Hinkelstein culture

The Hinkelstein culture is a Neolithic archaeological culture situated in Rhine-Main and Rhenish Hesse, Germany. It is a Megalithic culture, part of the wider Linear Pottery horizon, dating to approximately the 50th to 49th century BC.

Hinkelstein culture

Geographical range	Europe
Period	Neolithic
Dates	circa 5,000 B.C.E. — circa 4,900 B.C.E.
Major sites	Rhine-Main, Rhenish Hesse
Preceded by	Linear Pottery culture
Followed by	Rossen culture

The culture's name is due to a suggestion of Karl Koehl of Worms (1900). Hinkelstein is the term for menhir in the local Hessian dialect, after a menhir discovered in 1866 in Monsheim. Hinkel is a Hessian term for "chicken"; the Standard German name for menhirs, Hünenstein "giants' stone", having sometimes been jokingly mutated into Hühnerstein "chicken-stone".

Hinklestein culture pottery

Rhine-Main

Rhenish Hesse

Map of Germany showing important sites that were occupied in the Hinkelstein culture (clickable map).