Buskam
 
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The Buskam (also Buskamen or Buhskam ) located in the Baltic Sea is the largest boulder found in northern Germany to date .
Location and nature
The Buskam is located about 350 meters from the beach line on the southeast coast of the island of Rügen , immediately east of the seaside resort of Göhren . It is surrounded by other erratic boulders, but they are all much smaller and practically always under water.
Depending on the water level, this large sediment protrudes up to 1.5 meters above sea level. The buskam has a granitic composition, whereby the structure of the granite corresponds to the so-called hammer granite on the Danish island of Bornholm . It can therefore be assumed that it was transported to Rügen in a glacier stream from the Scandinavian inland ice during the last ice age .
height and weight
There are very different information about size and weight:
- For a long time, a mass of 1600 tons and a circumference of 40 meters were given with a volume of 600 m³. About a third of this (206 m³) protrudes from the water.
- However, based on the results of a more recent measurement, it could also be considerably smaller. It would have a weight of 550 tons with a volume of 206 m³. The circumference of the stone was measured to be 27½ meters on the sea floor and 24 meters above the water.
Surname
There are several theories about the meaning of the name. The name Buskam could be derived from the Old Slavic bogis kamien , which means something like “God's stone” ( bog “God”, kamien “stone”). It is also conceivable that the syllable bus stands for “ penance ” in a Christian understanding. Possibly the syllable comes from the Middle Low German buhsen , which would stand for "swell, rush" and describe the location of the stone off the coast.
history
The stone was used as a place of worship as early as the Bronze Age, as evidenced by small hollows on the top. It represents a so-called cup stone . In later Christian times, a metal cross is said to have been attached to the buskam.
The boulder was still on the mainland during the Neolithic Age . It was not until the coast receded during the Littorina transgression that its surroundings were flooded.
The buskam is the subject of several legends and traditions. Witches are supposed to gather there on Walpurgis Night and hold their dances. According to another tradition, the buskam is an adebar stone from which the adebar fetches the small children. It is also reported that the mermaids often seen in front of Mönchgut dance on the stone.
It is said that there was also a custom in Göhren that wedding parties took boats to the Buskam and danced a dance there . In view of the flooding of the stone, which occurs even at lower wind strengths, this tradition seems rather unlikely. The Buskam is difficult to reach by boat because there are other stones on the land side just below the surface of the water.
See also
literature
- Alfred Haas : Slavic cult sites on the island of Rügen. In: Pomeranian Yearbooks. Volume 19, Greifswald 1918, p. 69.
- K. Obst: The "Buskam" from Göhren / Rügen - a giant boulder made of hammer granite. Geschiebekunde Aktuell, Vol. 21 (2005), pp. 33–44.
- Ingrid Schmidt: Hünengrab and sacrificial stone: soil monuments on the island of Rügen. Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock 2001, ISBN 3-356-00917-6 , page 42.
- C. Svenson: Protected erratic boulders on the island of Rügen. , State Office for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Geology Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , 2005.
Web links
Coordinates: 54 ° 20 ′ 45.72 " N , 13 ° 45 ′ 18.66" E