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Wittlingen

Material name: Hornstone (chert) of the Wittlingen-type
Synonyms: Wittlinger Hornstein, Hornstein der Wittlinger Trümmerkalke
Material (geologic): Jurassic (Malm) chert
Detail of Jurassic chert from Wittlingen
Foto: Elburg/van der Kroft, 2000


Locality: Wittlingen near Bad Urach, Tutlingen district, Suabian Alb, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Synonyms: N/A
Geographical co-ordinates: Lat. 48° 27' 45" N
Long. 009° 27' 01" E
(Mapdatum WGS 84)

Additional information: Block of typical material from Wittlingen
Foto: Andreas Kinne, 2001
  As we visited Wittlingen at the end of March 2000, winter came back with temperatures around the freezing point, icey fog and some snow. Visibility during our survey of the site was under 50 metres, so taking pictures was quite impossible. Basically, we were very happy to be back in the car, drive down to Urach, and get us a warm lunch of "Käsespätzles".

A word of warning about these local noodles from southern Germany: unless you have a ravenous appetite, better try to get a children's portion or share a plate with somebody. Most people, like Paul, need only a few fork-fulls to feel completely stuffed, but they are exactly the thing you need when it's wet and/or could outside. Besides that, the local beer is very good. Try to get "Fürstenberg", or even better, "Rothaus-Bräu", of which brewery the small, 0.3 litre, bottles called "Tannenzäpfle" (fir-cone), compete for the title of "Germany's best beer". Remember that a normal beer in Germany is half a litre, which can be a bit hefty if you don't want to spend the rest of the afternoon in a bar, sampling the local brew instead of topping up your collection of silicious stones.

Luckily, about a year later Andreas was around to shoot a picture of the site. In the above foto you are looking across the field where most of the sampling was done.

For a full-blown picture of this sample, click here (83 KBytes). Freshly struck flake
Foto: Elburg/van der Kroft, 2000
Recent core of chert from Wittlingen
Foto: Elburg/van der Kroft, 2000
For a full-blown version of this picture, click here (88 KBytes).
Material and colour: N/A
Archaeological description: Wittlingen has been identified as a major source of chert and a very possible mining-site, only quite recently (Strien 2000). Literature on the material is accordingly scarce. The very distinct chert was heavyly used throughout the neolithic, and Wittlingen itself is a well-known paleolithic site. We hope to bring more references and information in a following update.
 

Last modified on:
December 25, 2001
Contents primarily by:
Rengert Elburg
Comments to: