Large stone grave Sassenholz
The large stone grave Sassenholz was a megalithic grave complex of the Neolithic funnel cup culture near Sassenholz , a district of Heeslingen in the district of Rotenburg (Wümme) ( Lower Saxony ). It was destroyed in the 19th century.
location
The grave was to the west of Sassenholz at the Twistenbostel residential area on the border of a heather ridge and a moor.
description
The facility had a circular mound of black earth that was completely surrounded by stones that protruded about 3-4 feet (unit) (about 0.9-1.2 m) from the ground. The hill hid a grave chamber , which is a passage grave acted. The chamber was oriented north-south and was 20 feet (about 5.8 m) long, 4.5 feet (about 1.3 m) wide and 4 feet (about 1.2 m) high m). The reconstruction drawing gives five wall stones for the western long side and six wall stones for the eastern side. End stones on the narrow sides are not shown. In the middle of the eastern long side a corridor opened, also 5.8 m long and 1.3 m wide. According to the drawing, he had four wall stones on each long side. The corridor and chamber had capstones, the exact number of which has not been recorded. Graves with such long corridors are common in Denmark and Sweden , but are very unusual for Lower Saxony.
Chamber and passage were filled in the same way. First, a layer of charcoal , ash and black earth was applied to the ground. This was 2-3 inches (about 5-7 cm) thick. Granite stones the size of a head were piled up about 3–3.5 feet (0.9–1.0 m) high. On top of that, a layer of fire was applied, although it was a little thicker than the lower one. Since the side walls were also colored black, the material in the corridor and chamber must have been burned.
Despite its good state of preservation, apparently only a few finds were made in the grave. Neither skeletal remains nor ceramics were found. Only two items were described: The first was an unusual, worked granite slab that was found in the stone layers. It was square, about a foot (29 cm) on a side and 4 inches (9.7 cm) thick. In the center of one broadside was a 3 inch (about 7.3 cm) circular indentation. The plate broke when it was recovered and was not saved. The second item was a chisel-shaped flint device that was found in the top layer of the fire. The device came into private hands and is now lost.
literature
- Rudolf Dehnke : The deep stoneware of the Neolithic in East Hanover. Lax, Hildesheim 1940, p. 40.
- Johannes Heinrich Müller , Jacobus Reimers : Pre and early historical antiquities of the province of Hanover. Schulze, Hannover 1893, p. 235 ( PDF; 25.0 MB ).
- Hans Müller-Brauel : The prehistoric monuments of the district Lehe. In: Annual Report of the Men of the Morning Star. Volume 16, 1913/14 (1914), p. 57.
- Ernst Sprockhoff : Atlas of the megalithic tombs of Germany. Part 3: Lower Saxony - Westphalia. Rudolf-Habelt Verlag, Bonn 1975, ISBN 3-7749-1326-9 , p. 20.
- W. Wittkopf: A strange megalithic grave. In: Archive of the Association for History and Antiquities of the Duchies of Bremen and Verden. Volume 7, 1879 (1880), pp. 181-184 ( online ).
