Heidenstein (Lochstein)
The Heidenstein is a perforated stone in Niederschwörstadt in Baden-Württemberg and originally served as the entrance stone of a megalithic complex . The stone is a shell limestone board with an oval hole 45 cm in diameter in the upper half .
The Pierre-Percée in Courgenay in the Swiss Jura , the dolmen of Degernau in the district of Waldshut, have a similar soul hole . The expression “soul hole” is based on the idea that the builders of the facilities left out the hole in the front panel in order to enable the souls of the buried to travel to the afterlife.
The collective grave, which had a west-east orientation, was discovered in the final phase of the Younger Stone Age around 3000 BC. Built in BC and destroyed 150 years ago. Only the portal stone remained. The genus of these graves is called stone boxes or gallery graves . During excavations one found bones, but also some bones of animals, which indicate acts of sacrifice.
Other dolmens in the Jura can be found in Degernau , Laufen , Aesch and Courgenay .
literature
- E. Gersbach: On the origin and time of the simple dolmens of the Aesch-Schwörstadt type. In: Yearbook of the Swiss Society for Prehistory and Early History. Volume 53, 1966-67, pp. 15-28.
- Georg Kraft : The Heidenstein near Niederschwörstadt. In: Germania . Volume 11, 1927, pp. 65-69 ( online ).
Web links
- Heidenstein in Niederschwörstadt; Baden-Württemberg ( Memento from February 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- The "Heidenstein" in Schwörstadt on the website of the municipality of Schwörstadt
- Megalithic tombs and menhirs in Baden-Württemberg
Coordinates: 47 ° 35 ′ 32.6 ″ N , 7 ° 52 ′ 19 ″ E