Great stone graves near Waddekath

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The megalithic graves at Waddekath were five or six megalithic graves from the Neolithic deep-engraving ceramic culture near Waddekath , a district of Diesdorf in the Altmark district of Salzwedel , Saxony-Anhalt . All were destroyed in the 19th century.

location

The graves were located west of Diesdorf in the area of ​​the village of Waddekath.

Research history

The facilities were documented for the first time in 1842 by Johann Friedrich Danneil , who was only able to describe one thing in more detail and had to discover that four other graves had already been completely destroyed. Several other graves of unknown numbers were already destroyed at that time. When the large stone graves of the Altmark were taken up again in the 1890s , Eduard Krause and Otto Schoetensack discovered that the fifth grave had also been completely removed in the meantime as part of the separation . The possible existence of a sixth grave is only documented by the designation "behind the megalithic tombs" on a historical measuring table.

description

The only grave still in existence in 1842 at that time consisted only of an already damaged burial chamber . This had a length of 2.5 m and a width of 1.3 m. Cap stones were no longer available. In the case of a larger number of small stones, however, it could have been the fragments of blown cap stones. Due to its small size, the chamber can be described as an ancient dolmen or as a small extended dolmen .

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. 58.
  • 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. 41 ( 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. 72-76 ( PDF; 39.0 MB ).