The prehistoric settlement on the Schweighofer Mauer

A rock face that was home to bear hunters in Ötzi’s time.
The Schweighofer Mauer is a steep rock face in the village of Ertl in the Mostviertel region. Despite its exposed position and the limited space available, a small settlement of wooden houses was built here around 5,500 years ago in the Late Neolithic period. In the Middle Ages, Hartwigstein Castle was built over the settlement.

Cultured inhabitants
The finds made on the Schweighofer Mauer are known primarily for the wide variety of ‘Mondsee culture’ objects. Sickle blades, grinding stones and animal bones provide evidence that the inhabitants of that time lived mainly from agriculture, but that they also engaged in hunting and fishing. Their elaborately decorated drinking vessels show that alcoholic drinks were probably important to them too. Most of the tools and weapons (e.g. axes, drills, daggers, knives, scrapers, sickles, points, etc.) were made of wood, stones and bones. The inhabitants were also able to work with copper, as evidenced by the fragment of a cast spoon with metal residues adhering to it.

Jewellery and weapons
The variety of Stone Age jewellery discovered at the site is particularly impressive. It includes numerous small beads made from calcite, coal, bones and copper; in addition, animal teeth, claws and shimmering discs made from mussels were pierced and threaded onto necklaces. Pendants made from bears’ teeth, which were presumably very prestigious, were extremely impressive. Battleaxes were probably status symbols too, but could also be used as a weapon. Bows and arrows were used for both fighting and hunting. Axes and arrowheads indicate that the inhabitants of the rock face did not always live in peaceful conditions; this is likely to have been one of the reasons why they chose to settle there, given how difficult it was to access.