Old baptism
The Alte Taufe (formerly also Wolfstaufe or Heidentaufe ) is a rocky cliff in the Deister in Lower Saxony. The square made of Wealden sandstone with an edge length of around 3 meters and a deep hollow on the top is located about 50 m away from the Deisterkamm , west of the Nordmannsturm in the municipality of Lauenau .
In the upper area of the south-west slope of the Deister there are numerous other smaller sandstone blocks from the area around the Alte Taufe to the south-east in the Teufelskammer forest district. The reason is the different weathering of the sandstone and marl layers from the Lower Cretaceous Period that emerged here and fell to the northeast . The old baptism is protected as a natural monument , like the similarly large Teufelskanzel rock cliff , which is about 1 km east-southeast .
The old baptism was regarded as an old Germanic sacrificial site , for which there is no archaeological evidence. An excavation in the area of the stone has not yet been carried out. Detlef Schünemann tries to make a prehistoric processing and ritual use of the stones believable in comparison with other striking, large stones that also have hollows (so-called sacrificial stones ).
The old baptism is the subject of a local legend that takes place at the time of Christianization. The name of the stone is possibly based on the embellished idea that it was used as a baptismal font after the introduction of Christianity . Forced baptisms are conceivable, but just as little documented as pagan human sacrifices in prehistoric times. Nonetheless, the idea of human sacrifice in ancient baptism is considered as one of several explanations of the phrase " walking over the Deister ". The phrase means "disappear" and possibly "die" - similar to "go over the Jordan " and "go over the Wupper ". Other explanations of phraseologism do not refer to the sagas associated with Ancient Baptism.
literature
- Hermann Hartmann: The old baptism . In: Lower Saxony 3 (1897/98) p. 10
- Detlef Schünemann: The "old baptism" on the Deister in Lower Saxony and the "sacrificial bowl" on the Maimont near Lembach in Alsace - two prehistoric objects? , in: The customer. Zeitschrift für Ur- und Frühgeschichte 40 (1989), pp. 71-100.
The legend is reproduced by P. Frentrup in Ernst Bock (Hrsg.): A home book of the old district of Linden. Legends, customs and miscellaneous . Ernst Geibel Verlag, Hanover 1915, pp. 53–55.
Web links
- Two versions of the legend of the "Old Baptism"
- Photo documentation of the old baptism in the Deister
Individual evidence
- ^ Curt von Daniels, Friedrich Wilhelm Luppold: Coal seam near "Old Baptism" near Nienstedt in the Deister. (pdf; 373 kB) Accessed March 1, 2017 .
Coordinates: 52 ° 16 ′ 31.1 ″ N , 9 ° 26 ′ 11.8 ″ E