Great stone graves near Helm
| Great stone graves near Helm | |||
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| Coordinates | Helm 2 , helmet 3 | ||
| place | Wittenburg , Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , Germany | ||
| Emergence | 3500 to 2800 BC Chr. | ||
The megalithic graves near Helm were four megalithic tombs from the Neolithic funnel cup culture near Helm , a district of Wittenburg in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district ( Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania ). They were destroyed in the 19th century. Johann Ritter examined the graves in 1839 and 1840.
location
Grave 1 was a few thousand meters west-northwest of Helm in the direction of Wittenburg am Piepenmoor. Grave 2 was located immediately east of the path from Helm to Wittenburg north of the Haidberg. Grave 3 was on the north-western slope of the Haidberg, about 75 m from grave 2. Grave 4 was west of Helm in a field, directly on a swamp. To the west of Helm were the megalithic graves near Perdöhl , to the north the megalithic graves near Wittenburg .
description
Grave 1
Grave 1 had a barren bed 36 feet long and 20 feet wide. It was surrounded by large stones, some 6 feet (1.8 m) high and 4 feet (1.2 m) wide and thick. Some stones had already been removed a few years before Ritter's investigation into the extraction of building material for the sexton's house in Wittenburg. Ritter gave no information about the burial chamber or the lack of one; the exact type of grave cannot therefore be determined.
Grave 2
Grave 2 had a large east-west oriented, trapezoidal barn bed with a length of 186 feet (approx. 55.8 m) and a width of 16 feet (approx. 4.8 m) at the east and 12 feet (approx. 3.6 m) at the west end. Ritter could still see a stone enclosure on the sides. The mound was preserved in the eastern third 4 feet (about 1.2 m) and in the western two thirds 3 feet (about 0.9 m) high. The surrounding soil is sandy , the mound, however, consisted of a bit more brown and partly clayey material. According to Ritter, the eastern third of the megalithic bed was divided into three equally long sections by stones placed across. Ernst Sprockhoff interpreted this as a reference to a burial chamber, as did Ewald Schuldt , who assumed a large dolmen .
In the eastern section, Ritter found the shards of three undecorated brown vessels with handles. The middle compartment contained fragments from two coarse vessels. In the western section, Ritter came across some bones, shards of three vessels, a complete and a fragmentary flint blade, and three wedge-shaped but apparently unworked flints. From the western end two pieces of iron, probably modern in times, were found. There was also charcoal scattered all over the grave .
Grave 3
Grave 3 was an east-west oriented chamberless giant bed with a length of 52 feet (approx. 15.6 m) and a width of 22 feet (approx. 6.6 m). It was surrounded by stones that protruded up to 3 feet from the earth. The mound was preserved 4 feet high and consisted of red-yellow sand. About 0.6 m above the existing ground, reddish and gray stone slabs were found in the entire mound.
About in the middle of the grave, on a stone slab and surrounded by somewhat darker earth, stood a crushed, yellow-reddish-brown handle jug decorated with vertical groups of lines. Today it is in the collection of the Archaeological State Museum Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Schwerin .
Grave 4
Grave 4 had an east-west oriented barren bed with a length of 38 feet (approx. 11.4 m) and a width of 20 feet (approx. 6). It had a stone enclosure and the mound was still 3.5 feet high. About 8 feet (2.4 m) from the east end was either a three-part burial chamber or three adjoining small burial chambers four feet (1.2 m) wide. Immediately behind this was another row of 3 burial chambers 6 feet (about 1.8 m) wide. Inside lay the only remaining capstone, broken. In the grave, Ritter found a flint stone blade and ceramic shards that may have belonged to five unspecified vessels.
literature
- Hans-Jürgen Beier : The megalithic, submegalithic and pseudomegalithic buildings as well as the menhirs between the Baltic Sea and the Thuringian Forest. Contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe 1. Wilkau-Haßlau 1991, p. 18.
- Robert Beltz : The Stone Age sites in Meklenburg. In: Yearbook of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology. Volume 64, 1899, p. 101 ( online ).
- Robert Beltz: The prehistoric antiquities of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Complete list of the finds preserved in the Grand Ducal Museum in Schwerin. Text tape. Reimer, Berlin 1910, p. 105 ( online ).
- Ingeburg Nilius : The Neolithic in Mecklenburg at the time and with special consideration of the funnel cup culture (= contributions to the prehistory and early history of the districts of Rostock, Schwerin and Neubrandenburg. Volume 5). Museum of Prehistory and Early History, Schwerin 1971, p. 96.
- Johann Ritter : Hünengrave von Helm. In: Yearbook of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology. Volume 4, 1839, pp. 21-22 ( online ).
- Johann Ritter: Wendenkirchhof von Helm. In: Yearbook of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology. Volume 4, 1839, p. 41 ( online ).
- Johann Ritter: Hune grave of Helm No. 2 (see Annual Report IV, p. 21). In: Yearbook of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology. Volume 5, 1840, pp. 21-22 ( online ).
- Johann Ritter: Hune grave of Helm No. 3. In: Yearbook of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology. Volume 5, 1840, pp. 22-23 ( online ).
- Friedrich Schlie : The art and history monuments of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Volume 3. Schwerin 1900, p. 154 ( online ).
- Ewald Schuldt : The Mecklenburg megalithic graves. Research on their architecture and function. VEB Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1972, p. 127.
- Ernst Sprockhoff : Atlas of the megalithic tombs of Germany. Part 2: Mecklenburg - Brandenburg - Pomerania. Rudolf-Habelt Verlag, Bonn 1967, p. 33.