Large stone graves near Steinfeld (Bismark)

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Large stone graves near Steinfeld (Bismark)
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Great stone graves near Steinfeld (Bismark) (Saxony-Anhalt)
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Coordinates 52 ° 37 '36.9 "  N , 11 ° 42' 30.1"  E
place Bismark (Altmark) , Saxony-Anhalt , Germany
Emergence 3700 to 3350 BC Chr.
The stone grave in Steinfeld (photo from 1937)
Ground plan of the Steinfeld grave according to Krause / Schoetensack

The megalithic graves near Steinfeld were a group of several megalithic tombs from the Neolithic deep-engraved ceramic culture near the village of Steinfeld (Altmark) in the Stendal district , Saxony-Anhalt . Most of the graves were destroyed in the 18th and 19th centuries. There is only one left today.

location

The preserved grave is on the northern outskirts, about 250 m north of the Steinfeld Church . The destroyed grave KS 16 was a few hundred meters to the west or southwest of it on a natural hill near the former windmill. Grave KS 18 was on the way to Schinne .

3.2 km north-west of the preserved complex is the Kläden large stone grave .

Research history

The graves were first mentioned by Johann Christoph Bekmann in his Historical Description of the Chur and Mark Brandenburg , published in 1751 . Bekmann provided more detailed descriptions of three larger systems and also mentioned an unknown number of smaller systems. In 1843, Johann Friedrich Danneil made the first systematic survey of all the large stone graves in the Altmark . He was able to determine that the three large systems described by Bekmann were still preserved. Eduard Krause and Otto Schoetensack performed a new recording in the early 1890s. They found that only one grave was left. The other two graves were demolished in the middle of the 19th century and one of them was partially used for the construction of bridges. In 2003-04, all remaining large stone graves in the Altmark were recorded and measured as a joint project of the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology of Saxony-Anhalt , the Johann Friedrich Danneil Museum in Salzwedel and the association “Young Archaeologists of the Altmark”.

There are different numbers for the graves. For the graves that have been preserved, the site numbers are used in the following, for those that have been destroyed the number with which Krause and Schoetensack provided them.

official no. Danneil (1843) Krause /
Schoetensack (1893) 		Beier (1991) Remarks
Fpl. 1 D 12 KS 17 3 receive
- D 11 KS 16 2 destroyed
- D 13 KS 18 4th destroyed

description

The preserved grave

The existing complex is a large dolmen . The original mound has completely disappeared. The enclosure is oriented north-northwest-south-southeast and trapezoidal. It is the longest still preserved in Saxony-Anhalt and 46.5 m long and between 4.8 m and 6.5 m wide. Of the original 60 stones, 53 have survived. The corner stones on the south side represent guard stones . They measure 2.3 m × 1.6 m × 0.8 m or 2.5 m × 1.8 m × 0.6 m. The southwestern guard stone has a number of grooves, some of which could be of natural origin, but in any case have been artificially deepened and in many cases also completely artificial.

The burial chamber is oriented north-northwest-south-southeast and is located in the northern part of the enclosure. All 17 wall stones and six cap stones have been preserved, but most of the cap stones have sunk. The largest capstone measures 2.2 m × 1.6 m × 0.6 m. The only remaining capstone has the dimensions 2.0 m × 1.5 m × 0.6 m. The chamber is rectangular. It has internal dimensions of 8.5 m × 2.0 m and a height of 1.0 m.

Destroyed graves

Grave KS 16

This grave was still completely intact when Danneil was taken. It had a north-south oriented rectangular barren bed with a length of 47 m and a width of 7.8 m. The enclosure consisted of 40 stones on the long and ten on the narrow sides. The burial chamber was at the north end of the bed and consisted of twelve stones. More precise information is missing, so the exact type of grave can no longer be determined with certainty. When Krause and Schoetensack were admitted, all the stones had already been removed. But they could still make out a hill with a length of 53 m and a width of 15 m, on the surface of which they found some undecorated ceramic shards.

Grave KS 18

Little information is available about this grave. Danneil did not visit this grave himself and therefore did not describe it. He only mentions that it was also completely preserved around 1843. According to Bekmann, it was a large complex “made up of three grave altars”. Presumably this meant that the burial chamber had three capstones. It should therefore have been a large dolmen or a passage grave. According to Krause and Schoetensack's inquiries, the grave had consisted of unusually large stones that, because of their length, had been used to build bridges in 1853.

More graves

Bekmann also mentions several other graves of unknown number that were close to the three other complexes. They were smaller and consisted of 17-20 stones. These graves are not mentioned by Danneil and seem to have been destroyed when he was taken.

The Steinfeld large stone grave in regional legends

The stone grave Steinfeld has found its way into the Altmark world of legends. A legend tells of two giants who lived in Steinfeld and Kläden . They got on well and shared a common oven in Kläden (perhaps this meant one of the large stone graves there). The giant from Kläden was responsible for heating the stove. As soon as the oven was hot enough, he hit his baking trough and the giant from Steinfeld set off with his dough. One day, however, a fly sat on the little giant's back trough and was killed by him. The blow could be heard as far as Steinfeld. The giant there hadn't finished his dough and thought he had to hurry up now. When he finally got to Kläden, his friend hadn't even touched his dough and hadn't even heated the oven. The giant from Steinfeld now thought he had been tricked and began to curse the giant from Kläden. He wanted to take revenge and after a chase back to Steinfeld, the two began to throw stones at each other. The grave is said to come from this event.

Another variant of this legend tells of the two giants Steinfeld and Schönfeld. They shared their oven in Steinfeld. When Steinfeld slept once, Schönfeld became angry and the two began to throw stones at each other. One of the stones killed the giant Schönfeld and where he stayed is the village of the same name today.

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. 60.
  • Johann Christoph Bekmann , Bernhard Ludwig Bekmann : Historical description of the Chur and Mark Brandenburg according to their origin, inhabitants, natural characteristics, waters, landscapes, towns, clerical donors etc. […]. Vol. 1, Berlin 1751, pp. 349-350 ( online version ).
  • Hartmut Bock , Barbara Fritsch, Lothar Mittag: Great stone graves of the Altmark . State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt and State Museum for Prehistory, Halle (Saale) 2006, ISBN 3-939414-03-4 , pp. 148–151.
  • 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, pp. 95-96 ( PDF; 5.5 MB ).
  • F. Hossfeld, E. Haetge: District of Stendal (= The art monuments of the province of Saxony. Volume 3). Burg 1933, pp. 181–182.
  • Eduard Krause , Otto Schoetensack : The megalithic graves (stone chamber graves) of Germany . I .: Altmark . In: Journal of Ethnology . Vol. 25, 1893, pp. 138-139 / no. 17, Fig. 1, Plates VI / 17, VII / 17, IX / 17 ( PDF; 39.0 MB ).
  • Teachers' Association of the Altmark (ed.): Altmärkischer Sagenschatz. Leipzig / Berlin 1908, pp. 145–146, 148.
  • Alfred Pohlmann : Legends from the cradle of Prussia and the German Empire, the Altmark. Franzen & Große, Stendal 1901, p. 84.
  • Britta Schulze-Thulin : Large stone graves and menhirs. Saxony-Anhalt • Thuringia • Saxony . Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2007, ISBN 978-3-89812-428-7 , pp. 32–34.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hartmut Bock, Barbara Fritsch, Lothar Mittag: Großsteingraves der Altmark. 2006, p. 11.
  2. ↑ Hartmut Bock, Barbara Fritsch, Lothar Mittag: Großsteingraves der Altmark. 2006, pp. 148-149
  3. ↑ Hartmut Bock, Barbara Fritsch, Lothar Mittag: Großsteingraves der Altmark. 2006, pp. 149-150

See also

Web links

Commons : Großsteingrab Steinfeld  - Collection of images, videos and audio files