Quoltitz sacrificial stone

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The Quoltitz sacrificial stone
The legendary gully and traces of cut millstones
Some of the (sacrifice?) Bowls and traces of a hand millstone that was cut out
Caspar David Friedrich: Quoltitz sacrificial stone, drawing July 17, 1806

The Quoltitz sacrificial stone is a conspicuous boulder of Scandinavian origin on the island of Rügen , north of the town of Neddesitz ( Sagard ) in the Quoltitz district on the edge of the Jasmund National Park , on which there are traces of early human processing.

Importance as a natural monument

The stone consists of Karlshamn granite with large pink feldspades , is about 4.80 m long, 3.9 m wide and 2.80 m high. With a circumference of 13.0 m and a volume of 27 m³, it has a mass of 73 t. Since it is heavily covered by lichen and moss due to its location in the shade of the group of linden trees surrounding it, details of its surface structure are relatively difficult to see. Due to its size, it belongs to the legally protected geotopes and is registered with the State Office for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Geology Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania with the signature "G2 072".

Cultural and historical significance

The boulder has always been called the sacrificial stone in the language of the islanders . Because of the manifold traces of human processing, it stimulated the imagination of the islanders early on and traditions have been passed on from generation to generation. These sagas and legends have been gratefully taken up by numerous local researchers and travel literature authors since the beginning of nature romanticism at the end of the 18th century - in terms of style according to the respective zeitgeist. The adjacent, no longer existing burial ground and the nearby brook, once known as "Bloodbek", made the site almost perfect as a place of sacrifice.

The sacrificial stone was first described in 1797 by Karl Nernst (1775–1815), a student friend of Ernst Moritz Arndt (1769–1860) and a student of Ludwig Gotthard Kosegarten (1758–1918), and on July 17, 1806 by Caspar David Friedrich (1774– 1840) drawn. In 1816 Caspar David Friedrich depicted the stone in one of his oil paintings (on canvas). This painting bears the name “Sacrificial stone near Quoltitz in the morning red”, was painted in 1816, has been in private ownership in Königsberg since 1832 and is considered lost. The above-mentioned drawing from 1806 formed the basis of this painting, which was created in his Dresden studio.

Karl Nernst mentioned the Quoltitz sacrificial stone as follows in 1797 in his “Walks through Rügen”, which he had published by his friend and patron Ludwig Gotthard Kosegarten (1800):

“To the west of the Quoltitz Mountains, at the foot of the same in the middle of a deep, wide valley, which is enclosed by a raised ring of hills and low bushes, one finds a large, certainly ancient, sacrificial stone - a memorable relic of the pious madness of our ancestors. It is a rough block of granite, the greatest length of which may be sixteen feet, and the greatest width about twelve feet. Not far from one end of it, a wide deep furrow is carved across the back, which as a neat groove the steaming blood of those above it Stones of slaughtered sacrificial animals (and people) descended almost to the earth, where the priest then caught them in consecrated bowls, and from their color and texture read the history of the future. ... "

Johann Jacob Grümbke , founder of Rügen's local research, described the foundling in 1805 in his forays through the Rügenland and in 1819 in his comprehensive work New and precise geographical-statistical-historical representations of the island and the Principality of Rügen .

The folklorist and legend collector Alfred Haas also documented the legend of the Quoltitz sacrificial stone in his Rügen legends and fairy tales .

Archaeological research

The traces of human work on the sacrificial stone of Quoltitz include numerous small depressions with a diameter of 5 to 6 cm each on the surface of the boulder, which are called bowls or "bowls" (called "blood grapes" on Rügen). These bowls are of very early origin and should be classified as a cultic-ritual event that cannot yet be clearly explained scientifically.

The second thing you notice is a channel that runs about 12 cm wide and just as deep at the north-western end of the stone. Archaeological research disagrees about their origins. Some see it as an attempt to divide the stone, others ascribe a ritual meaning to it. Recent archaeological finds, including the remains of human bones, a large surface retouched tip of the leaf (flint stork) and several amber beads, revive the discussion about whether there wasn't a phase of bloody sacrificial rituals here, especially since linguistic connections are in the room. The ethnologist, museologist and non-fiction author Ingrid Schmidt asked whether the otherwise Slavic-looking place name Quoltitz comes from kval (Old Norse), kwaljan (Germanic), quelan (Old High German) in the meaning of manslaughter, pain, violent death, Torment can be deduced. Formations of names from the Nordic stem and the Slavic final syllable were quite common.

Numerous large, shallow splits indicate that attempts were made here, probably in the late Bronze Age (1000–600 BC) or in the early days of the Slavic settlement of Rügen from the 7th century, to turn the stone into trough mills (early hand-driven mills for Grinding and grinding of grains with the help of grinding stones). It is also possible that the rubbed stone meal served as a kind of medicinal powder that was given to sick people or sick cattle. It is said from Bohemia how young craftspeople went to their churches and scraped brick dust from the church walls. The flour was carried around the neck in a leather pouch and served as a talisman to protect against injury or death. Such hollows can also be found in Western Pomerania churches.

Historical topographical maps from the time when Rügen was in Swedish possession show that the sacrificial stone was located southwest of a lake, which was probably over the Tieschower Bach and at the latest in the course of the development, extraction and processing of the local chalk deposits at the end of the 19th century the Kaderbach was drained. The current field names of the wet meadows left behind are Alte Wiese , Große Wiese and Großes Moor . The Roisiner chalk quarry (named after the neighboring tower hill Roisin) and the remains of a chalk slurry mill on the Tieschower Bach are in the immediate vicinity.

In this respect, the Quoltitz sacrificial stone is not only a natural monument, but also a prehistoric testimony to human activity over a long period of time.

See also

literature

  • Karl Nernst: Karl Nernst's walks through Rügen. Edited by Heinz Jüpner. Verlag Axel Dietrich, Peenemünde 1994, ISBN 3-930066-23-8 , p. 67.
  • Johann Jacob Grümbke : Forays through the Rügenland. Edited by Albert Burkhardt. VEB FA Brockhaus Verlag, Leipzig 1988, ISBN 3-325-00168-8 , pp. 115-117.
  • Hans D. Knapp: Rügen's story from the beginning to the present in five parts. Edited by Fritz Petrick. Part 1: Rügen's early history . rugendruck gmbh, Putbus 2008, ISBN 978-3-9808999-3-2 .
  • Ingrid Schmidt: Gods, myths and customs from the island of Rügen. 2nd revised edition. Historff Verlag, Rostock 1997, ISBN 3-356-00720-3 , p. 27.
  • Bernward Wember: Large stones on Rügen - stone myth and megalithic culture / A treasure trove of the Stone Age. Reprint-Verlag Rügen, Bergen auf Rügen 2007, ISBN 978-3-939915-00-3 , pp. 212-213.
  • Markus Sommer-Scheffler: Stone extraction on the island of Rügen. For the interpretation of the so-called sacrificial stones. In: Ground monument maintenance in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Yearbook. Vol. 49, 2001 (2002), ISSN  0947-3998 , pp. 41-56.

Web links

Commons : Sacrificial stone from Quoltitz  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Geotope registration form at the State Office for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Geology Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
  2. ↑ Volker Roesing: “… a memorable relique of the pious madness of our ancestors…”, Der Rügener Sacrificial Stone near Quoltitz , in: Pommern, Zeitschrift für Kultur und Geschichte, Greifswald 2017, Issue 4, ISSN  0032-4167 , p. 18.
  3. ^ Karl Nernst: Karl Nernst's walks through Rügen. Published by Ludwig Theoboul Kosegarten . Dänzersche Buchhandlung, Düsseldorf 1800, p. 132.
  4. ↑ Drawing “Sacrificial Stone at Quoltitz” by Caspar David Friedrich in the possession of the National Museum Oslo
  5. ↑ H. Brösch-Supan / KW Jähing: Caspar David Friedrich - paintings, prints and pictorial drawings . Ed .: German Association for Art History. Prestel-Verlag, Munich 1975, p. 336 .
  6. ^ Johann Jacob Grümbke : Forays through the Rügenland. with Johann Friedrich Hammerich, Altona 1805, pp. 176–178. ( Digitized versionhttp://vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.digitale-bibliothek-mv.de%2Fviewer%2Fimage%2FPPN751315230%2F1%2F~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~ SZ% 3D ~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D )
  7. ^ Johann Jacob Grümbke : New and precise geographical-statistical-historical representations of the island and the Principality of Rügen. G. Reimer, Berlin 1819, pp. 234-235.
  8. ^ Alfred Haas : Rügen legends and fairy tales. 7th edition. Stettin 1926, p. 62.
  9. ↑ a b Volker Rösing, ground monument curator / nature conservation warden, Rügen
  10. ↑ Heide Großnick : Thoughts on small bowl stones from the island of Rügen. In: Archaeological Society for Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania e. V. in connection with the State Office for Culture and Monument Preservation (ed.): Archaeological reports from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. (Volume 19), Druckerei Hahn GmbH, Rostock-Elmenhorst 2012, ISSN 0946-512X, pp. 15-16.
  11. ^ Ingrid Schmidt: Hünengrab and sacrificial stone - ground monuments on the island of Rügen . Hinstorff, Rostock 2001, ISBN 3-356-00917-6 , pp. 43-44.
  12. ↑ Volker Roesing: "... a memorable relique of the pious madness of our ancestors ...", Der Rügener Sacrificial Stone near Quoltitz , in: Pommern, Journal for Culture and History, Greifswald 2017, Issue 4, ISSN  0032-4167 , p. 19.
  13. ^ Map of Ostrügen with the lake at Quoltitz in the Swedish Imperial Archives

Coordinates: 54 ° 33 ′ 40.6 ″  N , 13 ° 34 ′ 15.5 ″  E