Menhir of aquatic life
| Menhir of aquatic life Bread stone | |||
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 The menhir of aquatic life |
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| Coordinates | 51 ° 54 '58.4 " N , 10 ° 45' 16" E | ||
| place | Nordharz , OT Wasserleben , Saxony-Anhalt , Germany | ||
The menhir of Wasserleben (also called bread stone ) is a prehistoric menhir near Wasserleben , a district of the municipality of Nordharz in the Harz district in Saxony-Anhalt .
Location and description
The stone is located about 100 m behind the southwestern exit of Wasserleben, directly on a field path that branches off from the road to Veckenstedt .
The menhir is made of quartzite sandstone and is badly weathered. Its height is 116 cm, the width 67 cm and the depth 22 cm. The stone is plate-shaped, tapers upwards and ends in a horizontal termination. It broke in at least two places and was put back together with cement .
Finds from the area around the stone date from the Neolithic or the Roman Empire .
The menhir in regional sagas
The name of the stone goes back to a legend. According to this, a girl is said to have put a piece of bread that she was carrying with her into a puddle in rainy weather so as not to stain her shoes when crossing it. As a punishment for this, she was turned into a loaf-like stone. According to a similar legend, a woman is said to have stolen bread in the village. When she said no when she was questioned, she is said to have dropped dead immediately. The stone marks their place of death.
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. 428, 462.
- 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. 183.
- Johannes Schneider : Soil monuments of the Magdeburg district. In: Annual publication for Central German prehistory. Volume 69, 1986, p. 129.
- 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. 62–63.
- Britta Schulze-Thulin : Large stone graves and menhirs. Saxony-Anhalt • Thuringia • Saxony . Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2007, p. 77.
Web links
- The Megalithic Portal: Bread Stone
- suehnekreuz.de: suehnekreuz.de - water life