Middle Paleolithic Sites atop the Scoria Cones of the East Eifel Volcanic Field of the Central Rhine Valley

While controversial from the point of view of its impact on the landscape, the large-scale mining of lava from the scoria cones of the East Eifel led to the discovery of many Middle Paleolithic find horizons within the volcanic craters atop these elevated positions. This paper summarizes the important finds from sites including Plaidter Hummerich, Schweinskopf, Tönchesberg and Wannen and discusses their chronostratigraphic and cultural stratigraphic context. Archaeologists based at the museum and research institute of Monrepos overlooking the Neuwied Basin excavated most of these sites during the 1980s as part of a major research project exploring the geology and prehistory of the East Eifel. Subse-quently little field work has been conducted on the Middle Paleolithic in the region. The find horizons date to the penultimate and last glaciations and document a wealth of often ephemeral occupations in the craters of the scoria cones. In the case of Wannen, researchers discovered cranial remains of a Neanderthal associated with lithic artifacts in a loess from the penultimate glaciation. The lithic assemblages recovered from the volcanic craters document a high level of technological variability and the use of diverse local and non-local raw materials. While patterns of subsistence varied from site to site, Neanderthals often hunted equids, cervids and bovids in or near the scoria cones. Archaic hominins were likely drawn to the top of these small volcanic mountains to exploit the view they commanded over the landscape and perhaps to use the water that at times collected in these settings. Such water sources may also have attracted game to the top of the scoria cones. While these settings contain numerous Middle Paleolithic find horizons, Upper Paleolithic finds are extremely rare. We hypothesize that the many scoria cones of the Eifel that have not been subjected to large-scale mining also contain similar Middle Paleolithic find horizons, making this prominent feature of the landscape an important part of the Middle Paleolithic settlement dynamics of the region.