Zur Forschungsgeschichte der Großen Grotte bei Blaubeuren (Alb-Donau-Kreis)

Abstract

On the Research History of the Große Grotte near Blaubeuren (Alb-Donau-Kreis)

This paper provides an overview of the research history and the current state of research at the Große Grotte site, with the aim of presenting the 60-year-old results of the excavations and the source situation in a modern light, so that they will be taken into account in future investigations and assessments of the site. The site, directly below the ruins of the Rusenschloss near Gerhausen, a part of Blaubeuren in the Alb-Donau district, was excavated in the late 1950s and early 1960s under the direction of G. Riek. With a total of ten layers assigned to the Middle Palaeolithic (very probably all MIS 4 and 3), it is the site with the longest Middle Palaeolithic stratigraphy on the Swabian Alb. Following a PhD thesis published in the 1980s, the site became known also beyond the region. Since this work, the finds have been repeatedly analysed according to the respective state of the art. Through our analyses of the lithic material, it was possible to refit core fragments that provide new information about the reduction strategies within the site. Likewise, the discovery of previously unpublished photographs of the excavations in the archives of the Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, made it possible to reconstruct the excavation sequence.