Prehistoric
hunters‘ camp

The remains of a Stone Age hunters' camp were discovered here in 1994. As the archaeological excavations revealed, the earliest use of this site dates back to around 7600 BC and thus also proves the first exploration of Rofental by humans.

This was the period of the Middle Stone Age (8500 - 5000 BC) when hunters and gatherers visited the high mountains during the summer months in order to hunt ibex, chamois and marmots. They used bows and arrows as well as wooden javelins tipped with flint. Thousands of fragments of such stone tools were scattered around the two large boulders next to the fireplace.

The hunters sat here in the shelter of a simple hut construction while they processed animal skin, fur, tendons, horn and antlers, roasted meat and hammered stone tools. The flint material used was of prime quality and mostly came from the southern Limestone Alps in the Province of Trento. A quite considerable proportion of tools were made of rock crystal, which was obtained from the Tux and Zillertal Alps.

The open-air camp, built at an altitude of 1,950 m, is located on a terrace at the intersection of Niedertal and Rofental. These two alpine side valleys probably formed the natural boundaries of an extensive hunting ground that reached up to the main alpine ridge. From this point of view, the place provided the ideal conditions for a gathering place of larger hunting communities. Around 2000 BC (early Bronze Age), shepherds used this area as a pasture and grazing ground for their flocks of sheep and goats.

Note: German version provided by Innsbruck University