The Neolithic village on the Kogelberg in Zöbing

Today a well-known vineyard, the Zöbinger Kogelberg was a well-protected settlement site a good 4,700 years ago.

Around 4,700 years ago, there was a small fortified settlement on the Kogelberg in Zöbing directly above the Kamp. After initial chance discoveries, the priest Anton Hrodegh, who had studied prehistory, began "trial excavations" and published the new discovery in several scientific journals in 1922. Further finds were collected over the following decades.

Well protected and nourished
The well-protected location from attackers was probably the reason for settling here. Towards the Kamp, the site is protected by a 90 m deep escarpment, and there are deep natural ditches on two other sides. A fortification ditch with palisades was built on the remaining access side in the Neolithic period. The exact size of the settlement and the population is not known. However, we know from other sites that the people lived in clay-plastered wooden houses and farmed. They supplemented their diet with hunting, fishing and river mussels collected in the Kamp - numerous shells of which were found during the excavations.

A style-defining village
It is uncertain exactly how long the village existed, possibly only for a few decades, as the excavated tableware is quite uniform in design. As this makes it particularly suitable for stylistic analysis, archaeologist Elisabeth Ruttkay used it to define the so-called "Mödling-Zöbing group of the Jevišovice culture". Among other things, bulbous vessels with a roughened surface and raised "Ansa lunata" handles are typical of this ceramic style group from around 2700 BC. The rich decoration with ridges, incisions, notching and furrow stitching is also characteristic. Bone, stone and copper utensils were also discovered on the Kogelberg. Particularly interesting is a small stone axe with incised decoration, for which no comparable pieces are known to date.