Menhir from Pfützthal
| Menhir from Pfützthal | |
|---|---|
 The menhir of Pfützthal in the State Museum for Prehistory in Halle (Saale) |
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| Coordinates | |
| place | near Pfützthal , Salzatal , Saxony-Anhalt , Germany |
| Emergence | 2800-2200 BC Chr. |
The menhir from Pfützthal is a decorated menhir from Pfützthal , a district of the municipality of Salzatal in the Saale district in Saxony-Anhalt . It is now in the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle (Saale) .
Location and description
The menhir was discovered in the 1930s. It was used with the decorated side down as a cover plate of a Bronze Age stone box grave . After the excavation he was taken to Halle.
The menhir is made of gray sandstone . Its height is 70 cm, the width 30 cm and the depth 10 cm. It has the shape of an irregular plate and is broken in the middle. It has decorations on one broad side. At the top you can see an upside down T with a small, horizontal line below it. Both characters are framed by four concentric semicircles. In the middle area of the stone, five groups of three angles each with their points pointing upwards can be seen. These groups are arranged in two vertical rows. As with several similar objects, the ornament is interpreted as a stylized representation of a person or a deity. The upper part of the face likely broke off before the stone was reused.
The menhir itself is dated to the end Neolithic cord ceramic culture. Its use as a cover plate happened sometime in the Bronze Age. In the absence of grave goods, however, a more precise dating of the stone box is difficult. Theodor Voigt dated it (according to the now outdated state of research) between the Aunjetitz culture and the Helmsdorf group in the middle or late Bronze Age , while Waldtraut Schrickel pleaded for a dating to the early Bronze Age .
literature
- Johannes Groht: Menhirs in Germany. State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt, Halle (Saale) 2013, ISBN 978-3-943904-18-5 , pp. 436, 458.
- Waldemar Matthias: New ceramic cord finds and a menhir statue from the Schafstädt district, Merseburg district. In: Annual publication for Central German prehistory. Volume 48, 1964, pp. 98-103.
- Detlef W. Müller: The decorated menhir steles and a plate menhir from Central Germany. In: Stefania Casini, Raffaele C. De Marinis, Annaluisa Pedrotti (eds.): Statue-stele e massi incisi nell'Europa dell'età del rame (= Notes archaeologiche Bergomensi. Volume 3). Bergamo 1995, pp. 295-303.
- 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, pp. 78–79.
- Ralf Schwarz: Menhirs and decorated stone chamber tombs. In: Harald Meller (ed.): Early and Middle Neolithic (= catalogs for the permanent exhibition in the State Museum for Prehistory in Halle. Volume 2). State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology, Halle (Saale) 2013.
- Theodor Voigt: A new picture stone in a Bronze Age stone packing grave. In: Mitteldeutsche Volkheit. Volume 5/6, 1939, pp. 73ff.