Early Bronze Age (2300–1500 BC)
The region that is now the Saarland was not part of the Early Bronze Age cultures in Central Europe. Instead, it belonged culturally to Lorraine, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands, whereby these regions remained firmly attached to Copper Age traditions.
Typical Early Bronze Age finds are rare here, as people usually made do with trusted stone implements.
It was only towards the end of the Early Bronze Age that the region caught up with Central European developments in the Bronze Age.
This is clearly reflected in men’s weaponry:
in addition to old stone daggers, the first metal axes and items of metal jewellery were now interred in graves with the deceased.
Middle Bronze Age (1500–1300 BC)
The characteristic features of the Middle Bronze Age included bronze weapons and jewellery, lowland settlements and burial mounds known as “tumuli”. This is why the culture during this period is also referred to as the “Tumulus culture”.
The Tumulus culture extended right across Europe.
Profound religious upheavals must have preceded the transition from flat graves in valleys to earth mounds on mountain ridges.
Grave goods were now made mainly from bronze:
jewellery and a pair of cloak pins for women; weapons and a cloak pin for men.
Pottery is rarely found in graves in the Saar-Moselle region.
There are few remains of settlements from this period in the Saarland. Small traces of settlements have been found only in the Güdingen section of Saarbrücken and the Büschdorf section of Perl.