Its conventional name is derived from that of an important excavated site on Michelsberg (short for Michaelsberg) hill near Untergrombach, between Karlsruhe and Heidelberg (Baden-Württemberg), Germany.

Its distribution covered much of West Central Europe, along both sides of the Rhine, starting the European tradition of timber framing.

[2] Its people appear to trace their origins to Mediterranean farmers expanding from the southwest and of the Linear Pottery culture of Central Europe.

The spread of agriculture into the British Isles by colonists from the continent happens at almost exactly the same time as in Scandinavia, suggesting that the two events are connected.

[9] Since 2008 the fortified settlement of Kapellenberg near Hofheim and Frankfurt (one of the largest of the Michelsberg culture) has been investigated by the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Leibniz Archaeological Research Institute.

[11][12][13] A large tumulus (burial mound) was built at the centre of the settlement between 4200–4100 BC, indicating the influence of the Castellic culture in Brittany,[14] where giant burial mounds containing megalithic tombs (such as Tumiac and Saint-Michel) were built c. 4500 BC for elite males described by some researchers as 'divine kings'.

[17] Jade axes have similarly been found at the Kappellenberg, attesting to an exchange network of prestige goods associated with elites as well as the trade in salt.

[18][19] The Kappellenberg tumulus and jade axes indicate that "a socio-political hierarchisation process linked to the emergence of high-ranking elites" was underway in the Rhine valley at the same time as similar developments were occurring in Brittany (Castellic culture) and the Paris basin (Cerny culture).

[21] Research so far tends to characterise MK as a culture that avoided or rejected the use of copper, but occasional finds, e.g. at Heilbronn-Klingenberg, do indicate use of that metal.

As the result of such a change in climate, the area would not have easily supported agriculture any more, forcing human communities (and their livestock) to relocate.

Human skeletal remains, frequently disarticulated, have been found inside pits and ditches in many MK earthworks and have had considerable influence on the interpretation of such structures.

It has been suggested that their bodies may not have received formal burial, but were disposed of by excarnation, in which case the skeletal remains from rubbish pits may be the result of such activity.

Occasionally, earthwork ditches contain more structured deposits of human bone, e.g. adult skeletons surrounded by those of children.

Such burials are probably connected to the realms of cult or ritual, as are specific depositions of offerings in some of the ditches, especially at the settlements of Aue and Scheelkopf.

They displayed genetic links to other farmers of Western Europe, and carried substantial amounts of hunter-gatherer ancestry.

[23] The authors of the study proposed that migrations of people associated with the Michelsberg culture may have been responsible for the resurgence of hunter-gatherer ancestry observed in Central Europe during the Middle Neolithic.