Archaeological finds

The Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum also has a collection of archaeological finds from the Brunswick region – jewellery, weapons and crockery, food remains, tools and wooden water pipes. In short, everything that has been preserved in the soil and was used by the population of this region. These objects are not curiosities, but the only extant contemporary testimonies from almost all the different periods within the timespan of roughly 300,000 years in which this area has been populated. Some of the objects were found more than 200 years ago and are from the collections of private collectors or early research scientists such as the 3^rd century urns that were excavated by the pastor Johan Christian Dünnhaupt (1716–1786) in Elm. Dünnhaupt is regarded as one of the leading pioneers of archaeological research in Germany.

The by far largest number of artefacts were found during scientific excavations in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. Among these objects are the famous weapons and tools from the hunting camp of a group of Neanderthals that were discovered in 1951 near Salzgitter-Lebenstedt. These artefacts are of Europe-wide importance for the research of human survival strategies roughly 50,000 years ago.

Since 1983, the Museum has systematically preserved all the archaeological finds from excavations conducted by the state office for cultural heritage preservation in the former administrative district of Brunswick. This archaeological depot has thus become a continuously growing state archive of non-written historical sources.