6. Neanderthal men in the Black Forest
North of the Ölberg, in the surroundings of the former Bollschweil lime plant, located on the Steinberg, the oldest testimonials of human presence in the Breisgau region were discovered in 1995 and 2000. Voluntaries of the Landesdenkmalamt (monument protection authority) found there two so-called hand axes belonging to the oldest tools of the humanity. These hand axes are gross and sharp multifunctional tools having a length of 9 and 18 cm and being made of plagioclase amphibolite and crystalline quartz. These stones are found in the nearby Möhlin. One estimates that the hand axes are between 140000 and 130000 years old. They date back to the next to last Riss-Glacial-Period when the Neanderthal men settled in Central Europe. In the three-border region in the Upper Rhine hand axes have been found rarely, therefore, they are the oldest evidences for the presence of the Neanderthal men in the Black Forest.
In 1998, during excavations carried out by the University of Tübingen in the mine on the Steinberg, many animal stones were found additionally to numerous stone tools. There were animal bones of mammoths, wild horses, aurochs, wooly rhinos, cave bears and red deer, which were all hunted by the glacial Neanderthal men.