Great stone graves near Rohrberg
The megalithic graves near Rohrberg were eight megalithic graves from the Neolithic deep-engraved ceramic culture near Rohrberg in the Altmark district of Salzwedel , Saxony-Anhalt . All were destroyed in the 19th century.
location
The eight graves were all between the towns of Rohrberg and Tangeln . Grave 1 was in the middle of the field on a hill. Graves 2 and 3 were in the immediate vicinity. Grave 4 was on the way between Tangeln and Rohrberg on a hill. Grave 5 was located southwest of grave 4 on a mighty sand hill. For graves 6, 7 and 8 only a general location between Rohrberg and Tangeln has been handed down.
Research history
Five of the systems were documented for the first time in the 1830s by Johann Friedrich Danneil . In the files of the Altmark Association, the existence of three other graves was noted, but no further descriptions are available. When the large stone graves of the Altmark were taken up again in the 1890s , Eduard Krause and Otto Schoetensack discovered that all eight graves had in the meantime been completely removed in the course of the separation .
description
Grave 1
According to Danneil, grave 1 was 7.5 m long and 3.1 m wide. The stones were very big. Only one capstone was left and one end had slipped off the wall stones. Due to the length of the complex, it can be assumed that it was either a large dolmen or a passage grave.
Grave 2
Grave 2 apparently had an enclosure with a length of 12.6 m and a width of 8.1 m. This enclosed a relatively small burial chamber with three capstones, which was probably a large dolmen.
Grave 3
Grave 3 had an enclosure with a length of 9.4 m and a width of 6.3 m. Here, too, the chamber was relatively small. It apparently only had a single (transversely laid?) Capstone with a length of 3.1 m, a width of 1.6 m and a thickness of 1.3 m. The facility can possibly be addressed as an extended dolmen.
Grave 4
According to Danneil, grave 4 must once have been an impressive facility, but it had already suffered severe damage from sand mining when it was taken. Several wall stones had fallen down the hill from their original location. Three capstones were left. One of them was 3.8 m long, 1.9 m wide and 0.95 m thick. The dimensions of the entire system have not been handed down. The grave was probably a large dolmen.
Grave 5
Grave 5 was already badly damaged when Danneil was taken. Most of the stones were already missing. It was therefore no longer possible to determine the dimensions and the type of grave.
Finds
Several finds were recovered from the Rohrberg graves, but it is not clear from which of the graves they come. Two perforated hammers made of black stone come from one of the graves . One of them had been made from a fragment of a larger hammer that had broken at the hole. The whereabouts of these two pieces is unknown.
Two more finds are now in the Johann Friedrich Danneil Museum in Salzwedel . The first is a large ax made of blackish-green diorite , cut on all sides . It has a length of 23.5 cm, a width between 5.5 and 8.3 cm and a thickness of 5.1 m. The cutting edge is damaged.
The second object is a narrow chisel made of dark gray flint, ground on all four sides . It has a length of 13.3 cm, a maximum width of 1.9 cm, a minimum width of 1.3 cm and a thickness of 1.4 cm. The cutting edge is damaged. The chisel was found along with several other stone tools, but their whereabouts are unknown.
- Ax and chisel from the graves near Rohrberg
literature
- Hans-Jürgen Beier : The megalithic, submegalithic and pseudomegalithic buildings and the menhirs between the Baltic Sea and the Thuringian Forest (= contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe. Volume 1). Wilkau-Haßlau 1991, p. 53.
- Johann Friedrich Danneil: Special evidence of the barrows in the Altmark. In: Sixth annual report of the Altmark Association for Patriotic History and Industry. 1843, No. 103-107 ( PDF; 5.5 MB ).
- Eduard Krause, Otto Schoetensack: The megalithic graves (stone chamber graves) of Germany. I. Altmark. In: Journal of Ethnology. Volume 25, 1893, No. 140-147 ( PDF; 39.0 MB ).
