Great stone graves near Schwinge
The megalithic graves near Schwinge were nine megalithic tombs from the Neolithic funnel beaker culture near Schwinge , a district of Loitz in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district ( Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania ). They were probably destroyed in the 19th century. The existence of the graves was recorded by hand in the 1820s by Friedrich von Hagenow . His notes were published by Rudolf Baier in 1904 . A grave was archaeologically examined by von Hagenow and recorded in drawings. It bears the Sprockhoff number 546. The objects found from this grave initially remained in von Hagenow's private property and are now in the Stralsund Museum .
location
The exact location of the graves was not noted by von Hagenow. Possibly eight graves formed a group and the ninth was a little apart, as von Hagenow only mentions seven neighboring graves with regard to the grave he examined. The Schwinge complex was part of a larger group of megalithic tombs that stretched southwest of Greifswald between Dargelin in the east and Düvier in the west.
description
Eight plants were only recorded in a list. They were large dolmens that were encased in a rolling stone mound and had no stone enclosure.
Von Hagenow only provided a detailed description of the largest and more closely examined grave. It was oriented east-west and had an enclosure which, according to von Hagenow's drawing, was still largely complete and consisted of 18 stones. It was 34 feet (about 11 m) long and 12 feet (about 3.8 m) wide. The burial chamber was also a large dolmen. He had four pairs of wall stones on the long sides, a capping stone on the western narrow side and two smaller stones on the eastern narrow side. It is possible that one of these had been erroneously added by von Hagenow instead of the entry, especially since he only mentions one stone on each of the narrow sides of the text. Von Hagenow mentions "three colossal capstones" that were still in situ . The westernmost was the largest. According to the drawing, the fourth and easternmost capstone had broken into two parts. The interior of the chamber was divided into four quarters by three rows of stone slabs placed at right angles. The eastern row consisted of two slabs 2 feet (0.6 m) high with a conical stone 2.5 feet (0.8 m) high between them. The middle row consisted of two stone slabs and another, slightly offset, which formed a small niche with the northern slab. The western row consisted of a single long plate. The width of the chamber was 9.5 feet (about 2.8 m); its length is not specified, but based on the drawing it can be estimated at around 7.4 m.
In the small niche on the central north long side, von Hagenow found some human skeletal remains. They were leg bones, ribs and a piece of a skull. The additions seem to have been largely cleared. Von Hagenow only discovered a perforated amber disc. A cross-edged arrowhead and a flint scraper were not mentioned in the report .
literature
- Rudolf Baier (Ed.): Prehistoric graves on Rügen and in New Western Pomerania. Friedrich von Hagenow's notes from the papers he left behind. Abel, Greifswald 1904, pp. 18, 28-29.
- 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. 26.
- Hansdieter Berlekamp : From the work of Friedrich von Hagenow. In: Greifswald-Stralsund yearbook. Volume 1, 1961, pp. 9-18.
- 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. 104.
- Ewald Schuldt : Dolmen landscape on the swing. Museum of Prehistory and Early History, Schwerin 1970.
- Ewald Schuldt: The Mecklenburg megalithic graves. Research on their architecture and function. VEB Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1972, p. 133.
- Ernst Sprockhoff : Atlas of the megalithic tombs of Germany. Part 2: Mecklenburg - Brandenburg - Pomerania. Rudolf-Habelt Verlag, Bonn 1967, p. 82.