The Bronze Age marks the beginning of the metal age in our latitudes 4,300 years ago. Bronze emerged as a new material and the first metal, but stone axes and arrowheads were still common. In the subsequent Iron Age, many finds were made of bronze, but flint axes were still being produced even in the Iron Age. The changes in the Bronze Age had already begun in the Late Neolithic, the younger section of the Neolithic period.

As the climate became wetter and cooler, new plants and animals appeared that were better adapted to the changed conditions. There is evidence of hunting, but it seems to have been of minor importance. Spelt and naked barley became more important. The cereals spelt and millet as well as the horse bean are new additions.

The Bronze Age is divided into three major time and cultural periods, each of which is in turn subdivided into finer phases: the oldest Bronze Age (2300-1600); the Bronze Age burial mounds (Middle Bronze Age, 1600-1200 BC); the Urnfield culture (Urnfield period; later Bronze Age, 1200-800 BC).

The oldest Bronze Age, the so-called Adlerberg group (after a hill south of Worms), is a pure continuation of the preceding Late Neolithic Bell Beaker Culture in terms of burial customs. The orientation of the graves is still strictly gender-specific: Men's graves are aligned N-S, head to the north, lying on the left side, facing east, women's graves S-N, head to the south, lying on the right side, also facing east. In the Middle Bronze Age, the burial mounds, the dead were buried lying on their backs or in a crouched position in tree coffins, timbered coffins or just on a mortuary plank under mounds, some of which were massive. In exceptional cases, the top of the mounds was decorated with a stone stele, but wooden crowns can be assumed for the others. The base was also surrounded by stones or posts or a circular ditch.

Not all of the deceased were buried under massive mounds. Large mounds are associated with higher quality grave furnishings and indicate a corresponding status of the deceased. The largest group of burial mounds in the Wiesbaden city forest (around 70 mounds), which stretches for one kilometer between Klostermühle and Hofgut Adamstal parallel to the B 54, probably belongs predominantly to the Bronze Age.

Two women's graves from Naurod and from the southern c emetery from the 14th century BC demonstrate the high social status of their bearers through the rich bronze decorations. The grave from the southern cemetery from the end of the 14th century BC contained a rich female burial with a necklace of six cast disc pendants, two cast wheel pins, an arm spiral, a leg mount and a finger ring.

During the Urnfield Culture, the deceased were cremated, but not all were buried in urns. There are elongated stone slab graves in which the cremated remains were scattered, or simple pits into which the ashes were filled. In part, the status of the deceased during his lifetime can be deduced from this, as more elaborately built graves also contain more and more valuable grave goods. The richest are male graves with heavy weaponry, chariots, bronze tableware and fine ceramics, while the poorest are only furnished with simple vessels as grave goods.

The Dyckerhoff quarry is not only an important paleontological monument. It was also the site of the largest Urnfield burial ground in Hesse. It was destroyed in 1984-86. Of the 137 burials still found, only a few could be recovered in emergency measures. Gold finds prove that there must have been richly furnished graves among them.

If a burial custom changes completely within a short period of time - as far as we can tell - the first thing we will think of is a change in religion. The finds from the Urnfield period show that the people of this culture had extensive geographical connections with France and the foothills of the Alps. We must therefore also expect a corresponding spiritual exchange, which may have brought about a change in burial customs.