Tulip beaker @museum.de

F: Let's face it: at first glance, it looks pretty unremarkable. A cup pieced together from a few old, reddish-brown bits of broken pottery. What could possibly be exciting about that!?

M: Well, it's what's known as a tulip beaker, and this particular one made history! Because the spot where it was found gave its name to an entire era. But let's begin at the beginning...

F: October 1884. And one August von Cohausen is out taking a walk on a local hill called Michaelsberg.

M2: If I may briefly interrupt: you should know that Michaelsberg Hill is approximately four kilometres south of Bruchsal. It is the highest point in the western Kraichgau region and, if you will, Bruchsal's very own hill. But back to August von Cohausen.

F: As he was strolling along, he came across some broken bits of old pottery. He sent them to Karlsruhe's Altertumsverein (its Antiquities Society), adding that the shards themselves were probably worthless. But one never knew...

M: In fact, the potsherds triggered a sensation! They came from a previously unknown Neolithic culture, in other words, people who had lived about 5,000 years ago.

F: Since these were the first finds of their kind, the entire epoch was named after the site where they were discovered. It is referred to as the Michelsberg Culture.

M2: A little anecdote. Here in Bruchsal, nobody talks about the Mich-a-elsberg. It's only ever called the Michelsberg. The archaeologists probably adopted that name without realising. So the dialect provided the name for an epoch. But for now, shush. On we go.

F: The Michelsberg Culture lasted for around 700 years. Its pottery is distinctive, especially the tulip beakers. Their shape is reminiscent of the calyx of a tulip. The settlement area of the Michelsberg Culture extended from the Paris Basin to what is today Thuringia, and from the Lower Rhine to the foothills of the Swabian Jura.

M: Living conditions in the area around Bruchsal seem to have been particularly favourable. Traces of these Neolithic farmers and herders have been found in no fewer than four locations. On the Michaelsberg plateau, for example, archaeologists discovered not just the pottery shards, but also the remains of a rampart and around 140 rubbish pits.

F: Items removed from the pits included animal bones, ash, fired clay and the occasional human bone. No remains of houses were found. That may be due to the type of soil. It's loess, which is especially prone to erosion. Or perhaps these people built their houses in a way that left no traces. In any case, we know very little about their daily lives.

M: So the main thing you can say about the Michelsberg Culture is that its people remain a mystery.