Burgstaden menhir

The menhir of Burgstaden (also called Mägdewürger or girl strangler ) was a prehistoric, probably Neolithic menhir near Burgstaden , a district of Bad Lauchstädt in the Saalekreis , Saxony-Anhalt .

location

The menhir was located about 2 km south of Burgstaden on the right side of a dirt road in the direction of the Alte Heerstrasse leading to Merseburg.

description

The menhir was made of lignite quartzite and was 0.85 m high, 1.25 m wide at the base and 0.65 m at the top and between 0.3 m and 0.35 m thick. It was plate-shaped and stood slightly inclined. Waldtraut Schrickel and Hans-Jürgen Beier kept the menhir as preserved in 1957 and 1991, respectively, but in the list of monuments of the state of Saxony-Anhalt from 2016 it is listed as missing.

Finds from the area around the menhir come from the Cord Ceramic Culture , from the Full Bronze Age and the Slavic early Middle Ages .

The menhir in regional sagas

According to a legend , a maid once sat on the stone to rest. She had a carrying basket with green fodder on her shoulders. As she undid the straps, the basket slid off the stone; the ribbons wound around her neck and strangled her.

literature

• Hans-Jürgen Beier : The megalithic, submegalithic and pseudomegalithic buildings as well as the menhirs between the Baltic Sea and the Thuringian Forest. Contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe 1. Wilkau-Haßlau 1991, p. 67.
• Johannes Felix , Max Näbe : About relationships of stone monuments and erratic blocks to cult, to legends and folk customs. In: Meeting reports of the Natural Research Society in Leipzig. Volume 42, 1915, p. 11.
• Horst Kirchner : The menhirs in Central Europe and the menhir thought (= Academy of Sciences and Literature. Treatises of the humanities and social sciences class. Born 1955, No. 9). Wiesbaden 1955, p. 179.
• Waldtraut Schrickel : Western European elements in the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age of Central Germany. Part I. Catalog. Publications of the State Museum for Prehistory Dresden, Volume 5, VEB Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1957, p. 49.
• Small question and answer Olaf Meister (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen), Prof. Dr. Claudia Dalbert (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen), Ministry of Culture February 25, 2016 Printed matter 6/4829 (KA 6/9061) List of monuments Saxony-Anhalt