The district of Stallupönen, which was renamed Ebenrode in 1938, was located in the east of the former province of East Prussia. The district bordered the district of Pillkallen to the north, the district of Gumbinnen to the west, the district of Goldap to the south and Lithuania to the east. Today the area belongs to the Russian oblast of Kaliningrad. The northern third of the district is almost flat and slopes gently from south-west to north-east. The highest elevation is the Kattenauer Berg with 104 metres above sea level. In the neighbouring southern part of the district, the terrain is somewhat more varied. There are several individual elevations here. At 213 metres, the highest mountain is in the Rominter Heide, which extends into the southern part of the district of Stallupönen and surrounds several smaller lakes. The district is criss-crossed by many small rivers, which drain into the Memel on the one hand and the Pregel on the other.

For the district of Stallupönen there are documents on 56 sites in 58 file volumes. A total of 318 sheets from 40 file volumes relating to 38 sites have been transcribed, edited and indexed. One site has not yet been finalised due to its size. The transcription did not include 18 locations or file volumes, which contain a total of only 33 sheets. Almost all of these are typewritten documents.

The most extensive are the files on the two sites Altkattenau with a total of 52 sheets and Jentkutkampen with 40 sheets in two volumes each. The Altkattenau file contains not only reports on finds of stone axes, but also correspondence, excavation reports, press articles and photos relating to a settlement from the late Roman Period. Following a report by the teacher and “Kreispfleger” Werner Sterkau, Fritz Jaensch carried out a first rescue excavation in October 1936. Only a short note by Dietrich Bohnsack (Neue Bodenfunde. In: Alt-Preußen 3, 1938, p. 29) has been published on the subject, which states: „die eine Siedlung des 3.-4. Jh. n. Zrw. mit Pfosten und Herdgrube, sowie Mahlstein und Siedlungsgefäßresten ergab. Diese Siedlung ist die erste ihrer Art im ganzen Kreise.” [which revealed a settlement from the 3rd-4th century AD with posts and a hearth pit, as well as a millstone and the remains of settlement vessels. This settlement is the first of its kind in the entire district]. In 1939, a new excavation was necessary, which was also carried out by Jaensch and during which he was able to discover, among other things, the remains of sleeper constructions. There was also evidence of a second medieval settlement layer and a neighbouring burial ground. The file volumes on Jentkutkampen contain, among other things, documents on the localisation of a hillfort, reports on finds of potsherds and stone settings that point to various settlement sites and burial grounds.

It is generally noticeable that there are hardly any documents on longer or planned excavations in the surviving files. Rather, it was mainly individual inspections and individual investigations by the “Kreispfleger”, the teacher Werner Sterkau, the rector Otto Hitzigrath and the gendarmerie chief constable Karl Pliczuweit that led to the discovery of sites. Potsherds from Stehlischken, for example, point to a neolithic settlement of the Rzucewo culture (“Haffküstenkultur”) and finds from Großschwentischken to medieval or modern settlement remains. In the case of burials, often single skeletons or stone settings were recovered, for example from Schilleningken or Ackmonien as well as Berninglauken and Matzkutschen. Due to a lack of additional finds, usually they cannot be dated or were placed in the modern period. Finds from the Roman Period from Wittkampen and Tutschen point to larger burial grounds. Wilhelm Gaerte, also carried out excavations in Tutschen that were reported in the press but no excavation reports have been preserved in the associated local file.

With this in mind, it is not surprising that reports of single finds such as stone axes and hatchets from the district are particularly numerous. They are available from 36 sites. On the other hand, there is only one bronze axe from Grünhof, which was published by Wolfgang La Baume (Alt-Preußen 5, 1940, p. 57). A bone lance head from Drusken and a bone dagger from Plicken are significantly older. Both were presented by Hugo Groß and dated to the late Palaeolithic and Middle Stone Age respectively (Hugo Groß, Die Renntierjäger-Lanzenspitze von Drusken. In: Prussia 35, 1943, pp. 5-12; Drei bemerkenswerte steinzeitliche Moorfunde aus dem Kreise Ebernrode Ostpr. In: Alt-Preußen 5, 1940, pp. 35-36).

For hillforts, for example in Gallkehmen, Kattenau, Pillupönen and Gudellen, there is mainly correspondence on localisation as well as sketches and photos, but not very much.