The prehistoric settlement on the Schweighofer Mauer

A rocky cliff as the home of bear hunters from the time of Ötzi.
The Schweighofer Mauer is a steep rocky cliff in the municipality of Ertl in the Mostviertel region, on which a small settlement of wooden houses was built in the late Neolithic period around 5,500 years ago, despite the exposed location and limited space. In the Middle Ages, it was built over by Hartwigstein Castle.

Inhabitants with culture
The finds made on the Schweighofer Wall are known above all for the great variety of objects from the so-called "Mondsee culture". Sickle blades, grating plates and animal bones prove that the inhabitants of the time lived primarily from agriculture, but also hunted and fished. Their richly decorated drinking utensils show that alcoholic beverages were probably also important to them. Most of the tools and weapons (e.g. axes, drills, daggers, knives, scrapers, sickles, points ...) were made of wood, stone and bone. The inhabitants were also able to work with copper, as evidenced by the fragment of a cast iron spoon with metal remains adhering to it.

Jewelry and weapons
The large amount of Stone Age jewelry discovered at the site is particularly impressive. These include many small beads made of calcite, coal, bone and copper; animal teeth, claws and shimmering plates made of shells were also pierced and threaded onto chains. Pendants made of bear teeth are particularly impressive and were probably very prestigious. Battle axes were probably also status symbols, but could also be used as weapons. Bows and arrows were used for both fighting and hunting. Axes and arrowheads indicate that the people living on the cliff did not always live in peaceful conditions and probably also chose the difficult-to-access cliff as a place to live.