that came pouring down as we visited the site, as can be seen on the picture below. The correct co-ordinates, as taken off the topographical map should be: 48° 57' 30" N, 011° 43' 04" E. The signature on the detailed map is at the corrected position
Other topographical information: We assume, that you are visiting several sites in the area, and that you have already been to the most important spot in the immediate vicinity, Baiersdorf. Follow the directions for Baiersdorf (see above), up to the point where you leave the road at Prunn. Instead of leaving the road at Prunn, you drive another 800 metres, until the next possibility for leaving the road towards the North. There is a small chapel-like building here, and you get the view in the picture below. The sampling area lies in the fields between the road and the valley side. With the help of the detailed map, it shouldn't be to difficult to locate the spot.
Additional information: General view of sampling area with unpleasantly heavy precipitation
Foto: Rengert Elburg, 2000
  The photo above was taken in the very wet and cold spring of 2000, as we made our grand tour of the region. You are looking from the road that leaves the larger road from Kelheim to Riedenburg towards the side of the Altmühl-valley. The two houses in the background make up the eponymous Emmerthal. The flint can be found on the fields in the foreground.
Visitors information: The next place to get something to eat and drink is Riedenburg.
Sampling information: The site is not very rich and during our visit we found only a few dozen pieces of material that you could call chert. According to the only description of the site in Weisgerber et al. (eds.) 1999, there should be yellowish and sand-coloured tablets and nodules, but we found mostly low-grade grayish material. We might have missed the spot were the richest occurrence is, as the weather wasn't really inviting to spend more time than strictly necessary outside the car.
  Flake of typical tabular chert
Foto: Matthias Rummer, 2001
 
Flake of typical tabular chert
Piece with coarser and finer band from Emmerthal
Foto: Matthias Rummer, 2001
 
Piece with coarser and finer band from Emmerthal
  Fragment of coarse chert
Foto: Matthias Rummer, 2001
 
Fragment of coarse chert
Sample description: Like said above, most material we found in Emmerthal was generic gray stuff, hardly worth mentioning. The specimens showed here are fragments of chert that come closest to the original description. The colour varies from pinkish gray and light brown (7.5YR 6/2 to 6/4) to pale yellow (2.5Y 7/3) and light reddish brown (5YR 6/3).
The top left hand piece is a freshly struck flake with chalky cortex on both sides from a tablet with a thickness of 15 millimetres. The fragment next to it is a piece of a flattish nodule or tablet with a finer and a coarser band. It is not clear if there ever has been cortex present on the underside. Thickness is about 2 centimetres. The specimen underneath is 40 mm wide and was struck from a coarse flattish nodule.


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Hamberg
Locality: Hamberg near Hemau, Regensburg area, Bavaria, Germany
Synonyms: N/A
Geographical description: The source of Hamberg and the neighbouring site of Wolflier lie at the northern edge of the Upper Jurassic basin of the Paintener Wanne in the southern part of the Franconian Alb in Bavaria, Germany. The site takes its name from a hamlet consisting of a few farms, about 4 kilometres Southwest of the town of Hemau, 18 kilometres West of Regensburg. The slightly hilly area lies around 450 to 500 metres above sea level and is mixed agricultural- and woodland. The site itself lies on a gently northwards dipping slope, directly to the North of the hamlet.
Geographical co-ordinates: Lat. 49° 01' 21" N
Long. 011° 48' 37" E
(Mapdatum WGS 84)



click here for a detailed topographical map (35 KBytes) or here for a map with further sites in the Regensburg region.
Co-ordinate precision: The coordinates given were taken with a handheld GPS at the location indicated on the detailed topographical map. This is were our car was parked and were we selected the stones we found. The sampling area itself lies a bit more to the Northwest, directly to the North of Hamberg, somewhere around 49° 01' 32" N, 011° 48' 15" E, but material can be found all over the place.
The site of Wolflier is included on the map for completeness, as it is mentioned in Binsteiner 1990b as another possible source of chert. We had a very thourough look around in the wider area, but the few scraps of siliceous material we found lying around don't merit to be included in these pages.
Other topographical information: The fastest way to reach the site is leaving the A3 motorway which connects Regensburg with Nürnberg at exit 97 Nittendorf, towards the West in the direction of Hemau. Follow the main road B8 towards Hamau, after about 9 kilometres you pass through Hohenschambach, another two and a half kilometres further on, take a left turn to Klingen. Directly after you pass trough the village, there is a fork in the road, take the left branch. After about 1200 metres you come to the hamlet of Winkel, turn left here and follow the road for another kilometre until you come to Hamberg. The sampling area is to the North of the hamlet.
Additional information: General view of sampling area
Foto: Rengert Elburg, 2000
  What could and should have been a perfect picture full of atmosphere of the sampling site is now nothing more than a slightly hazy impression of the area, thanks to the guys in the photo-lab that put the negatives in the wrong tank. The photo was taken at the side of the road, directly to the North of Hamberg, looking towards the small chapel (on the detailed map it is were the height of 484 is indicated). Most of the material comes from the fields in the foreground.
Apart from a listing in Binsteiner 1990b as a (possible) source of chert used in prehistory, nothing else is published on the site. We didn't find any clear worked material or any other signs of human interference. It can't be ruled out that this source was used in prehistory for the extraction of raw material, but we haven't got any clear indication for it.
Visitors information: The nearest place to go for a drink or a bite is Hemau, where one of the inns (Gasthof Schloßbräu Hemau), has some rooms too.
Sampling information: As you can see from the site picture above, the conditions for sampling were far from ideal as we visited the site. A slight cover of snow, in combination with the stubble still on the fields made the visibility very poor. Probably the best time to visit the site is in later spring, after the fields have been ploughed and there has been some rain to wash the stones free.
  Flake of typical material
Foto: Matthias Rummer, 2001
 
Flake of typical material
Nodule of intensely coloured chert from Hamberg
Foto: Matthias Rummer, 2001
 
Nodule of intensely coloured chert from Hamberg
  Flake of chert with colouring starting in centre of nodule
Foto: Matthias Rummer, 2001
 
Flake of chert with colouring starting in centre of nodule
Sample description: Nearly all material we found are fragments of flattish nodules (Fladen in the German terminology) of not too large size. Most typical is secondary coloured material like the two pieces in the top row. The left hand side specimen is a bit over 4 cm wide, medium to fine grained with a matte surface. The core is brownish yellow (10YR 6/7), with a gray zone directly under the hard white cortex. This piece is very similar to some of the secondary coloured material from the mining site of Lengfeld.
The piece next to it is a kryoclastic fragment of a very flat nodule, about 2 cm thick. The core is strong brownish yellow (10YR 6/9) with dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/5) bands under the very dense cortex.
The piece below is a freshly struck flake of fine to very fine, slightly banded chert. It is a very nice example of how the secondary colouring, presumably by iron oxides, starts in the core of a nodule.

 

Last modified on:
February 15, 2002
Contents primarily by:
Rengert Elburg
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