Frejlev Skov

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The Frejlev Skov (forest) northeast of Nysted on Guldborgsund on the island of Lolland is one of the most archaeologically interesting forests in Denmark . It is about four kilometers long and 1.0 to 1.5 km wide. In addition to small stone circles, there are more than 100 Bronze Age burial mounds, nine long, four round dyssers and five passage graves in the forest . They originated between 3500 and 2800 BC. The passage grave is a type of Neolithic megalithic system , which consists of a chamber and a structurally separated, lateral passage. This form is primarily found in Denmark, Germany and Scandinavia, as well as occasionally in France and the Netherlands. Also monoliths were found, some have carvings or bowls . The passage graves and dolmens were built by the supporters of the funnel cup culture (TBK). Finds from the younger Bronze Age (1000 to 500 BC) suggest that the facilities were in use for centuries.

Passage grave 1 in Frejlev Skov

etymology

The name Frejlev , like other Danish and Swedish place names with the prefix Frö- or Frej- (e.g. Fröjel on Gotland or Frøslev near Aabenraa ), goes back to the goddess Freya .

Passage grave 1

The passage grave lacks the cap stones in the middle part of the chamber. The hill is about 13 m in diameter and 1.5 m high. The exactly rectangular chamber is about 6.0 m long and 1.7 m wide. It consists of 13 supporting stones. Two of the (formerly five) capstones are in situ . The western part of the chamber was examined by the amateur archaeologist William Sidenius in 1924. He found flint axes and chisels, as well as broken pottery.

In the same year an excavation was carried out by the National Museum in the eastern part of the chamber . The finds consisted primarily of a few chips, a few shards and a number of amber beads . When examining the 4.5 m long and 0.9 m wide corridor, chips and broken pieces were also found. There were no surviving bone fragments or corpse burns . About 10 cm below one of the capstones, pottery shards and a chain were found that were dated to the late Bronze Age.

Passage grave 2

The mound of the other large passage grave has a diameter of 15 m and a height of about 2.0 m. Some curbs still surround the burial mound. The low corridor into the chamber is five meters long and consists of nine supporting stones and five cap stones. The chamber is six meters long and up to two meters wide. It consists of 15 bearing stones and six cap stones. When the barrow was examined in 1923, the remains of a Stone Age settlement with a few pits were found on the east side.

Runddysse

Runddysse in Frejlev Skov
Langdysse in Frejlev Skov

The round hill in which the dolmen is located has a residual height of around 1.3 m. 20 curb stones form a circle with a diameter of 11 m around the polygonal chamber made of seven bearing stones. Two smaller stones belong to the rest of the corridor. The 2.5 m long and 2.0 m wide capstone is 1.0 m thick and completely flat on the underside. When C. Engelhardt examined the dolmen in 1879, the chamber had partially collapsed. In 1939 V. Sidenius and K. Thorvildsen restored the megalithic complex , but made no discoveries.

Langdysse

South of the large passage grave are two long beds that were excavated by the amateur archaeologist V. Sidenius. The eastern one is 75 m long, 5 m wide and 0.75 m high. The western one is 35 m long, about 5 m wide and 0.5 m high. Both are missing some of the border stones. In the east one can still see the location of three chambers. There was only one chamber in the western one. At the eastern end of the hill there is a 1.5 m high monolith .

A little further away is a long dyssey about 30 m long and six meters wide. It has a relatively small dolmen chamber. The capstone rests on three bearing stones that are still deep in the ground. It was excavated in 1925, but no finds were made.

Kong Grøns Høj

Kong Grøns Høj

Closer to Guldborgsund is King Grøns Hill, named after a legendary figure. A total of 30 curbs, 12 on each long side and three on the short sides, frame the low hill. The facility is 20 m long and 10 m wide and has a completely unusual, pear-shaped dolmen chamber with a corridor and three cap stones in the middle, of which the middle one is impressive because of its size. The chamber has twelve bearing stones and the corridor has four pairs of bearing stones on which two cap stones rest. Kong Grøns Høj is already known from written sources from the 17th century and was first archaeologically recorded in 1879. During the excavations in 1942, thick-nosed flint axes and tees were found. An ax and a flint chisel were deposited on one of the curbs.

Mythical royal names are also linked to prehistoric monuments in other places in Denmark:

Outside

Store Guldhøj

Outside the forest are Boyes Høj and Store and Lille Guldhøj, which have barely preserved capstones.

To the north of the forest is the Oldtidscenter (prehistory center) Frejlev Å.

See also

literature

  • Ingrid Falktoft Anderson: Vejviser til Danmarks oldtid . 1994, ISBN 87-89531-10-8 , p. 324
  • Peter Vilhelm Glob : prehistoric monuments of Denmark . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1968, pp. 121, 126
  • Karsten Kjer Michaelsen: Politikens bog om Danmarks oldtid (= Politikens håndbøger. ). Politiken, Copenhagen 2002, ISBN 87-567-6458-8 p. 208

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Langdysser is the name commonly used in Denmark for dolmens that lie in a rectangular barren bed, in contrast to that, Runddysser are those dolmens that lie in round hills.

Web links

Commons : Frejlev Skov  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 54 ° 41 ′ 46.2 ″  N , 11 ° 49 ′ 37 ″  E