Lüneburg

This default description comes from wikipedia
Lüneburg (German: [ˈlyːnəbʊʁk] ; Low German: Lümborg; Latin: Luneburgum or Lunaburgum; Old High German: Luneburc; Old Saxon: Hliuni; Polabian: Glain), officially the Hanseatic City of Lüneburg (German: Hansestadt Lüneburg) and also known in English as Lunenburg ( LEW-nən-burg), is a town in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is located about 50 km (31 mi) southeast of another Hanseatic city, Hamburg, and belongs to that city's wider metropolitan region. The capital of the district which bears its name, it is home to roughly 77,000 people. Lüneburg's urban area, which includes the surrounding communities of Adendorf, Bardowick, Barendorf and Reppenstedt, has a population of around 103,000. Lüneburg has been allowed to use the title "Hansestadt" (Hanseatic Town) in its name since 2007, in recognition of its membership in the former Hanseatic League. Lüneburg is also home to Leuphana University. == History == === Prehistory === The first signs of human presence in the area of Lüneburg date back to the time of Neanderthal Man: 56 axes, estimated at 150,000 years old, were uncovered during the construction in the 1990s of the autobahn between Ochtmissen and Bardowick. The site of the discovery at Ochtmissen was probably a Neanderthal hunting location where huntsmen skinned and cut up the animals they had caught. The area was almost certainly not continuously inhabited at that time, however, due to the various glaciations that lasted for millennia. The first indication of a permanent, settled farming culture in the area was found not far from the site of the Neanderthal discovery in the river Ilmenau between Lüne and Bardowick.