and the Mesolithic. But the permanent presence of man in the Eisbach valley began with the population explosion of the New Stone Age. Neolithic settlements were established at the Wormser Adlerberg, in Weinsheim, Horchheim, Wiesoppenheim, Albsheim an der Eis and Asselheim. The Wormser Adlerberg is a small eminence, piled up by the Eisbach, where the high ground which is secure from flooding, reaches right up to the banks of the Rhine. Other similarly favourable sites in Worms itself are the Domberg and the Rheingewann, an alluvial cone at the mouth of the Pfrimm. These bridgeheads offered good crossing sites over the river. The valleys of the Pfrimm and the Eis form natural corridors through the hills and were therefore important east-west routes from the Rhine through the Kaiserslautern Basin to Gaul even in prehistoric times. Its location as a natural communications hub was the reason Worms was founded. "Of all the streams that empty into the Rhine north and south of Worms, only the Pfrimm and the Eis were of any great importance, because they formed the only riverside high ground suitable for settlements in the Rhine Plain." Although long-distance trade experienced an important upsurge during the Bronze Age, there have been almost no Bronze Age finds in the upper Eis valley. In the Iron Age the upper Eis valley was also settled. Certainly by Roman times, if not before, iron ore was being mined in the area of Ramsen and iron smelting in Eisenberg. In Eisenberg, a Roman vicus grew up with the character of a small industrial town. The important trunk road through the Eisbach valley was fortified in Roman times, but was only classified as a secondary Roman road. In Eisenberg there was a beneficarius station, which underscored the importance of the route. The road along the Pfrimm was however always more important that the one through the Eisbach valley. In Roman times there were numerous Roman estates in the valleys of the Eis and the Pfrimm, which followed one another in quick succession. Roman rule came to an end in the second half of the 5th century. Frankish settlement of the Eisbach valley began in the late 5th century. Almost all the present-day Eisbach villages go back to Frankish settlements that were founded between the end of the 5th century and the 8th century. The road from Metz to Worms via Kaiserslautern through the Eisbach valley