Great stone graves near Edendorf
| Great stone graves near Edendorf | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
|||
| Coordinates | 53 ° 10 '10 .4 " N , 10 ° 33' 31.4" E | ||
| place | Bienenbüttel , Lower Saxony , Germany | ||
| Emergence | 3500 to 2800 BC Chr. | ||
| Sprockhoff no. | 745-751 | ||
The megalithic tombs at Eden Village are two preserved megalithic grave sites of the Neolithic Funnel Beaker Culture near the municipality Bienenbuttel belonging to the district of Eden village in the district of Uelzen ( Lower Saxony ). The two large stone graves were originally part of a much larger necropolis that contained at least 14 graves. Georg Otto Carl von Estorff recorded the facilities for the first time in the 1840s , who described nine graves as still in existence and provided illustrations for six of them. Ernst Sprockhoff assigned the numbers 745 and 746 to the two graves that still exist in his atlas of Germany's megalithic graves, and the numbers 747-751 for five destroyed but thoroughly described graves by Estorff.
location
The systems do not form a closed group, but are spread over several locations in a larger area around Edendorf. Grave 1 is isolated northwest of the Solchtorf estate in a wooded area. Grave 2 is 1 km south of Edendorf and was originally part of a group that also included graves 3 to 5 (Sprockhoff numbers 747 to 749). Some of these stones are still preserved, but they are scattered around and can no longer be assigned to specific graves. Another group was located 1.5 km northeast of Edendorf. These also included graves 6 and 7 (Sprockhoff numbers 750 and 751). There are numerous burial mounds and other large stone graves in the vicinity , including the large stone graves at Bruchtorf , 850 m southeast of grave 2 and the large stone graves at Solchstorf, northeast of Edendorf and southeast of grave 1.
description
Preserved graves
Grave 1
Grave 1 has a north-south oriented mound with a height of 1.2 m. The burial chamber originally had five pairs of wall stones on the long sides and the same number of cap stones. The two end stones on the narrow sides, four wall stones on the western long side and three on the eastern long side are still preserved in situ . Possibly two stones lying a little apart are the missing wall stones on the east side. Only the southern one of the capstones is preserved. It was smashed and lies inside the chamber.
Grave 2
The grave belongs to the type of passage grave . It has a pile of hills and is roughly east-west oriented. Only the middle part of the burial chamber can be reconstructed. It has a width of 1.4 m, the length cannot be determined. Four wall stones are still preserved on the northern long side, of which the two middle ones are in situ. The eastern one fell over inside the chamber. The western one is pressed outwards, its upper part is chipped off. There are still three wall stones on the southern long side. There is a gap between the middle and the eastern one, which forms the access to the burial chamber. A pair of wall stones from the corridor connects to the two stones. To the west of the wall stones lies a capstone that has been rolled down. According to Sprockhoff, it is said to have rested on the capstones in the 1950s. To the west of this stone are the ruins of another capstone.
Destroyed graves
Grave 3
The grave had a north-south oriented, trapezoidal barn bed with a length of about 30 m. At the wider northern end there were five edging stones. At the southern end they were already missing when the photo was taken by von Estorff. Sprockhoff assumed that there had originally been three stones there. The east side of the enclosure had a larger gap. The stone on the southwest corner had fallen. The burial chamber was at the narrow, northern end of the megalithic bed. This was already badly damaged in the 1840s. From Estorff only the end stone of the northern narrow side, the adjoining wall stone of the western long side and a cap stone were found.
Grave 4
This complex had a north-south oriented burial chamber with a length of about 9.5 to 10 m. It had one end stone each on the narrow sides and probably eight pairs of wall stones on the long sides, although two stones on the western long side were already missing in von Estorff's picture. He also found six cap stones, all of which had fallen into the chamber.
Grave 5
Grave 5 was oriented north-south. The burial chamber was about 10 to 10.5 m long. Like grave 4, it probably originally had eight pairs of wall stones on the long sides, but these already show faults in von Estorff's drawing. Six cap stones were still preserved, one of which was probably still resting on the wall stones. The southern one was already split.
Grave 6
The grave had an oval, north-west-south-east oriented mound bed with a length of 23 m. The edging had some defects. In the north-western part of the megalithic bed a large stone is depicted by von Estorff, which probably indicates a burial chamber with a single capstone.
Grave 7
Grave 7 consisted of an east-west oriented burial chamber with a length of about 9 m. It already showed considerable damage when it was recorded by von Estorff. Several gaps can be seen on the long sides. The eastern end stone was still in situ, while the western one was pushed outwards. Of the originally six capstones, four were still clearly visible. Some of them were still on the wall stones. The two remaining capstones were probably smashed inside the chamber.
literature
- Georg Otto Carl von Estorff : Pagan antiquities of the area of Uelzen in the former Bardengaue (Kingdom of Hanover). Hahn'sche Hof bookstore, Hanover 1846.
- Karl Hermann Jacob : The megalithic graves of the district of Ülzen and the protection of the prehistoric monuments. In: News sheet for Lower Saxony's prehistory. Volume 1, 1920, p. 9.
- Ernst Sprockhoff : Atlas of the megalithic tombs of Germany. Part 3: Lower Saxony - Westphalia. Rudolf-Habelt Verlag, Bonn 1975, ISBN 3-7749-1326-9 , pp. 57-58.
