Cuckoo stone

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The cuckoo stone at the winter solstice 2007, 1:15 p.m.
Kuckuckstein, copper engraving 1780 by Carl Adolph Gottlob von Schachmann
Kuckuckstein Königshain, observation scheme of the sun in the viewing window of the rock
Replica of the Königshain cuckoo stone at the Sohland / Spree observatory

The Kuckuckstein is a rock in the in Goerlitz located Königshainer mountains . It is located about 300 m north of the Hochstein at an altitude of 340  m above sea level. NN . The shape is very similar to a bird's head, preferably an eagle is recognized in it. The eye forms an artificial viewing hole. During the winter solstice , the midday sun appears in the eye for several days.

Already in 1828 Karl Benjamin Preusker suspected a “pagan sacrificial altar” for a “sun cult” for the neighboring Totenstein in his work Ober-Lausitzische Antiquities . The head of the Leipzig University Observatory interpreted deepenings on the Totenstein in 1937 as depictions of the constellations . A copper engraving from 1790 in the work Observations over the Mountains near Königshayn in Oberlausiz by Carl Adolph Gottlob von Schachmann shows the cuckoo stone in its present form. Numerous archaeological finds, which prove the human presence in the Königshain Mountains up to the Stone Age , support the assumption of a former cult site. The orientation of the cuckoo stone towards the midday sun was discovered in 2007 by Hilmar Hensel and Ralf Herold .

In 2008, the people and school observatory "Bruno-H.-Bürgel" in Sohland / Spree founded the archaeoastronomy group to research this and other calendar solar observation phenomena on other rocks in Upper Lusatia. The archaeoastronomical research project was given the name “Project of the Gods ” and the rock objects that show the solar observation phenomenon on the calendar are referred to as the “ Sun Sanctuaries of Upper Lusatia ”.

In 2013, the writer Sylke Hörhold described a crime scene in her detective novel “Hexenbrennen” by making comparisons with the cuckoo stone in Königshain and its solar phenomenon.

In 2018, the cuckoo stone at the Sohland observatory was made from Oberlausitz granite with a size of approx. 2 m. It is part of the " Sun Paths " tourism project . A joint project of the community of Sohland and the association of the public and school observatory "Bruno-H.-Bürgel" Sohland / Spree eV as part of the archaeoastronomical research project Götterhand. Funded by the Leader Region “Bautzener Oberland” with funds from the European Agricultural Fund for the development of rural areas. The replica of the cuckoo stone at the observatory in Sohland is the starting point of a hiking route to various calendar astronomical stone formations in Upper Lusatia and the Czech Republic.

literature

  • Carl Adolph Gottlob von Schachmann: Observations over the mountains near Königshayn in Oberlausiz . Dresden 1790.
  • People's and school observatory " Bruno H. Bürgel " Sohland / Spree eV: information material on the phenomenon of the hands of the gods - sun shrines in Upper Lusatia . Sohland / Spree 2008.
  • Council of the City of Görlitz: The Königshain mountain landscape: a small guide through the past and present of the Königshain mountains and their surrounding villages . Görlitz 1981, DNB  209137118 .
  • Ralf Herold: The track of light - project of the gods - sun sanctuaries of Upper Lusatia. Sohland / Spree observatory, Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2020, ISBN 978-3-7519-5892-9

Web links

  • "Stonehenge in Saxony" First film recordings of the passage of the sun in the eye of the cuckoo stone at the winter solstice 2007, 1:15 pm

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dietmar Stampniok: Astronomical legacy in the Königshain mountains? . In: Oberland-Spatz: the latest news from dr Noabrschoaft; from the Sohland & Schirgiswalde region . No. 04/2010, November 2010, p. 23.
  2. ↑ Infopack 2011, "Sun Sanctuaries of Upper Lusatia", observatory "Bruno-H.-Bürgel" Sohland / Spree; Ralf Herold: "Sun Shrines of Upper Lusatia - The money cellar on the Löbauer Berg and its real treasure", Oberlausitzer Verlag, 2012
  3. ↑ "witch burning - The second case - a murder mystery Oberlausitz", Sylke Hörhold, Lusatia Verlag Bautzen, 2013, p 167
  4. ^ BILD newspaper, Dresden and Saxony, June 16, 2018; Sächsische Zeitung, Bautzen district of June 21, 2018; Dresdner Morgenpost from June 22, 2018

Coordinates: 51 ° 11 '53.4 "  N , 14 ° 50' 4.7"  E