Sacred activity at the summit

This article is from World Archaeology issue 137

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Evidence of Iron Age ritual activity has been discovered at the Bruchhauser Steine, a prominent rock formation in the hilly Sauerland region of western Germany. 

This natural landmark, which comprises four main rocks that can be seen for miles around, was the site of an Iron Age hillfort between the 5th and 3rd centuries BC, surrounded by large defensive fortifications erected c.500 BC. Previous discoveries in the area, including a fragment of an arm-ring and a deliberately damaged spearhead, led to suspicions that it may also have played an important religious role in the past. Now, new discoveries appear to confirm this.

In 2025, a licensed metal-detectorist came across two iron axes, positioned with their blades at right angles to each other, in the topsoil of the Feldstein, the highest rock at the Bruchhauser Steine and the only one of the four that can be climbed. Conservation work reveals that the blades were deposited with their wooden hafts intact, and were already quite old by the time they went into the ground. 

When archaeologists from the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association (LWL) carried out excavations at the findspot they discovered that the axes had been placed on top of a large cavity where quartz had been extracted from the rock. Inside this pit, Iron Age people had deposited a stone slab and hammerstone that had been used to crush the extracted quartz. Excavation director Dr Manuel Zeiler concludes that this must be the result of ritual activity: quartz was mined and crushed at one of the most exposed spots in the landscape, before the ‘wound in the mountain’ was sealed, and the rite concluded by the placing of the axes.

Additionally, he notes that quartz could have been mined much more easily at the base of the rock, indicating that the summit of Feldstein had a special significance. Ground quartz is known to have been added to clay by Iron Age people to improve the quality and heat resistance of their pottery. Zeiler suggests that the quartz gathered from this inaccessible location, in such a ceremonial fashion, may have been used in vessels created for ritual purposes.

The finds from the pit and replicas of the axes are now on display at the Bruchhauser Steine Foundation museum. 

Text: Amy Brunskill / Image: LWL-Archäologie für Westfalen/T Poggel