Great stone grave Drosa

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Great stone grave Drosa
The large stone grave Drosa

The large stone grave Drosa
Large stone grave Drosa (Saxony-Anhalt)
Red pog.svg
Coordinates 51 ° 49 ′ 38.4 "  N , 11 ° 54 ′ 30.7"  E
place Osterienburger Land , Saxony-Anhalt , Germany
Emergence 3500 to 2800 BC Chr.
The large stone grave Drosa in the history of the Principality of Anhalt (1710)

The large stone grave Drosa (also called "Teufelskeller") is a large stone grave from the late Neolithic period ( late Neolithic ) on the outskirts of Drosa , a district of the community of Osternienburger Land , district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld in Saxony-Anhalt .

location

The grave is located north of Drosa in a field. It can be reached from Diebziger Weg via a footpath.

There are other large stone graves in the area. The Wulfen large stone grave is located 1.7 km southeast, the Steinerne Hütte large stone grave near Latdorf is 5.8 km south -west, the Bierberg large stone grave near Gerbitz is 6.3 km west and the Heringsberg stone grave near Grimschleben is 8.1 km west .

Research history

Originally there were at least four large stone graves in Drosa, a field name suggests a fifth. The megalithic complex was uncovered as early as 1700 and was given the name "Teufelskeller". In the course of land consolidation, the grave began to be demolished in 1903. In the spring of 1904 the still considerable remains of the former mound (70 truckloads) were removed. From April 13th to April 26th, 1904, an excavation by the Köthener history association took place under the direction of O. Gorges.

description

Ground plan of the grave according to Gorges and Seelmann

The large stone grave comes from the Neolithic Walternienburg-Bernburg culture . Today only six bearing stones and one capstone remain. The grave originally had a mound that began about 30 cm below the base of the wall stones and had an extension of 19-20 m in north-south direction. In the area around the grave two larger granite blocks were discovered, which probably belonged to the stone enclosure. The first was about 1 m high, the second was at least 2 m high and over 1 m wide.

The burial chamber is oriented east-southeast-west-northwest and trapezoidal. It has an original length of at least 9.2 m. Its width was 2.30 m on the west-northwest narrow side and 1.25 m on the east-southeast narrow side. In 1904 there were still 15 granite wall stones with heights between 1.5 and 2 m, the west-north-western end was missing in the early 18th century. Only two cap stones were left at the ends of the burial chamber. The smaller one at the east-southeast end was destroyed in 1904. The larger one at the west-northwest end still exists. It has a length of 4.20 m, a width of 3.33 m and a thickness of 0.75 m. On the south-south-western long side, a 3 m long long led at right angles into the interior of the burial chamber. It was 0.9 m wide, its three wall stones still preserved in 1904 were almost 1.5 m high. The gaps between the wall stones were filled with smaller stones. In addition, during the excavation in 1904, a layer of clay was found as the outer cladding of the chamber, which in places was still up to a height of 1 m. The corridor and chamber had a two-layer pavement, the upper layer of which consisted of gravel and the lower layer of thin limestone slabs. At the transition between the corridor and the chamber, a 0.5 m high stone set vertically into the floor formed a threshold. At this point there seems to have originally been a lock (O. Gorges suspected a wooden door). This is indicated by an upright limestone slab and an approximately 0.2 m wide gap between the facing stones.

A small stone box made of sandstone was discovered about 1 m from one of the surrounding stones . It consists of a cover plate with a length of 0.7 m, a width of 0.64 m and a thickness of 0.06 m as well as a floor and four wall plates. The spaces between the plates were filled with small stones. Nothing was found inside the box except earth.

Finds

Finds from the grave
Finds from the grave

Relatively few finds were found in the corridor. It was scattered stones and ceramic shards as well as a few pieces of flint and two only slightly damaged ceramic vessels.

During the examination of the chamber, two burial layers were found, which can be assigned to the Bernburg culture and the Walternienburg culture due to the ceramic additions , but the exact relationship between the two cultures within the grave can no longer be determined. Overall, there was an accumulation of found material on the walls. The middle part of the chamber remained noticeably empty. Since a capstone was missing at this point for a long time, this could be due to robbery excavations.

The bones of the buried were severely fragmented. The orientation of the dead could only be determined on a skeleton . This lay in a crouched position lengthways to the chamber on the right side with the head to the northeast. Four vessels had been added to it: a bowl over his mouth and three small cups over his chest.

The total number of vessels found in the chamber is about 35; there are also numerous sherds that could no longer be reconstructed into vessels. Six vessels are flat, undecorated bowls with handles or eyelets or double eyelets. Their height varies between 7 and 10 cm. The rest of the vessels are mostly cups that were decorated with lines, dots, zigzag and herringbone patterns. Their height is between 4 and 7 cm, only two cups stand out due to a significantly greater height. There are also bowls and cups. In addition to the ceramics, only relatively few other additions were found. These were a stone ax only 6 cm long, a saw and several arrowheads made of flint, some flint cuts, a 5.5 cm long drilled slate of slate , a pierced bone and a beaver tooth , as well as several pierced animal teeth worn as jewelry ( dog , horse or Deer and an indefinite one), a large round stone with two indentations (perhaps a whetstone ) and a hollow bird's bone that was covered by a layer of earth and verdigris that crumbled off during recovery.

Finds were also made outside the chamber. In front of the passage, several sandstone slabs were discovered at a depth of 0.5 m or 0.5 m above the bed of the mound, next to which animal bones lay in a layer of ash . On the south-eastern edge of the mound, further animal bones and coarse, thick, undecorated ceramic shards were also found at a depth of 0.5 m. Just a little further lay a horn cone of a cow and other bones. More ceramic shards and flint bulbs lay close to the natural ground. 0.75 m above the bed of the mound, numerous other bones (including a pig's lower jaw and cattle teeth), ceramic shards and flints were found at the southeast end of the grave .

Charcoal and small pieces of flint were found directly under the small stone box, along with animal bones and teeth, ceramic shards and a flint scraper. It is the only flint tool found outside the burial chamber. The scraper has a length of 7.0 cm, a height of 1.5 cm and a width of 1.25 cm. Its front end is pointed.

The relation of some ceramic vessels to the grave is somewhat unclear, which the excavators assigned to the "Rössen type". Some were recovered before the start of the excavation; during the excavation itself only two broken vessels were found near the mouth of the passage into the chamber. These are not vessels of the Rössen culture , as these are to be placed long before the central German megalithic stone graves and the Bernburg culture.

All finds recovered during the excavation were initially brought to the Köthen town hall and are now in the Historical Museum for Mittelanhalt in Köthen . After the archaeological investigation, a coral pierced through was found in the grave, but it was not transferred to the collection, but remained in private ownership.

See also

source

  • Information board for the archaeological preservation of monuments of the Koethen district administration

literature

  • Hans-Jürgen Beier : The grave and burial customs of the Walternienburg and Bernburg culture. Halle (Saale) 1984, p. 107.
  • Hans-Jürgen Beier: The megalithic, submegalithic and pseudomegalithic buildings as well as the menhirs between the Baltic Sea and the Thuringian Forest . Beier and Beran, Wilkau-Haßlau 1991, p. 66 ( Contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe 1, ZDB -ID 916540-x ), (At the same time: Halle, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 1991: Die megalithischen, submegalithischen and pseudomegalithic buildings as well as the menhirs in the five new East German federal states (formerly GDR) ).
  • Johann Christoph Bekmann : History of the Principality of Anhalt From its old inhabitants and some of the old monuments that were still available / natural life / division / rivers / towns / spots and villages / Fürstl. Highness / Stories of the Prince. People / religious acts / princely ministries, aristocratic families / scholars / and other bourgeois class noble people. 1st - 4th Part, Zerbst 1710, pp. 25-27, plate 1 ( online ).
  • Wilhelm Albert von Brunn : Knowledge and care of the ground monuments in Anhalt. In: Annual publication for Central German prehistory. Volume 41/42, 1958, pp. 42-43.
  • Carl Engel : Pictures from prehistoric times on the middle Elbe. 1. Stone and Bronze Age. Hopfer, Burg 1930, pp. 133-134.
  • Ulrich Fischer : The Stone Age graves in the Saale region. Studies on Neolithic and Early Bronze Age grave and burial forms in Saxony-Thuringia (= prehistoric research. Volume 15). De Gruyter, Berlin 1956, pp. 86-87, 96, 101ff., 271.
  • Otto Gorges, Hans Seelmann: The giant room on the Bruchberge near Drosa. In: Annual publication for the prehistory of the Saxon-Thuringian countries. Volume 4, 1905, pp. 33-43 ( online ).
  • Walter Götze: Of monuments and remains from the oldest history of Anhalt. From the "non-profit Anhaltische Wochenblatt." 5th year of the year 1787. In: Serimunt. Messages from the past and present of home. Leaflets of the Association of Local History Museum for the City and District of Cöthen e. V. Volume 1, No. 16 (96) and 17 (99), 1926, p. 96.
  • Christian Keferstein : Views on Celtic antiquities, the Celts in general and especially in Germany. Volume I, Halle 1846, pp. 6-7 ( online ).
  • Heinrich Lindner: History and description of the state of Anhalt. Ackermann, Dessau 1833, pp. 547-548 ( online ).
  • Nils Niklasson : Studies on the Walternienburg-Bernburger culture 1 (= annual publication for Central German prehistory. Volume 13). Halle (Saale) 1925, pp. 44-47 ( online ).
  • Britta Schulze-Thulin : Large stone graves and menhirs. Saxony-Anhalt • Thuringia • Saxony . Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2007, ISBN 978-3-89812-428-7 , pp. 68-69.
  • Robert Schulze: The Younger Stone Age in the Köthener Land. In: Anhaltische Geschichtsblätter. Volume 5, 1930, pp. 71ff.

Web links

Commons : Great Stone Tomb Drosa  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Beier, p. 66