Threshold stone
The threshold stone is a rectangular, prepared stone slab that forms part of the access to megalithic systems , i. d. R. such with gear is. The red sandstone slab , up to 0.1 m thick , was set into the ground at the transition to the chamber. Cult systems of other types, such as B. Domus de Janas or Western European systems have artificial separations ( English Treshhold stone ) between the corridor or antechamber and chamber.
Threshold stones characterize dolmens , gallery and passage graves, etc. While the locking stone on the access side has been replaced by a massive threshold stone of different heights on some ancient and rectangular dolmens, the access to enlarged dolmens and large dolmens was structurally axially or coaxially mostly narrowed to about half the chamber width A low threshold stone marks the transition between the corridor and the chamber in the frame that remains open. In some aisle-free Urdolmen with access, the threshold reaches almost half the height of the chamber and protruded 0.5 m above the board at grave 9 in the northern part of the Everstorfer Forest . Otherwise, the upper edge of the threshold is barely more than 0.1 m above the level of the board. The length of the threshold corresponds to the width of the entrance, even in the case of polygonal poles and gallery and passage graves, which rarely exceeds 0.7 m in the case of the funnel beaker culture .
The occurring in Western European plants threshold stone ( English Septal stone ) sometimes has to give support in addition to the separation of pre- and main chamber or sacred chamber and profane transition the task of a door or closure panel. If the corridor was used for ritual purposes (e.g. in the context of subsequent burials ), it received a floor plating and a second, outer threshold stone.
See also
literature
- Ewald Schuldt : The Mecklenburg megalithic graves. German Science Publishing House, Berlin 1972.
- Jürgen E. Walkowitz: The megalithic syndrome. European cult sites of the Stone Age (= contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe. Vol. 36). Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 2003, ISBN 3-930036-70-3 .