Megalithic systems at Wéris
Coordinates: 50 ° 19 ′ 17 ″ N , 5 ° 30 ′ 47 ″ E
The most important megalithic sites in Belgium are located in a 7 km long strip near Wéris (also called Wérix). The place is in the Wallonia region , near Durbuy , in the northern part of the Belgian province of Luxembourg . There are two galleries and four menhirs .
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distribution
Only six megalithic structures existed in Belgium , three of which are more or less preserved. The others were at the end of the 19th century or earlier ( Allée couverte of Lamsoul ) destroyed . The best preserved are at Wéris.
Since there are so few, it is hardly possible to establish sustainable connections between the cultures of the third millennium BC via the megalithic structures. To manufacture. All locations are or were in a triangle with sides of about 50, 45 and 30 km in the Belgian provinces of Namur and Luxembourg. They are probably from the Seine-Oise-Marne culture (SOM) around 3100–2000 BC. The SOM culture is the youngest Neolithic culture in Western Europe with megalithic structures and known for its gallery graves . There are also rock tombs of culture in the Marne chalk region .
The smaller gallery grave (Allée couverte)
The interior of the recessed chamber is 4.6 meters long and 1.2 meters wide. It consists of five supporting stones and the perforated stone as access. The roof is formed by three cap stones. There are only two orthostats of the antechamber . The facility was discovered in 1888 and excavated by A. Charneux . Her chamber contained traces of a fireplace, human and animal bones, scratches and arrowheads made of flint and polished axes, as well as shards of very coarse and simple earthenware (probably SOM ware ), and some shards of goods from the bell-cup culture decorated with herringbone patterns .
The larger gallery tomb (Allée couverte)
Has the same floor plan but is not sunk into the ground and was originally covered by a mound. The chamber has a length of 5.5 and a width of 1.75 m. It also consists of five supporting stones and the end stone with the soul hole . Its roof is formed by two capstones, which are composed of a broken stone weighing about 30 tons. There are only two narrow orthostats of the antechamber . Gallery tombs built at ground level and covered (and held) by a mound are rare in SOM culture. The long-known facility has been robbed. According to tradition, it contained several skeletons. Charneux took the opportunity to examine this gallery in 1888, but found only traces of a fireplace, a few bones, flint and sandstone artifacts as well as fragments of rough pottery.
The two complexes appear to be part of a large religious complex. On a straight, 7 km long, NNE-SSW-oriented strip, there were five menhirs next to the two galleries, including the three menhirs of Bouhaimont near Oppagne (municipality of Wéris). The megalithic structures and menhirs of Wéris are made of Nagelfluh or pudding stone (French: poudingue), which occurs about three kilometers away. In the case of the so-called Pennsylvania Bayard, near Wenin (municipality of Wéris), it is not possible to determine whether it is a fragment of a menhir or the remains of a megalithic complex.
Megalithic systems
The number of plants in Belgium is limited; some of them are only passed down in the literature and 3 are pseudo-systems. 1. Bouffioulx dolmen; 2. Jambes Dolmen; 3. Pseudo-Abri by Martouzin-Neuville; 4. Dolmen and Allée couverte d'Hargimont; 5. Allée couverte by Lamsoul; 6. Forrières pseudo-stone circle; 7. Allées couvertes from Wéris; 8. Laviô dolmen; 9. Gomery's pseudodolmen ; 10. Bonnert dolmen. There are also 12 menhirs .
The Lamsoul complex
The looted and badly damaged facility was discovered in September 1976 near the Lamsoul farm near Jemelle ( Province of Namur ) and excavated by a group of amateurs. It also seems to have been built at ground level. Traces of the originally assumed hill have been discovered. Only the remains of stones were found from the chamber. Since no traces of an antechamber were found, it is difficult to determine this monument more precisely. The excavators found some human bones, pieces of coarse pottery, but also some Gallo-Roman pieces.
The two destroyed plants
Practically nothing is known about the facility located near Velaine (municipality of Jambes , province of Namur), except that it was called Pierre du Diable (Devil's Stones). Little more is known of the Bois des Lusce's complex near Jemeppe-Hargimont ( Province of Luxembourg ). According to tradition, it contained several skeletons, was 15 m long and 1.25 m wide and probably deepened, although the latter is not clear from the old publications. There is no mention of an antechamber or a perforated stone. The chamber was delimited by a vertical panel at each end, while its sides were made of drywall. No capstone is mentioned, so it is possible that the complex had a wooden ceiling.
The context
In the context of the European megaliths, the Belgian group is viewed more in isolation. Although the number of SOM finds from Belgium is no longer inferior to the French, the nearest megalithic sites in the French Ardennes are at least 100 km away. Despite the few relics, it is now assumed that the Belgian monuments belong to the SOM culture. The Allée couvertes are typical of this culture, but there are also numerous caves in their neighborhood. In the basin of the Meuse and its tributaries, they were used by the SOM people as collective graves. In Belgium there are at least 80 caves and abrises that are classified as ossuaries . Most of them belong to the SOM culture , as the grave goods show. The collective burial in caves was in the area during the Bronze Age and the Hallstatt period continues.
It has long been emphasized that there is a remarkable similarity between the Westphalian and Hessian Wartberg culture and the Seine-Oise-Marne culture, mainly their megalithic structures. The province of Limburg may have acted as a contact zone between cultures. In this area PJR Modderman discovered the important tomb at Stein , an unmegalithic version of the avenue couvertes. The Middle Neolithic in Limburg was investigated by Modderman (1964) and Leendert Louwe Kooijmans (1976). Some of the elements there also point to contacts between the SOM and the Wartberg culture.
The dolmen of Wéris have been a listed building since 1974, the northern dolmen is an exceptional patrimony . Information on the facilities is available in the Musée des Mégalithes in Wéris.
See also
literature
- Sigfrid J. De Laet: Megalithic graves in Belgium In: John D. Evans, Barry Cunliffe , Colin Renfrew (Eds.): Antiquity and Man. Essays in honor of David Glyn. Thames & Hudson, London 1981, ISBN 0-500-05040-6 pp. 155-160
Web links
- Le mégalithisme en Wallonie Megalithic sites in the Wallonia region of Belgium (French)
proof
- ↑ Le site mégalithique de Wéris: les alignements map (French)
- ↑ Les trois menhirs d'Oppagne The three menhirs near Oppagne (French)
- ↑ "Pudding stones are ancient Tertiary conglomerates with heavily unrolled flint and sandy, quartzitic or phosphorous binders with or without glauconite grains. Key fossils are unknown from them, so the age is not known. Comparable with English pudding stones, they are placed in the Paleocene, possibly they are but younger. According to Roedel (1926) they probably come from the SW Baltic States and the neighboring areas ".
- ^ Pieter JR Modderman : The Neolithic burial vault at Stein. In: Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia. Vol. 1, 1964, ZDB -ID 210721-1 , pp. 3-16, ( online ).
- ↑ Leendert P. Louwe Kooijmans: Neolithic Settlement and Subsistence in the Wetlands of the Rhine / Meuse Delta of the Netherlands. In: John M. Coles, Andrew J. Lawson (Eds.): European Wetlands in Prehistory. Clarendon Press, Oxford, ISBN 0-19-813406-1 , pp. 227-251, ( digital version (PDF; 2.21 MB) ).
- ↑ List of biens classés de la Province du Luxembourg (see Durbuy)