In the Neolithic period there was a final transition from hunting and gathering to sedentary agriculture and animal husbandry. Settlements instead of seasonal, attached to migrations of animals, became permanent.
Early Neolithic
In the epoch of the early Neolithic, new groups of people came to the territory of Germany from the territory of modern Hungary and Austria, which, starting from 5500 B.C. settled mainly on the fertile loess plains along the major rivers. These people were engaged in plant growing and animal husbandry, made special ceramics, which due to the peculiar embossed ornament received the name of linear-tape. This culture was distinguished by large necropolises, the construction of long houses and its own religious ideas, radically different from those of the neighboring tribes of hunter-gatherers, still remaining at the Mesolithic stage. In the Cave of the Virgins, Tifenellern discovered secondary burials of the period of linear-tape ceramics.
Linear-tape ceramics around 4900 B.C. the culture of cemented ceramics developed from it inherits, and with it comes the stage of the middle Neolithic. Ornaments on vessels during this period are no longer scratched, but consist of individual strokes.
In the Lower Bavaria and before the Plzen depression, next to the culture of cemented ceramics, the so-called Oberlautherbach group was formed – a regional version of the latter with an original vascular ornament.
Late Neolithic and Copper Age
By the Bronze Age, which a number of historical schools include in the late Neolithic, is the Münchshöfen culture, named after the site of the archaeological finds of Münchshöfen near Straubing. This culture was influenced by neighbors who lived in Bohemia and Moravia. Typical for the ceramics of this cult are large goblets on legs and scratched ornaments of vessels. Findings of copper objects of this period are extremely rare, however, there is evidence that copper was mined in the Alps already at that time. The burials of this culture are virtually unknown.
The latest stage of the Munichhöfen culture is also known as the Wallerfing horizon. The latter was represented mainly in Lower Bavaria, at the same time as the Polling Group bordering the east. Both of these groups are transitional to the final Neolithic, which is characterized primarily by the emergence of an increasing number of ceramics without an ornament, as well as by some new vessel shapes, such as cups and jugs.
During the late Münchshöfen and Pollingan cultures around 3800 B.C. Altheim culture follows. The ceramics of this group is characterized mainly by arcade edges, as well as the absence of an ornament on fine work ceramics. Together with this culture in Bavaria, a new type of settlement appears – on swampy soil, although they do not completely displace dwellings on solid soil. The burials of this period are virtually unknown.
For the late Neolithic (early copper age) comes the final Neolithic (late copper age), which includes Hammer culture, which existed around 3400/3300 B.C. Also to the final Neolithic are frequent finds of corded ceramic and bell-shaped cups.
In the Bronze Age, the territory of Germany was occupied by speakers of Indo-European languages ​​(mainly Corded Ware ), which swallowed the local autochthonous population. The culture of bell-shaped cups is also presented.
Approximately in 1250 B.C., the largest battle of that time took place on the Tollenze River, in which supposedly up to 4,000 well-organized warriors participated.
As a result of the processes of ethnogenesis that took place in the Bronze Age in Germany, the following ethnic groups were formed, in particular:
Celts, whose area of ​​distribution from 1200 to the Roman expansion covered most of Europe;
Veneta, native speakers of the Indo-European language, which has not survived to the present day, lived in the ancient period to the east of the Germans. After the Great Migration, the Venets disappeared, but their name in Germanic languages ​​began to denote the West Slavic tribes ( Lyutichi , Ludichan ) who migrated to part of the German lands;
the so-called north-western bloc, a group of the population of central Europe, speaking in languages ​​other than Celtic and Germanic and gradually celticized or Germanized in the pre-alphabetical period.
By the Bronze Age are a lot of artifacts. Among them is a sky disk from Nebraus found in Saxony-Anhalt, a metal disk with gold inlay, indicating that as early as 2000 B.C. the inhabitants of this region had astronomical ideas. The disk is the oldest known sky map.
Iron Age
During the period of growth and spread of the Roman state and later, during the great migration of the peoples, the Romans settled in the area of ​​the south and west of modern Germany. Roman troops occupied this area along the Danube and Rhine until about 5. B.C. These Roman settlers were legionaries from various regions of the empire, such as Spain, Illyria, Syria, Gaul, and Africa. During the Great Migration in Germany, there were also representatives of peoples who lived far from her, such as Sarmatians or Huns.
After the migration of almost all the Germans who lived east of the Elbe, the Slavs occupied their lands, who continued to occupy them until the Germans regained these lands as a result of ” eastern colonization ” in the 11-14 centuries
From the confusion of all these peoples the ancestors of the modern German people were formed. Thanks to the Great Migration of Peoples and the domination of the Franks in the linguistic sense, they were predominantly Germanic, but at the same time they largely inherited the cultural influence of the Roman Empire and Christianity.
Early antique period
For the first time, some Celtic and Germanic tribes are mentioned in ancient Greek (beginning with Herodotus ) and Roman sources (Caesar, Tacitus). About 500 B.C. Celts occupied the south of modern Germany, and the Germans occupied the north. Over the next centuries, the Germans migrated south, so at the turn of the new era, the approximate border between the Celts and the Germans was the Danube. Thanks to contacts, Celtic loans, including toponyms and names of rivers, got into German.
From 58 B.C. on 455 A.D. the areas west of the Rhine and south of the Danube belonged to the Roman Empire; besides, from 80 to 260 A.D. it also included part of modern Hesse, as well as most of modern Baden-Württemberg, south of the Upper Germanic-Rethymian Lemes. The Roman lands on the territory of modern Germany were subdivided into the provinces of Upper Germany, Lower Germany, and Rezia. It was in Roman times that such cities as Trier, Cologne, Bonn, Worms and Augsburg arose. The Romans brought with them innovations in the construction of houses and crafts. To protect the borders, the Romans settled in their provinces friendly Germanic tribes, as well as settlers from different parts of the Roman Empire. The first written mention of Germany was left in 98 A.D. by Tacitus.