The town of Königsaue in the district

Aschersleben-Staßfurt Aschersleben-Staßfurt was a district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany until 2007. It was bounded by (from the northeast and clockwise) the districts of Schönebeck, Bernburg, Mansfelder Land, Quedlinburg and Bördekreis. History The two districts ...

, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany was destroyed in the course of opencast

lignite Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...

mining in 1964. The inhabitants were resettled to the town of Neu-Königsaue, ca. 1 km north of the former location.

Palaeolithic site

Königsaue is also a middle palaeolithic find spot. It dates to about 80.000 BP, the

Eemian The Eemian (also called the last interglacial, Sangamonian, Sangamonian Stage, Ipswichian, Mikulin, Kaydaky, penultimate,NOAA - Penultimate Interglacial Period http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/global-warming/penultimate-interglacial-period Valdivia or Ri ...

(

Ipswichian The Eemian (also called the last interglacial, Sangamonian Stage, Ipswichian, Mikulin, Kaydaky, penultimate,NOAA - Penultimate Interglacial Period http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/global-warming/penultimate-interglacial-period Valdivia or Riss-Würm) wa ...

)

interglacial An interglacial period (or alternatively interglacial, interglaciation) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene in ...

. The site most probably was a seasonal hunting camp at the shore of lake Aschersleben that was completely drained at the beginning of the 18th century by an order of Friedrich II. It was discovered in 1963 by Dieter Mania during rescue excavations in the course of

mining (opencast mine Königsaue 1, 1918 – 1977) in a depth of 17 m.

Stratigraphy

Three settlement layers can be distinguished, separated by limnic sediments. The first layer (A) is dated to the beginning of the interstadial. The vegetation is still turning to boreal, an open steppe type habitat, the pollen assemblage dominated by grasses. Layer C coincides with the climatic optimum. Tree pollen rise to 70%, birch and pine dominate.

Finds

Ca. 6000 flints have been excavated, including a few bifacially worked knives (Keilmesser) and small pointed hand axes of Micoquien type (Faustkeilblätter). The bifacial tools are most common in layer A, while prepared cores are typical for layer B. Numerous unretouched blades and small debitage point to intense local tool production. The site may have been used as a base camp. In layer C bifacial tools again predominate. Layers A and C belong to the Micoquien, B to the Mousterian. Animal bones show that Mammoth, woolly haired rhino, horses, red deer and reindeer were hunted. Some pieces of worked wood have been preserved as well.

Pitch

The most famous finds from Königsaue are two pieces of birch-pitch (layers A and B), one of which shows the partial

finger-print A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science. Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surfa ...

of a Neanderthal. It shows the impression of a piece of wood as well and was thus used for hafting a composite tool. It is the oldest evidence for the use of chemical processes (dry

destillation Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heati ...

) up to now (=2004). The pieces are black, of a longish shape and show traces of kneading. Chemical analysis (

gas-chromatography Gas chromatography (GC) is a common type of chromatography used in analytical chemistry for separating and analyzing compounds that can be vaporized without decomposition. Typical uses of GC include testing the purity of a particular substance, ...

) confirm the identification as birch-pitch (presence of

betulin Betulin is an abundant, naturally occurring triterpene. It is commonly isolated from the bark of birch trees. It forms up to 30% of the dry weight of silver birch bark. It is also found in birch sap. '' Inonotus obliquus'' and red alder also co ...

). The bigger piece shows impressions of a retouched stone artefact and of a split piece of wood, most probably a wooden haft of a bifacial tool. There are weak traces of

s, but the whorl-pattern could not be identified.

External links

Sachsen-Anhalt State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology

(Emergency banknotes) {{DEFAULTSORT:Konigsaue Archaeological sites in Germany Former populated places in Germany

Palaeolithic site

Stratigraphy

Finds

Pitch

Further reading

External links